Oracle BPM 11g P6 Workshop

1a. Process Simulation using BPM

Process Composer
Table of Contents
1a. Process Simulation using BPM Process Composer ...................................... 1
1.1

Objective .................................................................................................. 1

1.2

Use Case Description .............................................................................. 1

1.3

Exercise.................................................................................................... 2
1.3.1 Creating Project Simulation Definition ................................................ 2
1.3.2 Editing Process Simulation Model ...................................................... 6

1.4

Running the simulation ............................................................................ 9

1.5

Analyze the Simulation Results ............................................................... 9

1.1 Objective
Simulation is a powerful tool and it is worth the time spent doing
simulations before going into production. It helps run what-if experiments
to see what the impact will be of:

Reducing the number of people assigned to an activity.

A sudden increase of the number of instances flowing through

the process.

An approval ratio changing from 70% approved / 30%

disapproved to a worse case 50% approved / 50% disapproved.

This can help avoid the embarrassment and cost of launching a new
process with a flaw that becomes obvious after only a few days in
production. Simulation can verify that the desired output meets the metric
objectives. It easily finds bottlenecks in processes and leads to
breakthroughs in optimal process model design.

1.2 Use Case Description

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Process Communication Exercise 1.1

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This exercise demonstrates how a business analyst can analyze and

propose changes to business processes using Simulation inside Oracle
BPM Process Composer.
The objectives of this exercise are

Run simulations on business processes and analyze the following

results.

Throughput and process analysis

Activity-based costing

Resource allocation

Make changes to the process to optimize the flow

The simulation algorithm is based on discrete events and it can process

events in a serial fashion as they occur in time. You need to create
Process Simulation Models and Project Simulation Definitions to run
simulation. The Process Simulation Model captures a What-if scenario
for a particular business process model. You can have multiple Process
Simulation Models for a particular business process model. This allows
you to create different simulations based on different combinations of
resource allocations and activity behavior. The Project Simulation
Definition is used to take the dependency and shared resources across
processes into account. It consists of Process Simulation Models of
multiple processes.
The simulation does not execute the actual code of each activity within the
process. However, by configuring parameters within the models and
definitions, you can mimic the behavior of your business process. You
need to ask the right questions to get the right response! In order to
perform simulation the process needs to be complete and semantically
valid.
You will be simulating the process that was created in Lab1 Part A. If you
were not able to complete it or would like to use an already completed
process, you can use the project from LoanApplication_Lab1_Model.exp.

1.3 Exercise
1.3.1 Creating Project Simulation Definition
1.
2.

Go to Simulation section under Loan Applications Project page.

Click the Setup option to create a new simulation definition.

1.3 Process Simulation

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3.
4.
5.

Type in a meaningful name LoanAppSimDefinition.

Set the simulation run duration to 2 days
Select Next

6.

This is a quick edit wizard and in the next section it shows a list of process
models and for each process model you can use the + symbol to create a new
Process Simulation Model. Select the + symbol to create the Process
Simulation model. You will do this for both the LoanRequestProcess and the
CreditRatingProcess.

Process Communication Exercise 1.3

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7.

8.

9.

In the next screen you can specify default properties for generation of Process
Simulation Model. You can specify default duration for process steps and specify
if resources for the human steps have to be defined at the Project Simulation
Definition (Organization Resources) or local to the Process Simulation Model
(fixed resources). You can specify the number of processes to run for your
simulation. Alternatively, you can set up simulation to run for a period of
(simulated) time by setting the simulation property on the Start event.
You can override these defaults by editing the Process Simulation Model post
creation.

Check the LoanRequestProcess and the CreditRatingProcess, and click on

Next.

1.3 Process Simulation

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10. Specify the resource information for the process roles in the last screen. These

resources are used when you select Use Organization Roles. Click the + button
to set the participants for the roles you already have included in this project.
Make sure you set the capacity for each resource as shown in the figure below.
Once configured, click Finish.

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Process Communication Exercise 1.3

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1.3.2 Editing Process Simulation Model

Go edit the Process Simulation Model to override defaults. A Process
Simulation Model can configure the following settings for a process:
o Process settings

Amount and rate of instances created in the process. This can

either be a constant or statistical distribution such as normal,
uniform, exponential etc.

o Activity Settings

Average Execution Time. This can either be a constant or a

statistical distribution.

Use Organization or fixed resources in the case of Interactive tasks

Fixed cost or base cost plus Resource cost in the case of

Interactive tasks

o Routing Settings

Probability percentage of instances routed through the different

outgoing transitions

o Cost Settings

Cost for processing the activity and cost of the activity + the cost of
the resource if it is an interactive human centric step

1.3 Process Simulation

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11. To configure the frequency of process instances created select the Start node.

Set the instances creation Distribution Type to Constant with a Period of 5

minutes. This creates 1 instance every 5 minutes.

12. Now set the parameters for the remaining activities as shown in the table below.

You are setting your estimated time that it takes a user to complete each activity.

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Activity Name

Duration (Distribution type, Mean, Std

Deviation)

Review Loan

Constant, 20 minutes

Underwrite Loan

Normal, 10 minutes, 3 seconds

Process Communication Exercise 1.3

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13. You also set the probability that a gateway branch will go one way or another.

1.3 Process Simulation

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14. Click Save.

1.4 Running the simulation

Go to Project page and select the green SimulationRun button.

1.5 Analyze the Simulation Results

1.

Now that youve run the simulation, its time to analyze the results. You can start by
looking at completed instances.

2.

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Then look at Average and Maximum Queue sizes to identify bottlenecks. The
Loan Underwriter Review is a bottleneck

Process Communication Exercise 1.4

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3.

Switch to Time to look at waiting time

4.

You now see the average times for processing for each activity. The Loan
Underwriter review has an average wait time 21 which is unacceptable. You
might want to tweak the rules and decrease the percentage of Loan Underwriter
review. You can increase the number of resources for the Loan Underwriter role.

1.5 Process Simulation

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