The document describes a learning package on analyzing and adapting business processes based on ecologically-aware indicators. It discusses using green business process reengineering to optimize an auto finishing process to reduce its environmental impact by considering additional dimensions like water consumption and carbon emissions. A key part of green BPR is extending the traditional BPR architecture to include defining key ecological indicators, monitoring environmental impacts during process execution, and analyzing the data to identify opportunities for process adaptation and improvement.

1. S-Cube Learning Package
Analyzing and Adapting Business Processes based on
Ecologically-aware Indicators
University of Stuttgart (USTUTT)
Alexander Nowak, USTUTT
www.s-cube-network.eu

2. Learning Package Categorization
S-Cube
Adaptable Coordinated
Service Compositions
Adaptable and QoS-aware
Service Compositions
Analyzing and Adapting Business Processes
based on Ecologically-aware Indicators
© Alexander Nowak

3. Learning Package Overview
 Problem Description
 Green Business Process Reengineering
 Discussion
 Conclusions
© Alexander Nowak

4. Problem Description
 Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a common
methodology to analyze and optimize business processes in
organizations
 In recent years, the concepts and methods of BPR have been
extended in order to account for cross-cutting concerns, like
environmentally-aware business process optimization
 Green Business Process Reengineering accounts for 5
different dimensions
– Cost
– Time
– Quality
– Flexibility
– Environment
© Alexander Nowak

5. Motivating Scenario – Part 1 (1)
 Current Car Finishing Process of Auto Inc.
 After completely assembling a car the following process is
executed:
Check Water
Prepare
Engine Test Visual Check Test Run Density and
Detailed Check
Clean Car
Put Car into
Operation
Perform Quick
Create Report
Check
© Alexander Nowak

6. Motivating Scenario – Part 1 (2)
 The sample process shows two different branches that are
performed randomly:
– A quick check is performed, considering only some basic analysis
– A detailed check that includes some further steps:
- First, the check is prepared in general (create documents etc.)
- Second, the engine is tested in detail
- Third, a detailed visual check is performed
- Forth, a test run on the test track is performed
- Fifth, the water density of the car is checked and the car gets
cleaned
© Alexander Nowak

7. Motivating Scenario – Part 1 (3)
 The management of Auto Inc. now decides to also improve
their environmental impact, in particular their water
consumption and CO2 emission.
 Now, the question is:
How to optimize the environmental impact of this process?
 Current business process management approaches lack in
considering an environmental dimension
© Alexander Nowak

8. Learning Package Overview
 Problem Description
 Green Business Process Reengineering
 Discussion
 Conclusions
© Alexander Nowak

9. Green Business Process
Reengineering - Introduction
 Green Business Process Reengineering requires, compared
to regular Business Process Reengineering,
– Additional information with respect to the environment
– New analysis technologies
 Common BPR Architecture needs to be extended!
© Alexander Nowak

10. Green Business Process
Reengineering - Architecture
1. Strategy Key Performance Indicators, Key Ecological Indicators
Top Management
4. Adaptation
Process
Process Model Middleware /
Evolution
Instance
Deployment BPR &
Migration BPM
(CIP)
Business/Enterprise Dynamic
Provisioning
Manual
Adaptation …
Architect
(IT) Developer /
Architect
(IT) Operator
3. Analysis & Management
Carbon1 Carbon1
Carbon2 Carbon2
Carbon3 Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1 Carbon1
Carbon2 Carbon2
Carbon3 Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
CO2 Energy
Business Analyst
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Water …
2. Sensing & Monitoring
IT-Systems Ecosystem Logistics
Manufacturing Human Facilities
Operational Staff and
Operations Tasks Buildings
(IT) Developer /
Architect
© Alexander Nowak

11. Architecture – Phase 1
1. Strategy Key Performance Indicators, Key Ecological Indicators
Top Management
 We define Key Ecological Indicators (KEIs) as
Tupel consisting of
– Ecological Characteristic (EC) Metric
– Target Value Function
 Example: max CO2 emission (of a process instance) < X1
© Alexander Nowak

12. Architecture – Phase 2
2. Sensing & Monitoring
IT-Systems Ecosystem Logistics
Manufacturing Human Facilities
Operational Staff and
Operations Tasks Buildings
(IT) Developer /
Architect
 Different Systems need to measure the environmental impact,
for example IT-Systems or Manufactoring Operations (see
Figure above)
 Distinguish between different sensing and monitoring types:
– Same EC metric, e.g. from service specification, SLA, or existing
knowledge, for all process instances
– Monitored while performing the process instance
– Mixed Value Function
– Dynamic Value Function
© Alexander Nowak

13. Architecture – Phase 3
Carbon1 Carbon1
Carbon2 Carbon2
Carbon3 Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1 Carbon1
Carbon2 Carbon2
Carbon3 Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
CO2 Energy
Business Analyst
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Water …
 Analysis of Business Processes based on sensed and
monitored information
 Business Process Views:
– Custom Visualization of Business Processes
– Augment Process with additional Information
© Alexander Nowak

14. Architecture – Phase 3
 What are Business Process Views:
– A view on a process intends to abstract from details and make
complex processes easier to understand.
– Highlight parts of interest based on augmented information
– A process view results from specific transformations applied to a
process model.
 A Transformation Example concerning environmental aspects
is shown in the following
© Alexander Nowak

15. Architecture – Phase 3
 Augment a business process with runtime information
Original Process Augmented Process View
Model augment Legend
process Activity
Carbon1 Carbon1
Carbon2 Carbon2
Carbon3 Carbon3
Control-Flow
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Augmentation
Carbon1
Carbon2 Carbon1
Transformation
Carbon3 Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
© Alexander Nowak

16. Architecture – Phase 3
 Transformation 1: Omit some activities that cannot be
changed or replaced by design
 Transformation 2: Graphically represent environmental
information
Augmented Process View Visually Transformed View 1 Visually Transformed View 2
omit adjust
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3 activities Carbon1 visualization
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
8
Carbon2
Carbon1 Carbon3
Carbon2
Carbon3 Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3 7 15
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3 3
Carbon1
5
Carbon2 Carbon1
Carbon3 Carbon2
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon3
Carbon1
Carbon2
Carbon1
Carbon2
9
Carbon3 Carbon3
Carbon3
© Alexander Nowak

17. Architecture – Phase 3
 Drill-Down specific activities to access more detailed
information
Visually Transformed View 2 Drill-Down View
drill-
8 7 8
8 down
7
7 15 3
3
5 9
5 9
© Alexander Nowak

18. Architecture – Phase 4
4. Adaptation
Process
Process Model Middleware /
Evolution
Instance
Deployment BPR &
Migration BPM
(CIP)
Business/Enterprise Dynamic
Provisioning
Manual
Adaptation …
Architect
(IT) Developer /
Architect
(IT) Operator
 Business Process Views provide decision support for
adapting business processes
 Trade-off between different indicators (KPIs, KEIs, etc) need
to be addressed
 Business Process Variants as means to evaluate adaptation
strategies
© Alexander Nowak

19. Architecture – Phase 4
 Indicators are aggregated through all activities of a single
business process variant
 Different business process variants can be compared
 Concrete Adaptation Mechanisms depend on concrete
business processs
Variant 1
modify CO2=90
Original Process structure Cost=105
View Time=98
CO2=100
Cost=100
Time=100
Variant 2
CO2=85
Cost=95
Time=110
© Alexander Nowak

20. Motivating Scenario – Part 2 (1)
 Green Objectives: Reduce Transformation Steps:
– Carbon Emission 1) Omit Activities (Selection indicated
by dashed lines)
– Water Consumption
Check Water
Prepare
Engine Test Visual Check Test Run Density and
Detailed Check
Clean Car
Put Car into
Operation
Perform Quick
Create Report
Check
© Alexander Nowak

21. Motivating Scenario – Part 2 (1)
 Green Objectives: Reduce Transformation Steps:
– Carbon Emission 2) Augment Green Data and change
activity appearance
– Water Consumption
Check Water
Engine Test Visual Check Test Run Density and
Clean Car
Put Car into
Operation
Low CO2 emission
Create Report
High CO2 emission
Low water consumption
High water consumption
© Alexander Nowak

22. Motivating Scenario – Part 2 (1)
 Green Objectives: Reduce Transformation Steps:
– Carbon Emission 3) Create Process Variant
– Water Consumption
Check Water
Test Run at
Engine Test Visual Check Density and
Test Track
Clean Car
Put Car into Test Run at
Operation roller Create Report
dynamometer
Low CO2 emission
High CO2 emission
Low water consumption
High water consumption

23. Learning Package Overview
 Problem Description
 Green Business Process Reengineering
 Discussion
 Conclusions
© Alexander Nowak

24.  The approach has various advantages:
– Utilizing well established methods from business process
reengineering
– “Virtual” business process adaptation using business process views
– Decoupling of business and IT
- Business process experts can analyze the process, model different
business process variants and evaluate them
- IT experts can use standardized business process models to setup
runtime environment
© Alexander Nowak

25. Now Let’s Check How Accurate
Predictions are (1)
 The approach also has some open issues:
– How to get all ecological information one needs to improve the total
environmental impact of an organization?
– How to implement different K*Is in enterprise architectures?
– How to handle different levels of granularity between business
processes and sensor and monitoring data?
© Alexander Nowak

26. Learning Package Overview
 Problem Description
 Green Business Process Reengineering
 Discussion
 Conclusions
© Alexander Nowak

27. Summary
 Green Business Process Reengineering methods can be
used to address environmentally-aware business process
optimization
 Steps:
1. Define indicators based on organizations strategy
2. Augment and analyze process models with runtime information using
business process views
3. Create and evaluate business process variants considering the
trade-off between different optimization dimensions
4. Adapt current process model with chosen business process variant
© Alexander Nowak

28. Further S-Cube Reading
Nowak, Leymann, Schumm, and Wetzstein. An Architecture and Methodology for a Four-Phased Approach to
Green Business Process Reengineering. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on ICT as Key
Technology for the Fight against Global Warming - ICT-GLOW 2011 (accepted for publication), Springer-
Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.
© Alexander Nowak

29. Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has
received funding from the European
Community’s Seventh Framework
Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant
agreement 215483 (S-Cube).
© Alexander Nowak