Title: A decision framework for optimisation of business processes aligned with business goals

Authors: Ehsan Malihi; Mohammad Aghdasi

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Jalal Ale Ahmad Highway, Tehran, Iran ' Industrial Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Jalal Ale Ahmad Highway, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: This paper proposes an optimisation-based decision support framework to apply changes to business processes in alignment with business goals. In this framework, a process model can be represented as a set of business rules. In each business rule, the threshold of logical term in the If-part can be represented as a numerical chromosome with the purpose of optimising it via the use of an evolutionary computational based technique. The objective function of the decision model is constructed based on the performance of indicators that are defined in a way to align with business goals. As a result, if any change occurs in the business goals, it propagates through the change in objective function. The framework is illustrated by setting a dairy industry as an example in order to optimise the process of 'milk procurement from producer (milk collection)'. The experimental results of running the genetic algorithm show a satisfactory design with respect to the predefined managerial goals.

Keywords: business process optimisation; business rules; business goals; business process alignment; business process modelling; genetic algorithms; dairy industry; milk procurement; milk collection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2014.057963

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2014 Vol.15 No.1, pp.22 - 42

Published online: 07 Jun 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article