SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING A WORKFLOW PROCESS

• US 20080141254A1
• Filed: 11/01/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gold Charm Limited (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, CHUNG-I, LIN, HAI-HONG, XIE, DE-YI, ZHANG, CHEN-CHEN
• Granted Patent: US 8,205,198 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment

Abstract

An exemplary method for controlling a workflow is provided. The method includes: setting a check-status schedule and a reminder timer for each task of the workflow process; checking whether any task of the workflow process is in an incomplete state according to the check-status schedule; obtaining an operator name and a task assigned time of the task remained in the incomplete state; calculating a time difference between a current time and the task assigned time and calculating a remainder by utilizing modular arithmetic; and generating an alarm signal and sending the alarm signal to inform a corresponding operator to perform the task remained in the incomplete state if the remainder is greater than zero and not greater than the check-status schedule. A related system is also provided.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring a workflow process configured in an application server, the application server being connected to a database, which is configured for storing task status, an operator name, and a task assigned time of each task of the workflow process, the application server comprising:

a setting module configured for setting a check-status schedule and a reminder timer for each task of the workflow process, and recording the check-status schedule and the reminder timer into the database;

a checking module configured for determining whether any task of the workflow process is in an incomplete state by checking task status of each task of the workflow process according to the check-status schedule;

an obtaining module configured for obtaining from the database the operator name and the task assigned time of the task remained in the incomplete state;

a calculation module configured for calculating a time difference between a current time and the task assigned time of the task remained in the incomplete state if the current time is within the check-status schedule, and calculating a remainder after the time difference being divided by the reminder timer by utilizing modular arithmetic; and

an alerting module configured for generating an alarm signal and sending the alarm signal to inform a corresponding operator to perform the task remained in the incomplete state if the remainder is greater than zero and not greater than the check-status schedule.

2. The system for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 1, wherein the setting module is further configured for setting a work schedule for each task of the workflow process, and recording the work schedule into the database.

3. The system for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 1, wherein the check-status schedule is a time interval setting when the checking module checks the task status of each task of the workflow process.

4. The system for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 1, wherein the reminder timer is a minimum time interval that allows the task to remain in the incomplete state before generating the alarm signal.

5. The system for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 1, wherein the database is further configured for storing a task ID of each task of the workflow process.

6. A computer-enabled method for monitoring a workflow process, the method comprising:

setting a check-status schedule and a reminder timer for each task of the workflow process;

checking whether any task of the workflow process is in an incomplete state according to the check-status schedule if a current time is time to check for each task of the workflow process;

obtaining an operator name and a task assigned time of the task remained in the incomplete state;

calculating a time difference between the current time and the task assigned time and calculating a remainder after the time difference being divided by the reminder timer by utilizing modular arithmetic;

determining whether the remainder is greater than zero and not greater than the check-status schedule; and

generating an alarm signal and sending the alarm signal to inform a corresponding operator to perform the task remained in the incomplete state if the remainder is greater than zero and not greater than the check-status schedule.

7. The method for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 6, further comprising a step of setting a work schedule for each task of the workflow process.

8. The method for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 6, further comprising a step before the checking step:

determining whether the current time is time to check for each task of the workflow process according to the check-status schedule.

9. The method for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 8, further comprising steps of:

returning to the step of determining whether the current time is the time to check for each task of the workflow process if each task of the workflow process is not in the incomplete state.