On enhancing communication of the manufacturing service capability information using reference ontology

Abstract

A manufacturing service capability (MSC) model is essential for correct communication of MSC information between dynamic supply chain (DSC) partners. MSC information elicits service details such as locations, specialisations, capacities, certifications, and software and material processing capabilities. Presently, as in the case of web portal-enabled supply chain communications, this information is communicated using models that provide limited semantic precision. These models are also proprietary to specific industry communities; hence, access to MSC information across communities is limited. This article describes deployment of the reference-ontology-based semantic mediation approach using Web Ontology Language (OWL). The mediation introduces shared semantics that enhances access to and precision of proprietary MSC models encoded in relational databases. Detailed deployment steps are discussed using a manufacturing sourcing use case. In the first step, we analyse three alternative conventions for encoding proprietary MSC models into OWL and show that the ontology-oriented encoding convention is most suitable for semantic mediation in OWL. In the deployment step, single- or multi-community deployment is possible. It is shown that the single-community deployment enables precise and greater access to MSC information within the community, while the multi-community deployment additionally enables interoperable access to MSC information across the communities.