Enterprise Interoperability: A Critical Survey Of Modelling Methods With Special Concern To Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Abstract The authors deem that no modeling method actually allows to completely describe all the aspects of a manufacturing system: each method is capable to represent manufacturing systems from specific and, whatsoever, partial views. The paper provides a survey to demonstrate previous assumptions. It demonstrates that modeling methods provide partially ‘‘overlapping‘’ modeling capabilities and, furthermore, that each method, depending on its modeling constructs, is capable to provide selective perceptions of a manufacturing system that emphasize some particular aspects and disregard others. Based on survey analysis, the authors discuss on pragmatic approaches to deal with enterprise integration at business level. Copyright ©2001 IFAC