Christopher Turner | The University of Surrey (original) (raw)

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Papers by Christopher Turner

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the area of business process mining, providing an overview ... more Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the area of business process mining, providing an overview of state-of-the-art techniques. An outline of the main problems experienced in the practice of process mining is given along with reference to work that addresses the most challenging issues experienced in this field. This paper also aims to examine the application of soft computing techniques to process-mining problems. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a comprehensive review of literature covering more than 50 research papers. These papers are analysed to identify current trends and future research directions in the field. Findings – Process-mining techniques are now becoming available as graphical interface-driven software tools, where flow diagram representations of processes may be manipulated as part of the mining task. A significant number of papers employ mining heuristics to aid in the task of process discovery. Soft computing algorithms are increasingly being investigated to aid the accuracy and speed of mining algorithms. Many papers exist that address common mining problems such as noise and mining loops. However, problems such as duplicate tasks, mining perspectives and delta analysis require further research. Originality/value – The contribution of this paper is to provide a summary of the current trends in process-mining practice and point out future research directions. A review of the work in this new and expanding area has been provided in the form of illustrative graphs and tables that identify the trends in this area. This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date review of business process-mining literature.

Purpose-This paper presents a comparison of a number of business process mining tools currently a... more Purpose-This paper presents a comparison of a number of business process mining tools currently available in the UK market. An outline of the practice of business process mining is given along with an analysis of the main techniques developed by academia and commercial entities. This paper also acts as a primer for the acceptance and further use of process mining in industry suggesting future directions for this practice. Design/methodology/approach –Secondary research has been completed to establish the main commercial business process mining tool vendors for the market. A literature survey has also been undertaken into the latest theoretical techniques being developed in the field of business process mining. Findings – The authors have identified a number of existing commercially available business process mining tools and have listed their capabilities within a comparative analysis table. All commercially available business process mining tools included in this paper are capable of process comparison and at least 40% of the tools claim to deal with noise in process data. Originality/value-The contribution of this paper is to provide a state of the art review of a number of commercial business process mining tools available within the UK. This paper also presents a summary of the latest research being undertaken in academia in this subject area and future directions for the practice of business process mining.

The practice of optimising business processes has, until recently, been undertaken mainly as a ma... more The practice of optimising business processes has, until recently, been undertaken mainly as a manual task. This paper provides insights into an automated business process optimisation framework by using web services for the development of re-configurable business processes. The research presented here extends the framework of Vergidis (2008) by introducing web services as a mechanism for facilitating business process interactions, identifying enhancements to support business processes and undertaking three case studies to evaluate the proposed enhancements. The featured case studies demonstrate that an increase in the amount of available web services gives rise to improvements in the business processes generated. This research highlights an increase in the efficiency of the algorithm and the quality of the business process designs that result from the enhancements. Future research directions are proposed for the further improvement of the framework.

This paper discusses the problem of business process optimisation within a multi-objective evolut... more This paper discusses the problem of business process optimisation within a multi-objective evolutionary framework. Business process optimisation is considered as the problem of constructing feasible business process designs with optimum attribute values such as duration and cost. The proposed approach involves the application of a series of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimisation Algorithms (EMOAs) in an attempt to generate a series of diverse optimised business process designs for the same process requirements. The proposed optimisa-tion framework introduces a quantitative representation of business processes involving two matrices one for capturing the process design and one for calculating and evaluating the process attributes. It also introduces an algorithm that checks the feasibility of each candidate solution (i.e. process design). The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed optimisation framework is capable of producing a satisfactory number of optimised design alternatives considering the problem complexity and high rate of infeasibility.

New trends in Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) highlight the need for decoupling the automation ... more New trends in Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) highlight the need for decoupling the automation aspect from the knowledge management side of KBE. In this direction, some authors argue that KBE is capable of effectively capturing, retaining and reusing engineering knowledge. However, there are some limitations associated with some aspects of KBE that present a barrier to deliver the knowledge sourcing process requested by industry. To overcome some of these limitations this research proposes a new methodology for efficient knowledge capture and effective management of the complete knowledge life cycle. The methodology proposed in this research is validated through the development and implementation of a case study involving the optimisation of wing design concepts at an Aerospace manufacturer. The results obtained proved the extended KBE capability for fast and effective knowledge sourcing. This evidence was provided by the experts working in the development of the case study through the implementation of structured quantitative and qualitative analyses.

—This paper reviews the area of combined Discrete Event Simulation and Virtual Reality use within... more —This paper reviews the area of combined Discrete Event Simulation and Virtual Reality use within industry. While establishing a state of the art for progress in this area this paper makes the case for VR DES as the vehicle of choice for complex data analysis through interactive simulation models, highlighting both its advantages and current limitations. The paper reviews active research topics such as VR and DES real time integration, communication protocols, system design considerations, model validation and applications of VR and DES. While summarizing future research directions for this technology combination the case is made for smart factory adoption of VR DES as a new platform for scenario testing and decision making. It is put that in order for VR DES to fully meet the visualization requirements of both Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet visions of digital manufacturing further research is required in the areas of lower latency image processing, DES delivery as a service, gesture recognition for VR DES interaction and linkage of DES to real time data streams and Big Data sets.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010

This paper proposes an approach for the optimisation of web business processes using multi-object... more This paper proposes an approach for the optimisation of web business processes using multi-objective evolutionary computing. Business process optimisation is considered as the problem of constructing feasible business process designs with optimum attribute values such as duration and cost. This optimisation framework involves the application of a series of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimisation Algorithms (EMOAs) in an attempt to generate a series of diverse optimised business process designs for given requirements. The optimisation framework is tested to validate the framework's capability in capturing, composing and optimising business process designs constituted of web services. The results from the web business process optimisation scenario, featured in this paper, demonstrate that the framework can identify business process designs with optimised attribute values.

This paper reports on the experimentation of an integrated manufacturing and building model to im... more This paper reports on the experimentation of an integrated manufacturing and building model to improve energy efficiency. Traditionally, manufacturing and building-facilities engineers work independently , with their own performance objectives, methods and software support. However, as progress is made in resource reduction, advances become more challenging. Further opportunities for energy efficiency require an expansion of scope across functional boundaries to encompass manufacturing, utilities and building assets. Design/methodology/approach – The impact of modelling methods providing guidance on modelling at factory level is inductive. The literature review outlines available techniques in simulation modelling at factory-level for energy efficiency of manufacturing and building assets. It demonstrates that detailed guidance for such a task is sparse. Therefore, five experiments are undertaken in the combined manufacturing and building simulation software IES to evaluate the impact of time interval granularity on the modelling of a paint shop process. Findings – Experimentation demonstrates that time-step granularity can have a significant impact on simulation model results quality. :Linear deterioration in results can be assumed from time intervals of 10 minutes and beyond. Time interval settings in data capture must be carefully selected in line with the capabilities of the simulation software. Practical implications – This work supports progress towards sustainable manufacturing by understanding the impact of time-step granularity used for analysis, on the quality of simulation results. Better understanding of this impact will guide engineers to use an appropriate level of data and understand the impact of the choices they are making. Originality/value – This paper reports on the use of simulation modelling tool that links the areas of manufacturing and and buildings, enabling their joint analysis in order to reduce factory resource consumption. Currently, there are few available tools to link these areas together, hence, there is little or no understanding of how such combined factory analysis should be conducted to assess and reduce factory resource consumption.

The design, improvement and operation of production and facilities are conducted in isolation. En... more The design, improvement and operation of production and facilities are conducted in isolation. Engineers in each discipline typically work independently with their own objectives, approaches and software support systems. There are few available tools to link these areas together, hence, there is little or no understanding of how such combined factory analysis should be conducted to assess and reduce factory resource consumption. This paper reports on experimentation of an integrated production system and building model. The case data was drawn from a UK production system and experiments were conducted on the impact of model data input on model output. The results show the relationship between reducing data quality and detail on the ability to discern the system performance from the results generated.

Information flow in supply chain management: A review across the product lifecycle

The purpose of this review is to provide an analysis and comparison of publications identified in... more The purpose of this review is to provide an analysis and comparison of publications identified in the area of information flow in supply chain management. Although review articles have extensively analysed supply chain management during the manufacturing phase of the product lifecycle, product development and service phases seems to be largely separated. Therefore a total of 132 journal articles were systematically selected and analysed. In order to enable a methodological approach, a framework is proposed to classify the publications based on the product lifecycle phase and the type of the publication. Each phase of the product lifecycle is discussed in detail and research gaps are identified. Finally cross-phase research gaps are identified to provide guidelines for future research.

Planning and scheduling activities within the rail industry have benefited from developments in c... more Planning and scheduling activities within the rail industry have benefited from developments in computer-based simulation and modelling techniques over the last 25 years. Increasingly, the use of computational intelligence in such tasks is featuring more heavily in research publications. This paper examines a number of common rail-based planning and scheduling activities and how they benefit from five broad technology approaches. Summary tables of papers are provided relating to rail planning and scheduling activities and to the use of expert and decision systems in the rail industry.

Thesis by Christopher Turner

Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing, 2018

Remanufacturing is a viable option to extend the useful life of an end-of-use product or its part... more Remanufacturing is a viable option to extend the useful life of an end-of-use product or its parts, ensuring sustainable competitive advantages under the current global economic climate. Challenges typical to remanufacturing still persist, despite its many benefits. According to the European Remanufacturing Network, a key challenge is the lack of accurate, timely and consistent product knowledge as highlighted in a 2015 survey of 188 European remanufacturers. With more data being produced by electric and hybrid vehicles, this adds to the information complexity challenge already experienced in remanufacturing. Therefore, it is difficult to implement real-time and accurate remanufacturing for the shop floor; there are no papers that focus on this within an electric and hybrid vehicle environment. To address this problem, this paper attempts to: (1) identify the required parameters/variables needed for fuel cell remanufacturing by means of interviews; (2) rank the variables by Pareto analysis; (3) develop a casual loop diagram for the identified parameters/variables to visualise their impact on remanufacturing; and (4) model a simple stock and flow diagram to simulate and understand data and information-driven schemes in remanufacturing.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010

Information flow in supply chain management: A review across the product lifecycle

Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing, 2018