Ontology alignment for networked enterprise information system interoperability in supply chain environment

Abstract

Supply chain interactions are complex in general and can be viewed as a networked enterprise. In this paper, we address information system interoperability for exploring and analysing the interoperation problem in heterogeneous networked enterprise systems. We propose a common shared ontology-based framework for networked enterprise interoperability for the context of information flows in supply chain interactions. A supply chain ontology, supply chain operations reference (SCOR) ontology, is developed based on the SCOR model. Subsequently, by formalising the similar concepts of SCOR ontology and product ontology, ONTO-PDM, using description logic, we propose a product-centric supply chain ontology framework for facilitating the interoperation between all enterprise applications involved in an extended supply chain. A case study of a supply chain make-to-order process is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.

Keywords:

• ontology alignment
• SCOR
• supply chain
• interoperability
• networked enterprise
• ONTO-PDM

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

Our work is supported by Chinese Science and Technology Support Plan Project (2011BAB02B01), Chinese National Natural Science Foundation Project (51175463 and 61175125) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation Project (Y1110414).

Notes

1.  http://www.supply-chain.org.

2.  http://scm-institute.org/.

3.  http://www.productivityapex.com/products/scor.asp.

4.  http://protege.stanford.edu/.

5.  http://clarkparsia.com/pellet.