Service-oriented framework for human task support and automation

Abstract

Due to increasingly demanding requirements for business flexibility and agility, automation of end-to-end industrial processes has become an important topic. Business process execution needs to support automated tasks execution as well as human tasks. In this paper we show that for certain types of human tasks it is relevant to consider their further automation. We propose a service-oriented architectural framework for human task execution, which improves their execution by automating and semi-automating decision making based on ontologies and agent technology. The approach is generic and can be used for any type of industrial or industrial support business process. As a proof-of-concept we have developed a system providing the above-described support for human task intensive business processes in an electric power transmission company, which has shown considerable improvements in the efficiency of human tasks. © 2006 IEEE.