System and method for monitoring a workflow process and generating reminder alerts using modular arithmetic

• US 8,205,198 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2007
• Issued: 06/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng
• Assistant Examiner(s): WU, BENJAMIN C
• Application Number:
  US11/933,434
• Publication Number:
  US 20080141254A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,692 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/100
• 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 working hours of a work schedule and a time interval for querying the application server for the task status of each task, setting a minimum time interval that allows the task to remain in an incomplete state for each task of the workflow process, and recording the working hours, the time interval and the minimum time interval into the database;

a checking module configured for computing querying times for querying the application server according to the time interval, and determining whether any task of the workflow process is in the incomplete state during the working hours by checking the task status of each task of the workflow process according to the querying times;

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 one of the querying times, and calculating a remainder after the time difference being divided by the minimum time interval by utilizing modular arithmetic; and

an alerting module configured for generating an alarm signal and sending the alarm signal to inform an operator corresponding to the operator name to perform the task remained in the incomplete state if the remainder is greater than zero and not greater than the time interval.

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

3. 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.

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

setting working hours of a work schedule, a time interval for querying an application server for task status of tasks and a minimum time interval that allows the task to remain in an incomplete state for each task of the workflow process;

computing querying times for querying the application server for the task status of each task according to the time interval;

checking whether any task of the workflow process is in an incomplete state during the working hours if a current time is one of the querying times;

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 minimum time interval by utilizing modular arithmetic;

determining whether the remainder is greater than zero and not greater than the time interval; and

generating an alarm signal and sending the alarm signal to inform an operator corresponding to the operator name to perform the task remained in the incomplete state if the remainder is greater than zero and not greater than the time interval.

5. The method for monitoring a workflow process as described in claim 4, further comprising steps of:

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