Semantic-oriented support of interoperability between production information systems

The paper proposes an approach to support the interoperability in Build-To-Order (BTO) production networks. The approach covers technological, problem and semantic levels: (i) interoperability between different systems within one company or in several companies, (ii) distributed product data management and (iii) design and development of integrated products based on required functions. In the approach the knowledge is represented via ontologies described using Object-Oriented Constraint Network (OOCN) formalism. This formalism combines the advantages of object-oriented information representation and constraint networks. Since the problems to be solved are presented in the same formalism but may differ in structure and in values of variables, an on-the-fly problem modification and solving via an adaptive service are proposed. The approach is illustrated via an example from automotive industry and possible future work including the development of a methodology for customer-oriented complex product configuration based on its required functionality.