Mario Lezoche

Semantic annotation for knowledge explicitation in a product lifecycle management context

Investigating some existing surveys about semantic annotation researches.Collecting and classifying semantic annotation researches based on Zachman framework.Analysing those collected literatures, especially from formalization aspect.Identifying the existing drawbacks and pointing out the possible research directions. Nowadays, the need for systems interoperability in or across enterprises has become more and more ubiquitous. Many research works have been carried out in the fields of information exchange, transformation, discovery and reuse. One of the main challenges in these researches is to overcome the semantic heterogeneity between enterprise applications along the life cycle of a product. As a possible solution to assist the semantic interoperability, the semantic annotation has gained many attentions and widely used in different domains. We collect a number of literature that applied semantic annotations on different objects, and classify them according to the subject being described in an enterprise architecture framework. A detailed survey, especially from the formalization aspect, is presented to identify the existing drawbacks and to point out the possible research directions.

Semantic annotation model definition for systems interoperability

Semantic annotation is one of the useful solutions to enrich targets (systems, models, meta-models, etc.) information. There are some papers which use semantic enrichment for different purposes (integration, composition, sharing and reuse, etc.) in several domains, but none of them provides a complete process of how to use semantic annotations. This paper identifies three main components of semantic annotation, proposes for it a formal definition and presents a survey of current semantic annotation methods. At the end, we present a simple case study to explain how our semantic annotation proposition can be applied. The survey presented in this paper will be the basis of our future research on models, semantics and architecture for enterprises systems interoperability during the product lifecycle.

Semantics enactment for interoperability assessment in Enterprise Information Systems

Abstract The grown complexity of the modern enterprise poses a series of challenges, among them keeping competitiveness in the fast changing environment in which the enterprise evolves. Addressing enterprise integration is considered as a key to achieve the goal of any enterprise either it is a single or a networked enterprise. Enterprise modelling is a prerequisite to enable the common understanding of the enterprises and its various interactions in order to “provide the right information, at the right time, at the right place”. However, problems often emerge from a lack of understanding of the semantics of the elaborated models resulting from various modelling experience based on different methods and tools. This paper describes the challenges associated to semantics enactment in information systems models. To facilitate this enactment, it proposes an approach based on a fact-oriented modelling perspective. Then, it also provides an algorithm to automatically build semantic aggregates that help in highlighting enterprise models core embedded semantics. A case study on the field of B2M interoperability is performed in order to illustrate the application of the presented approach.

Conceptualising and structuring semantics in cooperative enterprise information systems models

Enterprise performance is, now more than ever, one of the key points for reaching the market success. In order to increase it, economics paradigms focus on how to better manage knowledge acquiring, sharing and update. Knowledge management can be approached with the possibility offered by the sustainability goals trying to optimise different enterprise strategic domains. The modern architecture of information systems (ISs) is based on distributed networks with a grand challenge of representing and sharing knowledge managed by ISs and consequently, to remove semantics interoperability barriers. First, this paper analyses interoperability issues between cooperative enterprise information systems (CEIS). Based on this analysis, the authors propose a conceptualisation approach for semantics discovery and management in enterprise information systems models, based on applying fact-oriented transformation rules. The input of the transformation process is a conceptualised UML class model, reverse-engineered from an implemented model, and transformed into a fact-oriented model (FOM), which makes explicit the finest-grained semantics. Semantics aggregates are then computed for structuring the whole semantics embedded in enterprise applications. They define independent set of concepts with their own minimal mandatory semantics. Finally a case study is proposed to validate the practicability of our approach in a real scaled scenario involving an enterprise resource planning (ERP) and a manufacturing execution system (MES).

Semantic annotations for semantic interoperability in a product lifecycle management context

The interoperability among a variety of systems, in or across manufacturing enterprises, has been widely accepted as one of the important factors that affect the efficiency of production. Many research works, related to the interoperability at different levels, have been carried out to tackle the information exchange, transformation, discovery and reuse. One of the main challenges in these research works is to overcome the semantic heterogeneity in the exchanged information between enterprise applications along the life cycle of a product. As a possible solution to support the semantic interoperability issue, semantic annotations have gained more and more attention. This paper identifies several existing drawbacks and proposes a formal semantic annotation approach to support the semantic enrichment of models in a product lifecycle management context.

Formal Semantic Annotations for Models Interoperability in a PLM Environment

Nowadays, the need for system interoperability in or across enterprises has become more and more ubiquitous. Lots of research works have been carried out in the information exchange, transformation, discovery and reuse. One of the main challenges in these researches is to overcome the semantic heterogeneity between enterprise applications along the lifecycle of a product. As a possible solution to assist the semantic interoperability, semantic annotation has gained more and more attentions and is widely used in different domains. In this paper, based on the investigation of the context and the related works, we identify some existing drawbacks and propose a formal semantic annotation approach to support the semantics enrichment of models in a PLM environment.

Semantic Enrichment of Models to Assist Knowledge Management in a PLM Environment

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has been considered as an essential concept for improving the product competitive ability in manufacturing enterprises. The PLM solution aims at providing a shared platform for facilitating the management of the knowledge related to any product development process in or across enterprises. However, facing with different standards, enterprise systems and stakeholders, enterprises still need to deal with interoperability issues between those collaborative information systems, encompassing their capability to find the right information during the whole Product Life Cycle (PLC). The objective of this paper is to cope with the major issue of semantic interoperability, by proposing a formalization of semantic annotations and a prototype for facilitating a coherent, complete and contextualized interoperability of knowledge between all enterprise systems and related stakeholders. An example of the instantiation of our method within a real application scenario in manufacturing domain is presented to demonstrate its applicability and use, both at the engineering and the exploitation phases.

Conceptualisation approach for cooperative information systems interoperability

In order to increase enterprise performance, economics paradigms focus, now more than ever, on how to better manage information. The modern architecture of information systems is based on distributed networks with a grand challenge representing and sharing knowledge managed by those ISs. One of the main issues in making such heterogeneous Cooperative Information Systems (CIS) working together is to remove semantics interoperability barriers. This paper firstly analyses interoperability issues between CISs and then proposes patterns for data models conceptualisation for knowledge explicitation, based on expert knowledge injection rules and a fact-oriented approach. A case study is proposed related to a work order process in Sage X3, an Enterprise Resource Planning application.

Towards a comparative analysis of interoperability assessment approaches for collaborative enterprise systems

Challenges such as globalization and novel technologies are changes-drivers that require transformation within enterprises and their environments. To handle that, enterprises are progressively collaborating with others and becoming part of a Networked Enterprises (NE). In this collaborative and transdisciplinary context, one of the difficulties faced by companies willing to work together, are the interoperability problems between their systems. In order to avoid these problems and consequently, take corrective actions on time, enterprises need to predict and solve potential problems before they occur. To deal with that, evaluations can be performed to assess interoperability and therefore identify strengths and weaknesses of the considered enterprise systems. Despite, numerous interoperability assessment methods existing in the literature, many of them address only one interoperability aspect. In addition, they can also use different approaches and metrics to perform the interoperability evaluation. Thus, it can be difficult when enterprises have to deal with multiple interoperability aspects within a NE. Hence, the objective of this paper is to propose an analysis of the main relevant evaluation methods regarding interoperability. The proposed analysis is essential and will serve as a first step towards proposing a new approach for assessing enterprise systems interoperability within a NE.

Using Formal Measures to Improve Maturity Model Assessment for Conceptual Interoperability

To handle challenges such as globalization, new technologies and fast-changing environments, enterprises are progressively collaborating with others and becoming part of a Networked. In this context, Enterprise Interoperability (EI) is a crucial requirement that needs to be respected by enterprises when starting a collaborative relationship. As soon as this requirement is not achieved, EI becomes a problem that must be solved. To avoid these problems and consequently, take corrective actions on time, enterprises need to predict and solve potential problems before they occur. The Maturity Model for Enterprise Interoperability (MMEI) was proposed to assess the interoperability potential of an enterprise as well as to help enterprises evaluating the suitability of partners in an interoperability context. However, this method has some inconveniences such as the lack of formal definitions specifying the boundaries between each maturity level. Hence the objective of this paper is to formalize the MMEI maturity levels boundaries by defining formal measures. Finally, a case study is proposed to validate the defined measures.