Business process modelling and analysis using UML and polychromatic sets

Business process re-engineering (BPR) is regarded as a revolution of enterprise management. The modelling and analysing of business process is an important part of BPR. In this paper, unified modelling language (UML) and polychromatic sets (PS) theory are introduced and their advantages and disadvantages are analysed respectively. A business process integrated modelling method based on UML and PS is advanced, which contains the visual modelling module based on UML activity diagram, the mapping module from UML activity diagram to PS contour matrix model, and the system analysing and simulating module based on PS. Based on PS contour matrix model, basic concepts, path search algorithm and evaluation criterions are presented. An example of spare parts requisition and purchase is provided for application of the proposed method and its business process is modelled, analysed and re-engineered. Using this integrated modelling method with strong mathematical foundation, the business process can be represented precisely and analysed quantitatively, and the improvement opportunities can be discovered for optimising and re-engineering the business process.