Information management in production planning for a virtual enterprise

The information management of a virtual enterprise is a current research challenge. X-CITTIC, a production planning and control system for semiconductor manufacturing virtual enterprises, is an on-going ESPRIT project. A concept for an information management component is proposed for the project, based on object-oriented technology. Its architecture and detailed design are presented in the paper according to Rumbaugh's OMT (Object Modelling Technique). To capture all of its important aspects, three kinds of model object, dynamic and functional are presented to describe it from different viewpoints.