Supporting Interoperability of Virtual Factories

Abstract

Abstract. Cloud based BPM systems have provided SMEs with BPM in a payper-use manner. Previous work has focused on looking at cloud based BPM from the perspectives of distribution of data, activity or/and process engine and related issues, such as scalability of system, security of data, distribution of data and activities. To achieve business agility, business process collaboration needs to seamlessly connect local BPM systems and cloud based BPM systems. In this paper we look at BPM in the cloud from a user perspective: how can they support the fast pace of change of business collaborations and how to determine a resilience of a cloud based BPM solution. The paper proposes a distribution solution in which the shared process model can be discovered at the design time from a process repository, and adapted to local needs. At run-time the selected collaborative process model provides a global view, but is executed by multiple mashup engines of the participating parties. A real world case is used to explain our design. Collaborative processes for incident notifications is built to work across different organizations. Resilience of the solution are analysed accordingly.

Discrete Event Simulation and Virtual Reality Use in Industry: New Opportunities and Future Trends

“…The interoperability of the Virtual Factory is also the concern of Xu et al [32] who identify three levels of interoperability: the data level, service level, and process level. In order to address interoperability, Xu et al [32] document a number of semantic languages and research project outputs that aim to facilitate the communication between subsystems that compose the three layers.…”

“…The potential interoperability issues between software components that comprise VR systems and DES software have been highlighted by Tolio et al [31] and Xu et al [32]. The conclusion of both works was to suggest that there needs to be an agreed formalism for object description and data interchange.…”

“…Radkowski and Hilus [53] investigate the use of unified modeling language to describe DES control models to a level suitable for interpretation by VR applications. Xu et al [32] provide an overview of semantics and languages for use in the virtual factory and potentially for linking VR DES to wider factory systems. Kádár et al [34] also propose an ontology-based framework for VR DES combined operation in a factory environment.…”

“…By its very nature, VR DES may be servitized in its mode of operation allowing geographically dispersed users to collaborate in a project; it also allows the possibility to "hire out" VR DES functionality, at a software level, for a particular amount of time. In linking together, VR DES and the internet-connected production line will require standardization in communication protocols; the use of ontology and semantics as outlined in the work by Xu et al [32] and Kádár et al [34] are two contributions toward this interoperability goal.…”

Supporting Predictive Maintenance in Virtual Factory

“…Thus, it cannot deal with the challenges of dynamic market demands, competitions and short product lifecycle [2]. To overcome the challenges, modern collaborative industry is shifting towards the concept of Collaborative Networks 4.0 [2][3][4].…”