A timed colored Petri nets modeling for dynamic workflow in product development process

Product development process (PDP) is one of the most important business processes for enterprises but it has difficulty in workflow management because of the uncertain and dynamic characteristics. Thus, even though there have been many workflow modeling and management methods, they have limitations to deal with the special characteristics of PDP. We define PWF-nets based on timed colored Petri nets for the workflow management of PDP and propose a method of organizing PWF-nets that are composed of workflow patterns. Considering the characteristics of PDP, PWF-nets are somewhat complex unlike existing workflow modeling because they manage necessary information related to dynamic workflow execution. Thus, we define transition behaviors and function primitives to support the construction of workflow patterns for PWF-nets. These workflow patterns can be microscopically handled and can be adapted for the dynamic and uncertain environment related to data and time. Next, we discuss the soundness and properties of the PWF-net and introduce an example of implementation. Additionally, we can check errors or abnormal executions of workflow and evaluate the lead time of PDP through our program for the PWF-net. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.