A Petri Net model view of decision making: an operational management analysis

Certain management decision problems are not often easily modeled using traditional decision-making frameworks. Complex management decision problems may possess characteristics that are difficult to describe fully with any single decision-making framework such as a decision tree or a network model. A Petri Net is a powerful and a highly versatile modeling tool that possesses meta-model capability to replace alternative decision-making frameworks and model complex management decision problems or situations. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: (1) to review the properties of Petri Net models in view of management perspectives; and (2) to illustrate their power to describe various decision-making frameworks including decision trees, network models, Markov decision problems and time-table problems. Thus, we illustrate how Petri Net models possess meta-model capability to replace alternative decision-making frameworks.