Requests for loans

introduction model software example hypermedia conclusions references appendix
Now let us take a look at an example business process model based on the objects made available in BPSIM. The example will detail possible situations before and after business process redesign has taken place.
Current Situation:
Our first model, which represents the current situation, consists of a client producing, for example requests for a loan at a bank. The requests are initially handled by a clerk whose task is to send requests for amounts greater than 10000 dollars to the boss. The boss, whose task is to approve or denigh the loan, sends the result back to the clerk for processing. If the amount is less than 10000 dollars, the clerk has authority to process the request himself.
Redesign Alternative:
In our second model, which is the result of a redesign effort, requests are handled by a clerk who enters the data into a computer. The computer now makes the decision as to whether the loan is improved - for loans of value less than and greater than 10000 dollars. The clerk then passes the results on to another clerk for the task of dispatching loans.
Figure of Model 1 (eps)
slide: Presenting a Redesign Alternative

Figure 1 shows the visual representation of the model resulting from the redesign effort, embedded in a Web page. In addition to the model, the page contains some results obtained by running a simulation. For example, the text indicates that an employee is busy handling incoming requests only 33% of the time. The histogram depicts the distribution of the lead times of incoming loan requests, that is the time that passes between receiving a request and giving an answer. The Web page further contains a button to start a simulation run, a description of the model and links to alternative models.

The script

Below we show some fragments of the script. 
  histogram leadtimes
  agent client generate leadtimes
  client -duration 60 poisson
  transport t1 
  t1 -duration 20
  employee clerk
  operation receive clerk
  receive -duration 20.0 5.0 normal
In this fragment a histogram for recording leadtimes is created as well as an agent generating requests and a transport to a clerk handling the requests. The duration of the agent is specified using a poisson distribution with \lambda = 60. The clerk is declared to perform a receive operation, the duration of which takes values from a normal distribution with \mboxmeans = 20 and \mboxstandard deviation = 5.0. 
  client -next t1
  t1 -next clerk
The fragment above shows how the various components of a model (for this fragment the agent, transport and employee) may be connected.

After defining the components of the model and their connection a simulation may be started by pressing the start button. If desired, users may change the parameters concerning for example setup and wait time, to explore the various scenarios a model has to satisfy.

introduction model software example hypermedia conclusions references appendix