Abstract Background and Purpose: Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABS) is growing in many areas like, e.g., management, social and computer sciences. However, the similar trend does not seem to occur within the field of business process management (BPM), even though simulation approaches like discrete event simulation or system dynamics are well established and widely used. Thus, in our paper we investigate the advantages and disadvantages of agent-based modelling and simulation in the field of BPM in simulation experiments. Design/Methodology/Approach: In our research, we investigate if there is a necessity for ABS in the field of BPM with our own simulation experiments to compare traditional and ABS models. For this purpose, we use simulation framework MAREA, which is a simulation environment with integrated ERP system. Our model is a complex system of a trading company selling computer cables. For the verification of our model, we use automated process discovery techniques. Results: In our simulations, we investigated the impact of changes in resources’ behavior on the outcome of company’s order to cash process (O2C). Simulations experiments demonstrated that even small changes might have statistically significant effect on outcomes of the processes and decisions based on such outcomes. Simulation experiments also demonstrated that the impact of randomly distributed fluctuations of well-being have a diminishing tendency with the increasing number of sales representatives involved in the process. Conclusions: Our research revealed several advantages and disadvantages of using ABS in business process modelling. However, as we show, many of them were at least partially addressed in the recent years. Thus, we believe that ABS will get more attention in the field of BPM similarly to other fields like, e.g., social sciences. We suggested areas in BPM simulations, e.g., modelling of resources, be it human or technological resources, where there is a need for ABS.

中文翻译：

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在业务流程管理中是否需要基于代理的建模和仿真？

摘要背景和目的：基于代理的建模和仿真（ABS）在管理，社会科学和计算机科学等许多领域都在增长。但是，即使诸如离散事件模拟或系统动力学之类的模拟方法已得到很好的建立和广泛使用，在业务流程管理（BPM）领域中似乎也没有出现类似的趋势。因此，在本文中，我们研究了基于代理的建模和仿真在BPM领域中仿真实验的优缺点。设计/方法/方法：在我们的研究中，我们将使用我们自己的模拟实验来比较BPM领域中的ABS是否必要，以比较传统模型和ABS模型。为此，我们使用仿真框架MAREA，这是具有集成ERP系统的仿真环境。我们的模型是一家销售计算机电缆的贸易公司的复杂系统。为了验证我们的模型，我们使用了自动过程发现技术。结果：在我们的模拟中，我们调查了资源行为变化对公司订单到现金处理（O2C）结果的影响。模拟实验表明，即使很小的变化也可能对流程结果和基于此类结果的决策具有统计学上的显着影响。仿真实验还表明，随着过程中涉及的销售代表数量的增加，幸福感的随机分布波动的影响将逐渐减小。结论：我们的研究揭示了在业务流程建模中使用ABS的优点和缺点。但是，正如我们所示，近年来，其中许多问题至少得到部分解决。因此，我们认为，与社会科学等其他领域类似，ABS将在BPM领域获得更多关注。我们建议在BPM模拟中需要ABS的领域，例如资源建模（无论是人力资源还是技术资源）。