Applying Constraint Programming To Enterprise Modelling

Applying Constraint Programming To Enterprise Modelling

Andringa, Sytze (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Yorke-Smith, N. (mentor)
van Essen, J.T. (graduation committee)
van der Wal, C.N. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Computer Science

2021-07-02

Enterprise Modelling (EM) is the process of producing models, which in turn can be used to support understanding, analysis, (re)design, reasoning, control and learning about various aspects of an enterprise. Various EM techniques and languages exist, and are often supported by computational tools, in particular simulation. The goal of this thesis is to study the effects and advantages of applying constraint programming (CP) to EM. To the best of my knowledge, no previous study has explicitly combined EM and CP. On the topic of applying CP to EM, this thesis explains where it can be applied, as well as its requirements and advantages. Furthermore, it explains a possible approach where a neural network, trained on a simulation model that represents an enterprise model, is embedded into a constraint program. This approach is supported with experiments, that show typical business objectives can be embedded in a constraint program and find solutions to it in a multi-objective context. The main conclusion is that due to CP being a declarative programming technique, business constraints and goals can be effectively modelled into a constraint program, making the approach understandable and intuitive for business analysts to use. This thesis argues alternative approaches to apply CP to EM can also be realised. Some of these, as well as improvements over the proposed method, are also discussed.

Enterprise Modelling
Constraint Programming (CP)
machine learning
simulation
Optimisation
socio-technical systems

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7d67baa1-6e28-407a-9cab-9cd67e592d8e

https://github.com/SytzeAndr/EM_to_CP Repository link GitHub repository with supplementary code

Student theses

master thesis

© 2021 Sytze Andringa