Discovering Object-Centric Petri Nets

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method for discovering object-centric Petri nets from complex event logs that involve multiple intertwined object types, enabling more accurate modeling of real-world processes.

Contribution

It presents a new process discovery approach that handles object-centric event logs, producing holistic models that reflect complex object relationships, implemented in PM4Py.

Findings

Feasible to discover holistic object-centric Petri nets from real-life logs.

Models visualize complex relationships among different object types.

Approach enables drill-down into specific process viewpoints.

Abstract

Techniques to discover Petri nets from event data assume precisely one case identifier per event. These case identifiers are used to correlate events, and the resulting discovered Petri net aims to describe the life-cycle of individual cases. In reality, there is not one possible case notion, but multiple intertwined case notions. For example, events may refer to mixtures of orders, items, packages, customers, and products. A package may refer to multiple items, multiple products, one order, and one customer. Therefore, we need to assume that each event refers to a collection of objects, each having a type (instead of a single case identifier). Such object-centric event logs are closer to data in real-life information systems. From an object-centric event log, we want to discover an object-centric Petri net with places that correspond to object types and transitions that may consume and produce collections of objects of different types. Object-centric Petri nets visualize the complex relationships among objects from different types. This paper discusses a novel process discovery approach implemented in PM4Py. As will be demonstrated, it is indeed feasible to discover holistic process models that can be used to drill-down into specific viewpoints if needed.