Dynamic manufacturing network – from flat semantic graphs to composite models

During last years, the federated interoperability framework (FIF) has been developed by Airbus Group Innovation (AGI) for establishing sustainable Product and Process data interoperability. FIF combines usage of open standards for Manufacturing, Information Systems (IS) and Information & Communication Technologies (ICT). FIF evolvability was demonstrated by addressing successively Concurrent Engineering and Collaborative Product design in Virtual Enterprises. Due to the considered complex systems, FIF uses Enterprise Modelling (EM) and Model Driven Approach (MDAp) for preparing and building operational interoperability. Interconnected enterprise platforms behaviour and data flows are derived from business logic models. When exchanging data, FIF prevents data loss and semantic inconsistency relying on ontology: a semantic hyper-graph is produced per collaboration. Equivalent constructs of all the languages used in the MDAp are mapped for conceptualisation, design, development and realisation. But it requires more when addressing the complexity of the considered systems. Using semantic graphs and descriptive logic is not suited when dealing with multi-scale models and the various breakdowns with different granularity. This paper describes an innovative approach for extending the FIF, relying on modelling over UML2/SysML and introduces mereotopology. Usage is illustrated with a comprehensive use case combining Manufacturing 4.0 and PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) of the future.