Simulator Overview

Adeptia provides Process Simulation capability, which helps in designing better, effective and more optimized business process flows. It enables you to run processes in a virtual environment. It allows you to analyze, enhance and optimize processes and generate an effective and realistic approach to business process management.
The Adeptia Simulation tool aims to achieve the following benefits:

• Resource planning: It helps and guides you to analyze, understand and plan the usage and utilization of resources in a business process.
• Identify bottlenecks: Since the queue capacity can be defined for an activity in a process flow, this tool helps you to understand and identify the bottlenecks that can arise in a process flow, and thus take appropriate measures to avoid the bottlenecks.
• Check-before-you-invest what-if analysis: It provides a complete time and cost analysis of implementing a business process. It enables you to understand the maximum and minimum costs and time involved in implementing a business process without actually implementing it.

It uses the following features:

• Resource Set: This is a collection of resources that identify the expenses incurred by a business process's component activities as they are being performed. The activity expenses can be examined and optimized individually. The expense elements can be defined at the activity level which can be of three types:
  • Direct: Direct resource is the resource whose expenses are attributed to the execution of an activity. These expenses are accumulated each time an activity is performed. Examples include materials that become part of the activity's output, and supplies consumed by the activity (but which are not part of the output). Each direct resource specifies a unit cost. An activity will incur this cost for each unit used by the activity.
  • Indirect: Indirect resource is the resource which refers to fixed expenses incurred by the enterprise. These expenses are accumulated regardless of the number of times an activity is executed, even if an activity is never performed. Examples include rent for floor space, utilities consumed by the activity, insurance costs, etc. Historically, these costs have been traced to an organization, but can now be attributed to an activity based on the activity's characteristics.
  • People: People resource refers to labor expenses incurred when an activity is performed. Such costs typically include salaries, hourly wages, benefit costs and employer taxes. These costs are entered into the organization role as a cost per some period of usage. Usage costs are designated as an hourly, monthly or annual figure.
• Process Timing: This identifies the time incurred by a business process's component activities as they are being performed. Activity timing can be examined and optimized individually. To achieve the real-world situation, randomness is involved in the simulation of business process. To achieve this, different distribution algorithm along with random number generator can be applied on the time elements. Involvement of randomness in the process can be achieved by either or both of following ways:
  • Random factor defined at process flow: Using this approach the random factor (which includes selection of distribution algorithm) can be defined at the process flow level. This will apply to all the activities included in the process flow. This approach will basically imply to Monte Carlo type of simulation.
  • Random factor defined at activity level: Using this approach the random factor can be defined at the activity level. Because of the involvement of random factor for each activity, this approach provides better way to achieve more efficiency with the real-time process as compared to previous approach. This approach will basically imply to Discrete Event type of simulation.

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