Globalization and
competitive pressures urge many organizations to radically change business
processes. Although this approach can provide significant benefits, such as
reducing costs or improving efficiency, there are substantial risks associated
with it. Using simulation for modeling and analyzing business processes can
reduce that risk and increase the chance of success for a business process.
Analysts can use the
simulation feature to evaluate the impact of process changes and new processes
in a model environment by creating “what-if” scenarios. Simulation allows you
to include uncertainty and variability into forecasts of process performance.
By running
simulations, you can quickly gain insights into
·
Average process cycle time
·
Average process cost
·
Capacity planning
·
Resource utilization
·
Process bottlenecks
·
Customized Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
You can create a
simulation project and define resources and how those resources can be shared
among activities. You can also specify the length of time being simulated and
the distribution of incoming arrival instances.
Simulation
generates a set of instances according to the model, which are input to the
simulated process. Each instance then visits each task according to the
semantics of BPMN. When an instance arrives at an activity, the resources are
assigned as needed. If the resources are not available, the instance will be
blocked until resources are available. Data is collected about the start and
end times of the activities in the simulation.
From within the
Business Process Perspective, simulation provides an animated view of the
business process in action. Process simulation enables the simultaneous viewing
and examination of all cases in a virtual environment.
Simulation
output provides detailed information including resource utilization levels,
cost, and cycle time calculations. The data can be saved in Microsoft Excel
format for further analysis and customization.