A mathematical model for a framework of a supporting system for international trade transaction

International trade transaction processes include complex paperworks because each country has own regulations and document formats. Such paperworks bring unnecessary costs of time and resources. Our research group has proposed a framework of supporting system for reducing redundancy of paperworks and complexity of document processes. A function of the framework is to reduce document flows in an international trade transaction process. This function is executed by three steps: (1) Converting document flows to information flows, (2) Reducing information flows, and (3) Generating document flows from information flows. In this paper, algorithms used in these steps are proposed. First, a mathematical model used for describing document flows and information flows is defined. Then, the details of the algorithms are shown by using the mathematical model. To illustrate the ability of the proposed algorithms, the algorithms are applied in examples of document flows in international trade transaction processes. As a result of the discussion, information flows and document flows in several international trade transaction processes can be represented as a common structure by using the mathematical model. We can see that redundancy of paperworks and simplifying complexity of paperworks in international trade transaction processes can be reduced by using the proposed algorithms.