Simulation Research of Business Processes with Queues Using GPSS Studio Modeling Environment

Abstract

The purpose of research. The goal of this study is to analyze different domestic software packages intended for modeling of business processes involving queues and time parameters. The main analysis criteria are: the possibility of graphical development or conversion of the business process block diagram to the model; automatic generation of simulation model; quick and convenient construction of domain-specific application; the variety of result analysis tools. The relevance of the problems to choose the optimal modeling tool is determined by the need to use only domestic software for business process investigation in the military and some scientific organizations, and by the lack of information about existing software products. In this paper, the subject of study is the Russian simulation modeling environment GPSS Studio.Materials and methods. In this article, the analysis of the possibility of effective usage of GPSS Studio environment during business processes analysis and synthesis is performed. The study was performed on the available examples of different applications of this tool, and by the creation of the model analyzing business processes that are typical for any HR department.Results. Taking into account the performed analysis of functionality and practical applications of the GPSS Studio environment, the good prospects of its application for modeling of business processes involving queues and time parameters are shown. The further system improvements intended for effective business process modeling are proposed.Conclusion. As a result of the performed study, we can do the following conclusions and recommendations:– The GPSS Studio graphical editor can be successfully used for the graphical description of the business processes when it is required to analyze: queues, the load of resources, and the time characteristics of the processing,– The simulation model is automatically generated from the graphical description. The produced model can be finally debugged and verified with the GPSS Studio,– The standalone simulation application working in terms of the subject domain can be built from the simulation model using the simulation environment,– Using this application, it is possible to perform complex business process simulation modeling by means of varying system parameters and performing of singular experiments, a series of dedicated experiments, and optimizing experiments,– Since the GPSS Studio concepts include the possibility to create domain-specific libraries of standard blocks, it is possible to create a library of standard elements similar to IDEF, BPMN, DFD block charts to facilitate faster description and modeling of business processes. After the creation of such a library, there would be no need to manually write GPSS code, since the business process model could be built by a simple connection of standard blocks.