Zhongjie Wang

Genetic algorithm for collaboration cost optimization-oriented partner selection in virtual enterprises

Partner selection is a key step to organize a well-designed virtual enterprise in which collaboration cost between partners is considered to be one of the most important performance indicators that influence the run-time efficiency of virtual enterprise. However, in current solutions there is usually a lack of precise and comprehensive considerations on the collaborations, which makes the selection results not optimal enough. The paper elaborately analyses various collaboration patterns between distributed partners with the corresponding evaluation metrics for collaboration time and cost. A genetic algorithm solution for collaboration cost optimization-oriented partner selection is then developed. The performance of this algorithm is demonstrated by a case, and the results of this trial demonstrate the real life capability of the algorithm.

STCIM: a dynamic granularity oriented and stability based component identification method

Among recent developments in the field of software reuse has been the increasing reuse of coarse-grained components, and it has been proved that granularity has great impact on components reuse performance. However, previous studies have ignored rigorous and effective methods to support coarse-grained component identification and design, particularly granularity optimization design. In this paper, a stability-based component identification method, STCIM, is presented to resolve this problem. First a feature-oriented component model and the corresponding component granularity metrics are briefly presented. By establishing mappings between business model space and component space, component design process may be regarded as the process of decomposition, abstraction and composition of business model elements, with four different mapping strategies discussed to obtain dynamic component granularities. Furthermore, it is thought that component granularity is closely correlative to the stability of business models: the more stable the business model, the larger the corresponding component granularity may be. A metrics for model stability with three factors, i.e., number of isomers, stability entropy and isomer similarity, is presented, and the corresponding component identification algorithm based on Most Stable Set is discussed in details. Finally a practical case is described to validate the method in this paper.

Normal forms and normalized design method for business service

Service-oriented computing (SOC) is thought to be an effective way to tackle complex Web-based business collaborations between enterprises in e-business environment, but in practice it didnt reach the expectation. Current researches mainly focus on technological aspects, such as service publication, discovery, binding, and composition, etc, while lack in effective ways to support service identification and design before they are to be published and discovered by other enterprises. This paper analyzes the relationships between business service and inter-/intra-enterprise business processes, discusses what kind of properties a good service should have, and accordingly presents a service normal form (SNF) and the corresponding service normalization method. In this method, the way of how to identify normalized services from business process models, and how to create close mapping between services and legacy component-based information systems, are emphatically discussed. This method provides great significance to help enterprises identifying and designing valuable business services

Component reuse based agile reconfiguration for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in manufacturing enterprises

Continuously changing business environments require Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems of modern manufacturing enterprises have the ability of agile reconfiguration to adapt to changes with quick responses. Based on a deep analysis of benefits that component technology provides to agile reconfiguration, the paper presents the architecture of component-based ERP systems in which the high efficiency for system construction and reconfiguration is supported by multiple grained component coexistence. A unified feature-oriented component model and the full life cycle of component-based ERP are then presented, and the paper expatiates on the process and artifices of ERP agile reconfiguration based on component reuse, with emphasis on component matching and selection problem, in which an approximately optimal component set is chosen from a component library by minimizing the matching cost to adapt to changes. Finally a practical case, i.e. reconfigurations on a production planning system, is put forward to validate the effectiveness of this method.

Agility Evaluation for Component-based Software Systems *

Frequent modifications on component-based software systems are required to accommodate to the rapid changes of external requirements, and the ability of agilely adapt to changes is considered as an important metrics for these systems. Aiming at this problem, our main concern is to present an agility evaluation method for component-based systems. In this method, interior structure of a component is explored and dependencies between features (as the basic units of components) are considered as the essential causes for change propagation between components. Then, the diversities between different types of dependencies are strictly clarified and defined as change dependency degree, with change propagation graph and reachability matrix adopted to precisely measure agility. Several quantitative metrics, i.e., change scope, change closeness and change quality, are presented to evaluate agility elaborately. Finally a practical case is put forward to validate the approach.

Service-Oriented Infrastructure for Collaborative Product Design in ETO Enterprises

Engineer-to-order (ETO) products have some unique characteristics on their production process and supply chain models. These characteristics require that their design process should not only export product structure and production procedure information, but also consider other objectives, e.g., feasibility of production planning, cost, quality, service, etc. Different roles, including customers, suppliers, and related departments in ETO enterprises, should be integrated closely for frequent collaborations by exchanging mass of data during design process. To address this issue, in this paper we introduce a Web service based infrastructure for ETO product collaborative design, in which related product design systems, e.g., CAD, CAPP and PDM, and related business information systems, e.g., ERP, are all partially encapsulated as basic Web services, and according to several primitive service interoperability patterns, these services are collaborated together to realize data and process integration with the aid of enterprise service bus (ESB), consequently forms an integrated design ecosystem, to improve design efficiency for ETO products