Simulation-based experimentation for designing reliable and efficient Web service orchestrations in supply chains

The world today is witnessing a growing interest in conducting supply chain business processes electronically using Web services orchestration technology. Fast adoption is often hampered by the need for experimentation to make efficient use of this technology in supply chain processes. In this paper, a simulation-based approach supporting experimentation with the efficiency and reliability of Web service orchestrations in supply chains prior to implementation are presented. The approach simulates the de facto business process specification standard for Web services, BPEL4WS, using Java-based simulation building blocks. A supply chain case study is used to demonstrate and evaluate the approach. (C) 2006 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.