Assigning process time along with resource rate and cost


In order to help you capture the length of time of business processes, processes can be assigned an amount of time. To do so, you must add a set of attributes to the process and perform calculations that will allow you to display a partial time and a total time. Moreover, you must include resources in your calculations, since resource assignment to a process is also an element for which you can specify a period of measurement. Here is an example on how to work with this feature. (Based on the sample model distributed with this product.)
  1. In the explorer window, right-click the 'Order Processing' process and choose Properties.

  2. Click in the Fixed Cost box, type in the process fixed cost (type in 15) and press Enter.

  3. Click in the Fixed Time box, type in the process fixed time (type in 30) and press Enter.

  4. Select Minutes as the time unit in the Fixed time unit box.

  5. Click Apply.



    Once you have established the fixed cost and the fixed time for the 'Order Processing' process, you can set up how much of a resource is used for a particular process (usage rates).

  6. From the same properties window, look for the Process / Resource tab.

  7. The Resource tab appears. Select 'Credit Manager'.

  8. Click in the box under the Usage Rate column and type in 10 and select Hour in the combo box under the Usage Rate Time Unit column.

  9. For the 'Data Entry Clerk' type in 11 in the box under the Usage Rate column and select Hour in the combo box under the Usage Rate Time Unit column.



Now let’s look at a resource and see what the work load is. The work load is calculated as the sum of all process usage rates for that resource.
  1. From the Explorer window, right-click 'Credit Manager' resource and choose Properties.

    The work load indicated for the 'Credit Manager' is the sum of the all usage done for this resource in the model.

  2. Click in the box corresponding to the Cost, type in 20 for the resource cost and select Hour as Cost Time Unit.

  3. Click Apply and Close.

  4. Repeat this step for 'Data Entry Clerk' but type in 15 for the resource cost and select Hour as Cost Time Unit.

    Now let’s take a look at a process and see what the resource cost is.

  5. Right-click the Order Execution process and choose Properties.

    Note that the resource cost for the process is 365. This total is automatically calculated by taking the cost of the 'Credit Manager' (20 x 10 hrs. = 200) and the cost of the 'Data Entry Clerk' (15 x 11 hrs. = 165).



  6. Also note that you can assign a fixed cost which will be added to the calculated resource cost to give you a partial cost. Total cost reflects all costs from this diagram level and all costs from subprocesses for this process. This gives a valuable overview of the business cost structure.

It is strongly advised that you learn the new attributes and time units implemented as well as calculation rules and results described in the rest of this section, in order to preserve your model integrity when you modify the following time units: fixed time unit (process), usage rate time unit (process-resource link) and cost time unit (resource). In most cases, you can verify the accuracy of your calculations by accessing the Process Description window. You can also produce and print a report including all attributes involved in these calculations to detect inconsistencies and to correct erroneous elements.


Time attributes

Time units

Fixed Time, Partial Time, Resource Time and Total Time Units :
Calculation and validation rules

Generally speaking, the validation is performed on time units when the corresponding time value is different from 0.

Process Resource