A business repository enrichment process: A case study for manufacturing execution systems

Abstract

A key characteristic of the software applications supporting manufacturing business processes is their heterogeneity. This is due not only to differences in their development and deployment, but also to the variety of processes and actors in complex organizations. Heterogeneity at the semantic level is one of the major problems in any process of interoperability and/or integration. There is therefore a need for developing new approaches and methods to ensure interoperability between different software solutions. In the context of a case study with a consortium of MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) publishers, we propose a semantic alignment process of repositories used in the construction of a MES solution called “MES On Demand”, using multiple applications and driven by business processes. Through the study of semantic heterogeneities, we use an enrichment-based alignment for business repositories applied to ISO/IEC 62264. Finally, we evaluate the contribution of this approach to enterprise maturity in the application of standards and reference models, using Nascio’s Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model. This proposal, which is useful for practitioners and experts, is a contribution to academic study on semantic alignment for master interoperability.