TK Aware Business Process Simulation: A Case Study With Slovenian High-Achieving Company From the SME Sector

This paper is investigating the methods and approaches to tacit knowledge (TK) aware business process simulation (BPS). The contemporary literature review on the subject reveals that the current methods, techniques and approaches in the BPS domain do not fully realize the potential for improvement that is related to TK of staff members in an organization. Tacit Knowledge is very important part of staff members' knowledge and expertise and very often constitutes competitive advantage for an organization. Therefore it is very important to include it in BPS. This research is aiming at filling this gap in knowledge. It is providing a starting point on how to enhance BPS techniques to allow TK related consideration. It is necessary to take into account multiple factors from both KM as well as BPS domains in order to be able efficiently model tacit knowledge within the frames of business processes. Authors propose an approach based on well-known software engineering technique namely Black Box concept. This approach is put into practice with the usage of one standard BPS technique - interviews with staff members and further computer-aided simulation. This technique was identified as an appropriate one for this sort of enhancement. In the next step the BPS model (derived from a black box concept) that is TK aware is demonstrated and discussed. This model is verified by the means of a case study with a high achieving Slovenian company from the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. After that results of the interviews are presented together with the information regarding computer-aided simulation using iGrafix software. Based on these improvements to the underlying model are suggested. Apart from that guidance on the methodology together other relevant considerations are demonstrated and discussed. At the end implications for BPS and KM practitioners are provided as well as opportunities that the TK-aware BPS can provide for the modern organizations.