A Divide-and-Conquer Approach for Modeling Arrival Times in Business Process Simulation

A Divide-and-Conquer Approach for Modeling Arrival Times in Business Process Simulation

Abstract

Business Process Simulation (BPS) is a critical tool for analyzing and improving organizational processes by estimating the impact of process changes. A key component of BPS is the case-arrival model, which determines the pattern of new case entries into a process. Although accurate case-arrival modeling is essential for reliable simulations—as it influences waiting and overall cycle times—existing approaches often rely on oversimplified static distributions of inter-arrival times. These approaches fail to capture the dynamic and temporal complexities inherent in organizational environments, leading to less accurate and reliable outcomes. To address this limitation, we propose Auto Time Kernel Density Estimation (AT-KDE), a divide-and-conquer approach that models arrival times of processes by incorporating global dynamics, day-of-week variations, and intraday distributional changes, ensuring both precision and scalability. Experiments conducted across 20 diverse pro- cesses demonstrate that AT-KDE is far more accurate and robust than existing approaches while maintaining sensible execution time efficiency.

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Authors
  • Kirchdorfer, Lukas
  • Özdemir, Konrad
  • Kusenic, Stjepan
  • van der Aa, Han
  • Stuckenschmidt, Heiner
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Shortfacts
Category
Paper in Conference Proceedings or in Workshop Proceedings (Paper)
Event Title
23rd International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM 2025)
Divisions
Workflow Systems and Technology
Subjects
Informatik Allgemeines
Event Location
Seville, Spain
Event Type
Conference
Event Dates
31 Aug - 05 Sep 2025
Date
2025
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