Business process design: flexible modelling with multiple levels of detail

Purpose – Most manufacturing processes tend to involve more than one level of detail at the design phase. These often consist of a higher level that represents the building‐blocks of the firm and a lower level that represents a more detailed structure of the process. When designing such processes, this type of structure is difficult to capture without some form of modelling. In such cases simulation can be used to help overcome this problem. This paper presents an investigation of simulation packages. Design/methodology/approach – These simulation packages were investigated regarding their abilities to model business processes related to manufacturing systems. Findings – The research findings suggest that no one simulation package currently available can alone offer sufficiently flexible facilities for the variable detailed modelling of manufacturing systems design. Originality/value – The paper relates to one specific design framework called manufacturing system design (MSD). It defines the higher level of detail as the conceptual modelling level and the lower level as the detailed design level. A four‐step framework is proposed, and it is argued that this may better deal with problems of detail variability.