A p-time hybrid Petri net model for the scheduling problem of workflow management systems

An approach based on a p-time hybrid Petri net model is proposed to solve the scheduling problem of workflow management systems. The proposed approach uses an activity diagram to show the main activities of the system and the different routings of the workflow process. Based on the obtained activity diagram, the corresponding p-time Petri net model is produced by assigning a time interval to every workflow activity. Hybrid resource allocation mechanisms are modeled by hybrid Petri net with discrete transitions where discrete resources represent equipment and continuous resources represent employees. Finally, a token player algorithm is applied to an example of "handle complaint process" in order to obtain an acceptable scenario corresponding to a specific sequence of activities which respects the time constraints (the previsional delivery delays).