Irina Peltomaa

Agent-Based Architecture for Virtual Enterprises to Support Agility

Global competition forces enterprises to concentrate on their core competencies while transforming themselves to participate in emerging inter-enterprise formations following the virtual enterprise (VE) paradigm. VE is a form that offers high flexibility, agility and resilience for enterprises to survive and prosper in the globalized economy. This paper introduces the real world VE that uses agent-based software to support agility. This research is conducted as a case study in the business network, which consist of several small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and one focal company operating in the steel manufacturing industry in Northern Finland. The new VE, called Steel Net is aiming towards global markets with the support of effective information sharing.

Smart Assembly — Data and Model Driven

The world is changing distinctly and manufacturing is facing significant challenges. Current manufacturing paradigms need to develop towards better agility to meet current market demand. The relevant research has been launched and the resulting new approaches, like smart manufacturing, digital manufacturing and the cognitive factory, are introduced. However, today’s real challenge to manufacturing enterprises is building an infrastructure that will enable the sharing of knowledge and information in a manufacturing environment, regardless of time and place. This article reviews some of the latest approaches and research initiatives and suggests the use of semantic technologies in information integration. Use of semantics enables information and knowledge to be represented in a form understandable to both humans and machines, and offers the ability to adapt more flexibly to change.

Developing supply chain information sharing through semantic interoperability

This study addresses information sharing in service context through supply chain management and technological perspectives. The aim is to illustrate challenges in service supply chain information sharing and highlight the role of semantic technologies in dealing with them. Through a qualitative case study looking at a maintenance service supply chain, problem areas in information sharing are identified and semantic integration model to address them is presented. The effects of the developed model on supply chain performance are discussed. Maintenance services are a novel application area for semantic technologies. The research also addresses the research gap concerning service supply chains and information sharing in them.

Agile Business Model in the Steel Product Industry Sector

Todays success manufacturing paradigm is agility that emphasizes customer orientation, networking and the benefits of e-business. The new agile business model has set also new requirements for supporting ICT infrastructure. As the enterprises are forming dynamic networks and the products are changing in variety and volume, the supporting ICT infrastructure has to be flexible in order to work in heterogeneous application environment. This paper proposes an agent-based solution to support agile business model in manufacturing business network. The paper describes a SteelNet case study in which a business network has used agent-based solution to support the new business model. The case study also introduces the implementation and testing processes of SteelNet system

An Exploratory Method to Clarify Business Potential in the Context of Industrial Internet – A Case Study

This paper introduces a study that was executed to detect business opportunities of the case companies in the context of Industrial Internet. An exploratory “scenario method” was chosen due to its ability to provide collaborative decision-making tool in a new business context. The study reveals four key perspectives identified together with case companies when looking for new business potential. Furthermore, the findings highlight the vital role of new business models and the need for transformation actions from product based business to service business. Rapid technology development and maturation provide basis for new service-focused business opportunities however companies need to be aware of new market dynamics and synergy advantages. In this study, future scenarios method was proven to be useful tool in both increasing awareness as well as in assisting to recognise the existing business potential in this new context.

General Information Model and Its Application for Rock Excavation in Underground Work Sites

In the underground mining and tunnelling rock excavation processes, there is plethora of different machine, tool and information system providers involved and practically no general information model covering the complete process. The competition in the field is getting more intense and all the actors should intensify their operations. The information management and integration of different information systems’ data is among the most interesting enablers for such a better operational efficiency. The main goal of the research was to develop flexible methods for better application interoperability and information management for the underground rock excavation processes. The research used a literature survey, a commercial systems survey, professional interviews and worksite observations in order to develop a new general information model for rock excavation and define a toolchain for the exploitation of the developed model. In this research, the information model for underground rock excavation actions was developed applying applicable parts of existing standards and software tools. The main information model can be extended by using separately designed sub-models. In addition to information model also a toolchain of how to practically do the model development and information integration, has been described. These actions will enhance information management and application interoperability in the rock excavation processes and enable more efficient information exploitation leading potentially to better controlled processes, more efficient work phases and cost savings.

SEMANTIC FRAMEWORK FOR INFORMATION INTEGRATION - Using Service-oriented Analysis and Design

This thesis presents a new modelling method for information systems analysis and design, where the concept of service and the principles of service orientation are used for integrated modelling and reasoning about information systems architectures across organisational and technical systems boundaries. The concept of service enables cohesion of the intersubjective and objective modelling traditions by using a single type of diagram that facilitates detection of semantic inconsistency, incompleteness, ambiguity and discontinuity between the static and dynamic aspects of information systems specifications. The thesis is focused on three research topics, which are fundamental to the development of a new service-oriented modelling method. The first research topic concerns a pragmatic-driven specification of information systems. It clarifies answers to the research question: How can a conceptual modelling process be driven by pragmatic considerations? The second research topic provides a service-oriented modelling foundation for information systems analysis and design. It answers the research questions: How can the concept of service be used explicitly for the analysis and design of information systems and how can the static and dynamic aspects of information systems specifications be integrated at the conceptual level? The third research topic presents transition principles to implementation-specific design and answers the research question: How can service-oriented conceptual representations be aligned with implementation-specific design? The thesis contributes with a new knowledge to the area of conceptual modelling of information systems. The service-oriented modelling method consists of the modelling process, modelling language and techniques for the analysis and design of information systems on three levels of abstraction: pragmatic, semantic and syntactic. These three levels are necessary for a holistic understanding of enterprise architecture by stakeholders. The advantage of the service-oriented modelling method is that it can help to control traceability from information system design to original requirements. The method facilitates the semantic integration of the structural, behavioural and interactive aspects of information systems conceptual representations by using a single diagram type. The modelling language provides service-oriented constructs that are fundamental to building the major systems analysis patterns. The service-oriented modelling process contributes with seven steps of incremental design, which justifies various information systems components. The method provides the basis for a gradual and systematic way of modelling and an understanding of how pragmatic, semantic and logical information system requirements are linked together. The possibility to detect and eliminate undesirable characteristics of service-oriented diagrams can help to improve communication among stakeholders. Service-oriented specifications are computation-neutral and therefore they are more comprehensible for business analysis experts in comparison to implementation specific graphical representations of information systems. Finally, this thesis presents the challenges for future research, one of which is the development of the automated tools for the alignment of business models with implementation-specific information systems specifications.