Machine and business modeling and simulation for workflow integration

This paper addresses the problems of modeling and simulating complex industrial production lines. The paper proposes a methodology for building business models, organized on layers of increasing complexity, starting from production line elementary machines and sensors up to complex business workflows. The resulted models could be translated and executed by any workflow execution engines. For workflow testing purposes, a simulation framework for production line elementary machines is proposed. The machine simulator is based on probabilistic state machines, uses standards for describing business machine functionality and is exposed as a Web Service. The proposed methodology and simulator were used for modeling and simulating a meat processing line developed in the context of the Food Trace project.