Editing Workflow (section)

== Related concepts ==
The concept of workflow is closely related to several fields in [[operations research]] and other areas that study the nature of work, either quantitatively or qualitatively, such as [[artificial intelligence]] (in particular, the sub-discipline of AI planning) and [[ethnography]]. The term "workflow" is more commonly used in particular industries, such as in printing or professional domains such as [[Clinical laboratory|clinical laboratories]], where it may have particular specialized meanings.

# '''Processes''': A process is a more general notion than workflow and can apply to, for example, physical or biological processes, whereas a workflow is typically a process or collection of processes described in the context of work, such as all processes occurring in a machine shop.
# '''Planning and [[Schedule (project management)|scheduling]]''': A plan is a description of the logically necessary, partially ordered set of activities required to accomplish a specific goal given certain starting conditions. A plan, when augmented with a schedule and [[resource allocation]] calculations, completely defines a particular ''instance'' of systematic processing in pursuit of a goal. A workflow may be viewed as an often optimal or near-optimal realization of the mechanisms required to execute the same plan repeatedly.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Artem M. Chirkin, Sergey V. Kovalchuk | title = Towards Better Workflow Execution Time Estimation | journal = IERI Procedia | volume = 10 | pages = 216–223 | date = 2014 | doi = 10.1016/j.ieri.2014.09.080| doi-access = free | bibcode = 2014IERIP..10..216C }}</ref>
# '''[[Flow control (data)|Flow control]]''': This is a control concept applied to workflows, to distinguish from static control of buffers of material or orders, to mean a more dynamic control of flow speed and flow volumes in motion and in process. Such orientation to dynamic aspects is the basic foundation to prepare for more advanced job shop controls, such as [[Just-in-time (business)|just-in-time]] or just-in-sequence.
# '''In-transit visibility''': This monitoring concept applies to transported material as well as to work in process or work in progress, i.e., workflows.