Milan Zdravković

An approach for formalising the supply chain operations

Reference models play an important role in the knowledge management of the various complex collaboration domains (such as supply chain networks). However, they often show a lack of semantic precision and, they are sometimes incomplete. In this article, we present an approach to overcome semantic inconsistencies and incompleteness of the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model and hence improve its usefulness and expand the application domain. First, we describe a literal web ontology language (OWL) specification of SCOR concepts (and related tools) built with the intention to preserve the original approach in the classification of process reference model entities, and hence enable the effectiveness of usage in original contexts. Next, we demonstrate the system for its exploitation, in specific – tools for SCOR framework browsing and rapid supply chain process configuration. Then, we describe the SCOR-Full ontology, its relations with relevant domain ontology and show how it can be exploited for improvement of SCOR ontological framework competence. Finally, we elaborate the potential impact of the presented approach, to interoperability of systems in supply chain networks.

New perspectives for the future interoperable enterprise systems

The paper describes the information system and interoperability related challenges, trends and issues that must be addressed to support a new generation of scientific-based and technological solutions for facilitating the collaboration of existing enterprise systems.This paper presents general research priorities and directions of related to context-aware systems, semantic interoperability, cyber-physical systems, cloud-based systems and interoperability assessment.The listed properties are used to propose the generic abstract architecture of the Next Generation Enterprise Information Systems. The rapid changes in todays socio-economic and technological environment in which the enterprises operate necessitate the identification of new requirements that address both theoretical and practical aspects of the Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). Such an evolving environment contributes to both the process and the system complexity which cannot be handled by the traditional architectures. The constant pressure of requirements for more data, more collaboration and more flexibility motivates us to discuss about the concept of Next Generation EIS (NG EIS) which is federated, omnipresent, model-driven, open, reconfigurable and aware. All these properties imply that the future enterprise system is inherently interoperable. This position paper presents the discussion that spans several research challenges of future interoperable enterprise systems, specialized from the existing general research priorities and directions of IFAC Technical Committee 5.3,11IFAC Technical Committee 5.3 ??Enterprise Integration and Networking??, http://www.ifac-tc53.org namely: context-aware systems, semantic interoperability, cyber-physical systems, cloud-based systems and interoperability assessment.

Sustainability and Interoperability: Two Facets of the Same Gold Medal

’To sustain is to endure’ - that is, to be able to survive and continue to function in the face of significant changes. The commonly accepted concept of ’sustainability’ currently encompasses three main pillars: environmental, social/ethical and economic. In a metaphor of survival, they can be seen as water, food and air; one needs all three, only with varying degrees of urgency. In today’s globally networked environment, it is becoming obvious that one cannot achieve environmental, social or economic sustainability of any artefact (be it physical or virtual, e.g. enterprise, project, information system, policy, etc) without achieving ubiquitous ability of the artefact and its creators and users to exchange and understand shared information and if necessary perform processes on behalf of each other - capabilities that are usually defined as ’interoperability’. Thus, sustainability relies on interoperability, while, conversely, interoperability as an ongoing concern relies for its existence on all three main pillars of sustainability. This paper aims to test the hypothesis that interoperability and sustainability are two inseparable and inherently linked aspects of any universe of discourse. To achieve this, it applies the dualistic sustainability / interoperability viewpoint to a variety of areas (manufacturing, healthcare, information and communication technology and standardisation), analyses the results and synthesizes conclusions and guidelines for future work.

Towards an approach for formalizing the supply chain operations

Reference models play an important role in the knowledge management of the various complex collaboration domains (such as Supply Chain Networks). However, they often show a lack of semantic precision and, they are sometimes incomplete. In this paper, we present an approach to overcome semantic inconsistencies and incompleteness of the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model and hence, improve its usefulness and expand the application domain. First, we describe a literal OWL specification of SCOR concepts (and related tools), built with intention to preserve the original approach in the classification of process reference model entities and hence, to enable effectiveness of usage in original contexts. Next, we demonstrate the system for its exploitation, in specific - tools for SCOR framework browsing and rapid supply chain process configuration. Then, we describe the SCOR-FULL ontology and its intended use. Finally, we elaborate the potential impact of the presented approach, to interoperability of systems in Supply Chain Networks.

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).

A case of using the Semantic Interoperability Framework for custom orthopedic implants manufacturing

Abstract The efficiency and effectiveness of the daily practice in orthopedic surgery depend on the availability, interoperability and unique access to a wide set of information, related to the patient’s medical record and diagnosis, domain knowledge and available resources and staff. The most important of the tangible resources, needed for the therapeutic or preventive actions are orthopedic implants. In some cases, the implants may be highly complex and customized products, which need to be manufactured (assembled) on basis of the above information in a shortest possible timeframe. In this paper, the case of the custom orthopedic implants manufacturing is described from the perspective of the collaborative enterprising, with special consideration of the interoperability issues of the involved enterprise collaboration. It is shown how the previously developed Semantic Interoperability Framework can be used to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing and other relevant processes.

LOCAL ONTOLOGIES FOR SEMANTIC INTEROPERABILITY IN SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORKS

Most of the issues of current supply chain management practices are related to the challenges of interoperability of relevant enterprise information systems (EIS). In this paper, we present the ontological framework for semantic interoperability of EISs in supply chain networks, based on Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, its semantic enrichment and mappings with relevant enterprise conceptualizations. In order to introduce the realities of the enterprises into this framework, namely their models, we define and implement the approach to generation of local ontologies, based on the databases of their EISs. Also, we discuss on the translation between semantic and SQL queries, a process in which implicit semantics of the EISs databases and explicit semantics of the local ontologies become inter-related.

On the formal definition of the systems’ interoperability capability: an anthropomorphic approach

The extended view of enterprise information systems in the Internet of Things (IoT) introduces additional complexity to the interoperability problems. In response to this, the problem of systems’ interoperability is revisited by taking into the account the different aspects of philosophy, psychology, linguistics and artificial intelligence, namely by analysing the potential analogies between the processes of human and system communication. Then, the capability to interoperate as a property of the system, is defined as a complex ability to seamlessly sense and perceive a stimulus from its environment (assumingly, a message from any other system), make an informed decision about this perception and consequently, articulate a meaningful and useful action or response, based on this decision. Although this capability is defined on the basis of the existing interoperability theories, the proposed approach to its definition excludes the assumption on the awareness of co-existence of two interoperating systems. Thus, it establishes the links between the research of interoperability of systems and intelligent software agents, as one of the systems’ digital identities.

Enabling interoperability as a property of ubiquitous systems for disaster management

With the advent of the future Internet-of-Things, and consequent increasing complexity and diversification of the Enterprise Information Systems landscape, the interoperability becomes a critical requirement for its scalability and sustainable development. This is especially evident in the research and practice of disaster management which involves highly heterogeneous set of institutions and organisations responsible for delivering emergency response services, as they often fail to rise up to the task, with the lack of proper collaboration featuring as a main culprit. Can the current considerations of the interoperability paradigm meet these challenges? In this paper, we define the interoperability as a property of ubiquitous systems. In doing so, we use the anthropomorphic perspective to formally define this property’s enabling attributes (namely, awareness, perceptivity, intelligence and extroversion), with the objective of taking the initial steps towards the Theory of Interoperability-of-Everything. The identified concepts and their interrelations are illustrated by the presented I-o-E ontology.

Explication and semantic querying of enterprise information systems

Many researches show that the ability of independent, heterogeneous enterprises’ information systems to interoperate is related to the challenges of making their semantics explicit and formal, so that the messages are not merely exchanged, but interpreted, without ambiguity. In this paper, we present an approach to overcome those challenges by developing a method for explication of the systems’ implicit semantics. We define and implement the method for the generation of local ontologies, based on the databases of their systems. In addition, we describe an associated method for the translation between semantic and SQL queries, a process in which implicit semantics of the EIS’s databases and explicit semantics of the local ontologies become interrelated. Both methods are demonstrated in the case of creating the local ontology and the semantic querying of OpenERP Enterprise Resource Planning system, for the benefit of the collaborative supply chain planning.