AutoServices

This application is about a "car service facility". The requirement on the application is to automate the "procedure" of "service". This means that the successive "steps" of the procedure are automatically forwarded from one employee to another without any kind of "manager" intervention. At any time the manager has the ability to see on what tasks (steps) the employees are engaged. He can also see what tasks are "scheduled" for the next days. After a certain period of time the manager has a complete report on what tasks each employee has been assigned, when has started and when has finished the tasks.

The requirements, put on the application from the supposed "car service facility" owner, are the following:

"Every employee can take calls from customers in order to arrange a service appointment. The customer gives a name and the car number and model. A date and time are provided from our employee. The customer arrives at the facility's gate at the specified date and time. The gate personnel gives him the permission to enter. The customer goes to Chief Mechanic. Here the Chief Mechanic defines who is going to disassemble the car's engine, what are the required parts and who is the Reassembling Mechanic. After that the Disassembling Mechanic work's on the car while at the same time the personnel on the warehouse collect's the required parts. After both of the tasks are finished the Reassembling Mechanic starts to put the parts and reassemble. While the technical personnel takes care of the customer's car he can have a coffee at the facility's cafeteria. After the customer finishes his/her coffee and also the car is serviced the customer goes to office in order to pay and have a goodbye. That's all."

All of the above requirements are put on a coordinator agent. The action_code of the agent's is the following:

start_action

call bpm_setprocedureowner(__activation_user) {.....set the procedure owner}

{(1)....any user can put a new service request}

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "new service request" , __activation_user , "" , 0)

serv_id = bpm_getrecid(1,__au_step) {......get the record id of the service request}

app_date = LookUp("SERV","SERV",serv_id,"ADATE","")

customer = LookUp("SERV","SERV",serv_id,"CUSTOMER","")

car_no = LookUp("SERV","SERV",serv_id,"CAR_NO","")

comm = strcat(customer," with car ",car_no)

call bpm_setprocedurecomment(comm) {.....set the procedures comment}

{(2)....at date (app_date) the GATE SECURITY waits the customer to come for the appoinment}

app_date_num = DateToNum(app_date)

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "service appointment" , "" , "GATE SECURITY" , app_date_num , serv_id )

{(3)....the CHIEF MECHANIC makes the first estimation of labor and materials, assigns a mechanic}

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "service estimation" , "" , "CHIEF MECHANIC" , 0 , serv_id )

disas_mechanic = LookUp("SERV","SERV",serv_id,"MECHANIC1","") {....disassemble mechanic}

reass_mechanic = LookUp("SERV","SERV",serv_id,"MECHANIC2","") {....reassemble mechanic}

{split activities....at the same time, the warehouse prepares the materials,}

{ the mechanic starts working, the cafeteria hosts the cutomer}

split_in_branch {parallel split....the technical department does the job while in...}

split_in_branch {parallel split...(4) the warehouse prepares the required parts while ...}

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "collect parts" , "" , "WAREHOUSE" , 0 , serv_id )

and_branch {(5).... the assigned mechanic disassebles the engine}

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "disassemble" , disas_mechanic , "" , 0 , serv_id )

join_branches

{(6).... the assigned mechanic puts the parts and reassebles the engine}

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "reassemble" , reass_mechanic , "" , 0 , serv_id )

and_branch {(7).... the cafeteria the customer takes a cofee}

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "host customer" , "" , "HOSTESS" , 0 , serv_id )

join_branches {...the customer finished his/her coffee and the job has been done}

{(8)....the customer goes to the office in order to pay}

callwait bpm_assign_job ( "payment and goodbye" , "" , "OFFICE" , 0 , serv_id )

end_action

We can see the callwait or split_in_branch keywords. Those keywords give the opportunity to the agent to wait (until a job has been finished) or to have parallel code execution. Those are capabilities that are not presented every day in a programming language (ok script!). Notice that the callwait "calls" the user's activity as it would be a "program's subroutine". Notice also that we have flow of procedure that is defined by conditions into the code (who mechanic to assign). This is a case of ad hoc control flow (not known in advance to the programmer!)

We have to admit that the effect (coordination and historic data collection of the service procedure) is far too big for the lines of code that are written by the application programmer. To be precise the code is a little bigger (the agent contains the code that "describes" the task (activities) assigned to employees). The complete agent (code and declarations) is given bellow:

{-----------------------------------------------------------------------

' procedure for the service manager

'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------}

{....................................AGENT INFO..............................................}

start_agent_info

AgentName = "SERVICE_MANAGER"

AgentDescr = ""

AgentLanguage = ""

__timer_interval = 0

__is_registered = 1

__delete_on_termination = 0

end_agent_info

{....................................PRODUCTION CODE..................................................}

{..............................................................................new appointment}

start_bpm_activity "new service request"

start_bpm_subactivity "Appointment elements"

rec = bpm_getrecid()

if (rec = 0) then

call OpenForm("ptAppend","SERV_E01.FM","WORK.SERV",1,"?=SERV")

else

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E01.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

endif

end_bpm_subactivity

end_bpm_activity

{..................................................................................service appointment}

start_bpm_activity "service appointment"

start_bpm_subactivity "Appointment"

rec = __params[1]

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E02.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

end_bpm_subactivity

end_bpm_activity

{..................................................................................service estimation}

start_bpm_activity "service estimation"

start_bpm_subactivity "Define parts and labor"

rec = __params[1]

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E02.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

end_bpm_subactivity

start_bpm_validation

result = 1

rec = bpm_getrecid(1) {...get the record id of the first activity}

if (rec = 0) then

call message("You havent define parts and labor!")

result = 0

endif

if (rec > 0) then

disas_mechanic = LookUp("SERV","SERV",rec,"MECHANIC1","") {....disassemble mechanic}

reass_mechanic = LookUp("SERV","SERV",rec,"MECHANIC2","") {....reassemble mechanic}

if (disas_mechanic = "") then

call message("You must define a disassemble mechanic!")

result = 1

endif

if (reass_mechanic = "") then

call message("You must define a reassemble mechanic!")

result = 1

endif

end_bpm_validation

end_bpm_activity

{..................................................................................collect parts}

start_bpm_activity "collect parts"

start_bpm_subactivity "Parts to be collected"

rec = __params[1]

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E02.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

end_bpm_subactivity

end_bpm_activity

{..................................................................................disassemble}

start_bpm_activity "disassemble"

start_bpm_subactivity "Car to disassemble"

rec = __params[1]

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E02.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

end_bpm_subactivity

end_bpm_activity

{..................................................................................reassemble}

start_bpm_activity "reassemble"

start_bpm_subactivity "Car to reassemble"

rec = __params[1]

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E02.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

end_bpm_subactivity

end_bpm_activity

{..................................................................................host customer}

start_bpm_activity "host customer"

start_bpm_subactivity "Customer to host"

rec = __params[1]

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E02.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

end_bpm_subactivity

end_bpm_activity

{..................................................................................payment and good bye}

start_bpm_activity "payment and goodbye"

start_bpm_subactivity "Payment"

rec = __params[1]

expr = strcat(rec,"=SERV")

call OpenForm("ptEdit","SERV_E02.FM","WORK.SERV",1,expr)

end_bpm_subactivity

end_bpm_activity

{.....................................CONTROL CODE......................................................}

{.................................ACTION CODE................................................

This agent has as job to coordinate (that' why we call it a coordinator agent) the activities of

a "luxury cars service facility".

The customer calls to the facility to make an appointment

The personnel in the gate wait the specified date the customer on his car

The chief mechanic checks the car and decides for the parts, the disassembly and reassembly mechanic

The customer is hosted to the cafeteria while waiting the service to finish

The warehouse personnel prepares the parts list while the disassemble mechanic works

When both of the above activities are finished the reassembly mechanic does his job

When the customer finishes his/her coffee and the service steps are finished

the customer goes to office in order to pay

The agent follows the events in real time (at the time that they are happen!)

}

start_action

{ press F8 for next step }