Workflow Resource Allocation through Auctions

AILOG 2011 - Barcelona Universitat de Girona

1

Workflow Resource Allocation through AuctionsUniversitat de Girona

Albert Plà, Beatriz López, Javier Murillo

eXiT

16/7/2011

Workflow Resource Allocation through Auctions – Universitat de Girona

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Line up•Introduction

•Workflow Management System

•Workflow Resource Allocation: The Auction▫Workflow Agents: The Auctioneers▫Resource Agents: The Bidders

•Experimentation and Results

•Conclusions and Future Work16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction

Experimentation & Results

Conclusions



3

Introduction

16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Introduction

Resources16/7/2011

Cost Reduction

Organization Interactions

Decentralized Production Chain

Schedules & Deadlines

Business Processes

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions

Resources4AILOG 2011 - Barcelona Universitat de Girona


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Introduction• Decentralization of the production processes.

▫ Distribute production plants▫ Service outsourcing▫ Third party elements▫ Some tasks can not be Scheduled (e.g. faults)▫ Unknown service providers schedule

• Customer oriented production methodologies▫ Lean Manufacturing▫ Avoid unnecessary work▫ Interaction between customer & provider▫ Production under demand▫ Production flexibility ▫ Resource allocation in real time

16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Introduction Dynamism

DecentralizationThird Party OustourcingContingency Robustness

Customer OrientationProviders Privacy

Process Planing:+ Uncertainity+ Complexity

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Introduction Dynamism

DecentralizationThird Party OustourcingContingency Robustness



16/7/2011 7

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



8

Introduction

16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions


Unknown # of online workflows

DynamismDecentralization

Third Party OustourcingContingency Robustness




Example:•Hospital device maintenance service

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions


Fault Reparatio

n

Internal technicians

Outsource technicians

Company 1

Comp. 2

Comp. n

…?


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Our proposal:• Resource allocation using:

• Workflow Management System (WMS)

• Multi-Ageng Systems (MAS) technolgoy

• Auctions

16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



11

Introduction

Background?

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions

Our proposal:

16/7/2011

Workflow Management System

OrganizationResource Providers

Auction



12


16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Workflow Management System•Workflows modeled using Resource-

aware Petri Nets (RAPN)▫Resource requirements included in

the model

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Type: Technician AResources Capacity: 2Currently used resources: 1

Pla A. et al. Petri Net Based Agents for Coordinating Resources. Rome 2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Workflow Management System•Monitoring using agents [1]

▫1 Workflow agent for each workflow typology

▫1 Resource agent for each resource

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WF Agent

AWF

Agent B

WF Agent

C

WF Agent

D

Resource Agent

1

Resource Agent

2

Resource Agent

n

Resource Agent

n-1

…

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions




Workflow Management System• A workflow agent monitors and manages

all the instances of a workflow type▫Call for auctions when they need

resources

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Resource Agent

1

Resource Agent

2

Workflow Agent A

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions

Resource Type A




Workflow Management System• A workflow agent monitors and manages

all the instances of a workflow type [1]▫Call for auctions when they need

resources

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Resource Agent

1

Resource Agent

2

Resoruce

Agent A

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions

Resource Type A





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Resource Agent

1

Resource Agent

2

Resoruce

Agent A

• A workflow agent monitors and manages all the instances of a workflow type [1]▫Call for auctions when they need

resources

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions

Resource Type A




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Resource Agent

1

Resource Agent

2

Resoruce

Agent A

AUCTION!

• A workflow agent monitors and manages all the instances of a workflow type [1]▫Call for auctions when they need

resources

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions

Resource Type A



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Workflow resource allocation: The Auction

16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions




Workflow Agent: The Auctioneer•Different attributtes to be fullfilled

▫Time Restritctions (Starting & Ending Time)

▫Resource Category (E.g. Tehcnician License)

•Minimize costs16/7/2011 20

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Workflow Agent: The Auctioneer• Reverse Sealed Auction

▫ First Price

• Penalty Mechanisms:▫ Fraudulent bids▫ Delays▫ Agreement Repudiation

• Attribute Promotion:▫ Different strategies

▫ Winning Determination Problem (WDP)

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Auctioneers Strategies• Balanced Strategy:

▫WDP: Lowest Bid Price

▫Balanced market price

▫Providers equilibrium

▫Decrease costs for workflow agent

▫Suitable for internal & external providers

▫+ Delays16/7/2011 22

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Auctioneers Strategies• Delay Prevention Strategy

▫WDP: Takes into account task ending time

▫Shortens workflow timings

▫Reduces number of delays

▫Indicated for dealing with internal providers

▫Arises cost

▫Faster providers can increase their prices16/7/2011 23

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Resource Agents: The Bidders•Characterized by:

▫Their categories (1 or more)

▫List of scheduled tasks (private agenda)

▫Estimation of times needed to perform tasks based on past experience (mean, std deviation, etc)

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Resoruce Agents: The bidders• The Bid:

▫ Agents evaluate their agenda Find gaps for new tasks Enter to auctiosn

▫ Choose price (Agent character): Arise the price when winning Decrease when losing Reinforcement learning

▫ Evaluate benefits of winning the auction They can cancel scheduled activitys if the benefit of

realizing a new task compensates the cancellation penalty.

Risky bids16/7/2011 25

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions


26AILOG 2011 - Barcelona Universitat de Girona

Experimentation and Results

16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Experimental Setup• Workflow Simulation

▫200 t.u. simulations▫Workflow probability p = 0.2

• Evaluation:▫Economic cost▫Delays produced▫Workload balance

• Strategies:▫Balanced Strategy (BS)▫Delay Prevention Strategy (DPS)▫First available resource of a sorted list (FRQ)

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Experimental Setup• Scenario 1:

▫4 Resource Agents▫Each resources can perform, at least, 3

different tasks▫Competition between some resources▫Workflow instances > resources

• Scenario 2:▫4 Resource Agents▫Each resource can perform all the tasks▫High competition between all resources▫Workflow instances >> resources

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Results Scenario 1 Scenario 2

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Results: Delays Scenario 1 Scenario 2

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Results: Costs•Workflow agents budged

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Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Results: Workload Balance•Scenario 2

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Balanced Strategy

FIFOResource

Queue

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions


33

Conclusions and Future Work

16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions




Conclusions•How to allocate internal and foreign

resources under demand in a decentralized production process?▫Workflow Management System

Business Process Resources

▫Multi Agent Systems Useful in distributed environments

▫Auctions Minimize costs Reduce production times Balance resource occupation

16/7/2011 34

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Conclusions•2 Kind of agents:

▫ Resource Agents Bidders

▫ Workflow Agents Auctioneers Different strategies

Resource costs (Balanced Strategy) Workflow timings (Delay Prevention Strategy)

• Improve simple schedules methods

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Cost Reduction

Delay reduction

Balanced market price

Balanced workload

Balanced St.

Delay Prevention

St.

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions



Further work•Vickery auctioning mechanism

▫Incentive compatibility▫Fight cheating agents

•New auctioning strategies▫Multi-attribute

•Improve MAS capabilities▫Trust▫Historical data

16/7/2011 36

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions


37AILOG 2011 - Barcelona Universitat de Girona 16/7/2011

Introduction

WMS

The Auction


Conclusions

[email protected]


38

Workflow Resource Allocation through AuctionsUniversitat de Girona

Albert Plà, Beatriz López, Javier Murillo

eXiT

16/7/2011


AILOG 2011 - Barcelona Universitat de Girona 16/7/2011 39



WMS Architecture



• Multiple Reactive Maintenance Intervention (MRMI)

Maintenance action

generated in the

system

Classifying the action

Locating the source

of the action

Ranking the action (assigning

a level)

Assigning to in-house technicians

Assigning to an external service

provider

Device returned to the medical

center

Concurrent Solution

Sequential Solution

Technician 1

reparation

Technician 2

reparation

Device Check Out

Technician 1

reparation

Technician 2

reparation

Technician Type A Technician Type BResoruces:



P1 P2 P3

P4

P5T1 T2

T3T4

T5

Workflow Resource Allocation through Auctions

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