Managing risk for business processes: A fuzzy based multi-agent system

Risk management for business processes is critical to the survival and performance of organizations, and has gained the interest of practitioners and academics. In this article, a fuzzy based multi-agent system (FMAS) is proposed as a practical solution to assess the process risk state and provide recommendations for the continuous improvement of business processes. To represent uncertain and ambiguous information obtained from experts, fuzzy theory is introduced to the FMAS. A fuzzy neural network is employed to implement an analysis agent capable of detecting the risk state of business processes within a firm. Furthermore, based on the predictions yielded by the analysis agent, the recommendation agent is then able to identify the possible deviations in the inconsistent process and provide suggestions for improvement. The effectiveness of the proposed FMAS is validated by its implementation in nine firms during twelve months, and the results are presented.