The essence of the process specification language

In all types of communication, the ability to share information is often hindered because the meaning of that information can be affected drastically by the context in which it is viewed and interpreted. This is especially true among manufacturing simulation systems because of the growing complexity of manufacturing information and the increasing need to exchange this information not only among different simulation systems but also between simulation systems and systems that perform different functions (e.g., process planning, scheduling, etc.). Different manufacturing functions may use different terms to mean the exact same concept or use the exact same term to mean very different concepts. Often, the loosely defined natural language definitions associated with the terms contain much ambiguity that doesn't make these differences evident and/or do not provide enough information to resolve the differences. A solution to this problem is the development of a taxonomy, or ontology, of manufacturing concepts and terms along with their respective formal and unambiguous definitions. The Process Specification Language (PSL) (Version 1.0) developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology identifies, formally defines, and structures the semantic concepts intrinsic to the capture and exchange of discrete manufacturing process information. As the use of information technology in manufacturing operations has matured, the capability of software applications to interoperate has become increasingly important. Initially, translation programs were written to enable communication from one specific application to another, although not necessarily both ways. As the number of applications has increased and the information has become more complex, it has become much more difficult for software developers to provide translators between every pair of applications that need to exchange information. Standards-based translation mechanisms have simplified integration for some manufacturing software developers by requiring only a single translator to be developed between their respective software product and the interchange standard. By only developing this single translator, the application can interoperate with a wide variety of other applications that have a similar translator between that standard and their application. This challenge of interoperability is especially apparent with respect to manufacturing process information. Many manufacturing engineering and business software applications use process information, including manufacturing simulation, production scheduling, manufacturing process planning, workflow, business process reengineering, product realization process modeling, and project management. Each of these applications utilizes process information in a different way, so it is not surprising that these applications' representations of process information are different as well. Traditional approaches to …