The Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture

Abstract

This paper presents the basic concepts which comprise the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture along with a description of its development and use. This architecture provides the capability for modelling the human component as well as the manufacturing or customer service component of any enterprise in addition to the information and control system component. this latter component is the major focus of most reference architectures and models available today for computer integrated manufacturing or complete enterprise study.The paper describes a new and unique method for defining the place of the human in the computer integrated plant or enterprise. It also develops the concept of customer service which allow the architecture, which was originally developed for computer integrated manufacturing, to be extended to define the development and operation of any enterprise regardless of the industry or field of endeavor involved.A review of important future work needed in this field is also presented.