Abstract
This paper describes the requirements analysis and system specification of an Order Promise module to be used as part of a broader Decision Support System for production and operations planning of a Virtual Enterprise. This work is part of a broader project with a particular focus on the microelectronics industry which is a good example of Virtual Enterprise, and where a quick response to the customers needs and to unpredictable changes in production conditions is considered a major factor for success. First, the analysis and specification are presented within a development framework that involves the study of organizational issues of semiconductor enterprises. The use of ontological engineering for supporting the communication and shared understanding of the system concepts is explained and a virtual enterprise ontology is outlined. Following the clarification of the concept of virtual enterprise, the generic techno-organizational requirements for the information system are derived. Finally, a specification of the global planning module and a more detailed one regarding the order promise module is presented.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
APICS. (1995) APICS Dictionary, 8th Edition American Production and Inventory Control Society, Inc.
Atherton, L. F. and Atherton, R. W. (1995) Wafer Fabrication Factory Performance and Analysis, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Bradshaw, J. M., Boose, J. H. and Shema, D. B. (1992) Steps Toward Sharable Ontologies for Design Rationale. AAAI-92 Design Rationale Capture and UseWorkshop, San Jose, CA, July.
Browne, J., Sackett, P. and Wortmann, H. (1994) Industry Requirements and Associated Research Issues in the Distributed planning and control systems 269 Extended Enterprise. European Workshop on Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering, IMSE'94, 12-14, Grenoble.
Chen, D. and Doumeingts, G. (1996) The GRAI-GIM reference model, architecture and methodology. Architectures for Enterprise Integration, P. Bernus, L. Nemes and T. Williams (eds), Chapman & Hall, London.
Ching, C., Holsapple, C. W. and Whinston, A. B. (1993) Modeling Network Organizations. A Basis for Exploring Computer Support Coordination Possibilities. Journal of Organizational Computing, 3(3), 279-300.
EIL (Enterprise Integration Laboratory). (1995) The Integrated Supply Chain Management Project. http// www.ie.toronto ca/EIL/eil.html).
Feireira, J. P. and Mendoncça, J. M. (1995) Modeling and Simulation of Manufacturing and Information Aspects of the Extended Enterprise. Proceedings of the International Conference on Improving Manufacturing Performance in a Distributed Enterprise. Advanced Systems and Tools, Edinburgh, U.K.
Fraser, J. and Macintosh, A. (1994) Enterprise State of the Art Survey-Part 3-Enterprise Modeling Methods, Ent/DE/3/1 0, University of Edinburgh.
Gruber, T. R. (1993) A Translation Approach to Portable Ontology Specifications. Knowledge Acquisition, 2, 199-220.
Guarino, N. and Giaretta, P. (1995) Ontologies and Knowledge Bases Towards a Terminological Clarification, Towards Very Large Knowledge Bases, IOS Press, Amsterdam.
Guarino, Nicola Formal Ontology, Conceptual Analysis and Knowledge Representation. To appear in International Journal of Human and Computer Studies, edited by N. Guarino and R. Poli.
Guimaraes, T. and Chair, J. (1994) Assessing Determinants of BPR Implementation Success, Institute for Technology Management, University of Tenessee.
Higgins, P., Roy, P. L. and Tierney, L. (1996) Manufacturing Planning and Control Beyond MRP II. Chapman & Hall, London.
Leachman, R. C. (1993) Modeling Techniques for Automated Production Planning in the Semiconductor Industry. In Optimization in Industry, T. A. Ciriani and R. C. Leachman (eds), John Wiley & Sons Ltd, New York.
Leachman, R. C., Liu, C. and Raar, D. J. (1996) IMPReSS. An Automated Production-Planning and Delivery-Quotation System at Harris Corporation-Semiconductor Sector INTERFACES, 26 1 January-February. 6-37.
Otte, R., Patrick, P. and Roy, M. (1996) Understanding CORBA (Common Object Request Brocker Architecture) Prentice Hall, New York.
Rumbaugh, J., Blaha, M., Premerlani, W., Eddy, F. and Lorensen, W. (1991) Object-Oriented Modeling and Design, Prentice Hall, New York.
Sematech, (1996) CIM Application Framework Specification, 1.3. SEMATECH, Austin, Texas.
Soares, A. L., Sousa, J. P., Azevedo, A. L. and Bastos, J. A. (1996) Virtual Enterprise Ontology-Version 1.0. INESC-UESP.
Soares, A. L. and Mendonça, J. M. (1996) Multiple-Perspective Knowledge Representation in Techno-Organizational Development Processes, in Manufacturing Agility and Hybrid Automation-I, Koubek and Karwowski (eds), IEA Press, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Tate, A. (1995) Towards a Plan Ontology, Technical Report AIAI-The University of Edinburgh.
Uschold, M. and Gruninger, M. (1996b) Ontologies Principles, Methods and Applications. Knowledge Engineering Review, 11(2), 93-136.
Uschold, M. and King, M. (1995) Towards a Methodology for Building Ontologies. Technical Report AIAI-TR-183, The University of Edinburgh.
Uschold, M., King, M., Moralee, S. and Zorgios, Y. (1996) The Enterprise Ontology. Technical Report AIAI-TR-195, The University of Edinburgh. http://www.aiai. ed.ac.uk./~entprise/enterprise/.
Vollmann, T. E., Berry, W. L. and Whybark, D. C. (1997) Manufacturing Planning And Control Systems, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Soares, A.L., Azevedo, A.L. & de Sousa, J.P. Distributed planning and control systems for the virtual enterprise: organizational requirements and development life-cycle. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 11, 253–270 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008967209167
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008967209167