Business Process ModellingAssignment: Preparing EPC Diagram for the case of University of Melbourne

Question

Task: Introduction
EPC diagram, abbreviation for event-driven process chain diagram, is a flowchart-based diagram that can be used for resource planning and identifying possible improvements of a business process. Businesses use event-driven process chain diagrams to lay out business process workflows, originally in conjunction with SAP R/3 modelling, but now more widely it is used by many companies for modelling, analyzing, and redesigning business processes.

Task
In this business process modelling assignment you will use Signavio, to prepare an EPC diagram for the Case Study below. Make sure to identify the organizational units and actors relevant to the case study and indicate on the EPC diagram the actor that is responsible for each task in the process.

Case study
University Library
Quality and service excellence is the cornerstone of the University of Melbourne Library's commitment to staff and students. Located within Melbourne, regional Victoria and offshore campuses, libraries and access centres support over 60,000 students and staff, providing access to well over half a million books, over 120,000 journal titles, 650 databases (online collections of Journal articles) and 270,000+ e-books.

The handling of delays for delivering books and journals back to the library today is very inefficient. The existing IT system is able to automatically send a reminder to the customer about the delay, but the handling of the delay is done purely manually by the librarians if the customer does not return the book or journal. The management of the Library has decided that the delay process should be managed by a business process management system. A business consultant interviewed a number of librarians about how they handle delays. The interviews result in a heterogeneous view of the practice of handling delays. The (hypothetical) scenario of handling a delay can be summarized as: A delay can be recognised automatically by the existing library management system. An email will be sent to the customer automatically, requesting them to return or renew the book. If the book has not been returned a week later, a librarian will be notified by email. The librarian looks up the delayed customer in the IT system. If there is a phone number registered, they try to call them by phone, else they write a letter telling about the delay, and that they already have received one reminder and that they will be charged a fee for the delay. If the book has not been returned a week later, the librarian will send another letter to the delayed customer informing them that they will be reported to the police for theft if the book is not returned. One more week later, if not returned, the librarian contacts their manager, who takes over. If the book is returned anytime during this period, the librarian will close this case and no further action will be taken. If the delayed customer is a student, the manager contacts the academic registry department to suspend the student account. If the delayed customer is a staff member, the manager contacts the Personnel unit to suspend the staff payroll. After that, the manager attaches a fee payable to the customer’s account and requests the customer to pay, which includes the cost of the book and a late return penalty. The case will be closed by the manager when the charged amount is paid in full. When the case is closed, the manager will notify the academic registry department or the personnel unit to lift the suspension. Occasionally, the customer might return the book and also pay the fee in full. In this case, the cost of the book will be refunded. In some other cases, the customer returns the book without paying the fee. The case remains open but the amount the customer owes will be changed. Sixty days after the delay is first identified, if the case is still open, the manager change the status of the case to “forced close” and contacts a debt collection agency by phone to collect any outstanding fee.

Answer

Introduction to the case of business process modelling assignment
We all know that every library system has its policy and the data management system for keeping library records. This data management system can be manual or it also can be automatic. Whereas mostly all the data management systems are now automated as it is more beneficial and accurate. It helps the overall system to maintain data properly. It helps the library system to continue its process without doing any error in the system process. In this report, we are considering the University of Melbourne Library system and have discussed their book collection. They have maintained a specific book return policy as well as the delay in maintaining the policy. Hence we provide the event-driven process chain diagram or the ECP diagram of the university's library delay management process. The main objective of this project is to elaborate on the EPC diagram of the university. In the below part we have described the detailed steps of the project report.

Workflow Analysis
Here we choose the University of Melbourne. We try to evaluate the university's workflow process and taking consideration of some specific factors such as the quality factors as well as the customer or client service perfection process. This library or the university is situated in Melbourne. This library incorporates the local responsibility to workers as well as the students of the university. It has the regional Victoria as well as the offshore campuses that have operating permission to the library. Hence we can say that they have more than sixty thousand students as well as staff. They have to give access to half a million books as well as more than one lakh journals as well as nearly six hundred and fifty databases for the library system. They also incorporate more than two lakh seventy thousand eBooks. Hence it can be said that they need to maintain a very strong database management system for handling the huge quantity of records as well as the huge number of students and staff activities. It is very difficult for them to handle it manually hence they include an automatic database management system. Their current IT system can access the database management system and it automatically sends a reminder to its customer based on their current book reissue status or the delay status. To handle the delay process manually is quite very difficult and it is not possible to maintain the error-free process for huge data. Hence the database management system has updated and it follows the automatic process to maintain the overall process. The management process includes all the actors in the entire process. In this delay management process flow, there are the main three actors such as library management authority or system, the librarian, the manager, all the students, and staff. All the library systems incorporate the entire process of the delay process and currently access it without any error. We have displayed the delay process through the EPC diagram. In the below part we will talk about the process relationship of the entire library management system's delay process (Al Ghaithi, Kattiparuthi, &Koya, 2017).

Process Relationship
There are mainly five actors in the overall process for the delay system in the library. The actors are the library management system, the librarian as well as the manager. Also, the students and the staffs are also the actors of the delay system.

Model & Simulation
This is the EPC diagram of the library delay process here all the actors are mentioned and their detailed process has been mentioned in the detailed process. In the below table all the process steps have been mentioned (Luoma,et al., 2017).

Use of Signavio
In this report, to make the EPC diagram we have used the Signavio tool. This is a very efficient tool for making the process flow diagram and provides an accurate outcome of the steps. We have explained which steps are incorporated in the delay process diagram, who will be responsible for the action and the medium for the steps that are accepted by the actors. The below-mentioned table is the details steps and data that we need to input in the Signavio tool for getting the EPC diagram in the diagram preview section.

In the above table, we showed the detailed process of the delay & the actors of the process steps thoroughly. As well as we explained the input document information and the corresponding output document or information as well as the next step of action respectively. By following this process flow diagram or the EPC diagram the university library management has followed the delay process ad takes the original record regarding the book issue, submission, reissue, and the delay parameters.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that the report is related to the delay process flow of the university's library system. It includes the automatic database management system and it has one It system that can convey a reminder about the delay or reissue process to the students and the staff. We have used the Signavio tool to implement the delay process flow diagram and have mentioned every step to make it appropriate. Through this project, we can learn the good process flow diagram pattern and gather information about the process to handle the delay situations and appropriate action steps against the students or staff according to the situation incorporated by the manager, librarian, and the library management system.

References
Al Ghaithi, A. K., Kattiparuthi, R. A., &Koya, A. M. (2017). Delay analysis in EPC projects using Ishikawa diagram. Business process modelling assignmentInternational Journal of Advanced Engineering Management and Science, 3(7), 750-755.

Luoma, J., Ruutu, S., King, A. W., &Tikkanen, H. (2017). Time delays, competitive interdependence, and firm performance. Strategic Management Journal, 38(3), 506-525.