Analysis method for conceptual context modeling applied in production environments

Abstract

Context-awareness is a well-accepted approach to adapt applications to the needs of a user. Yet, it is hardly used in enterprise information systems, especially in production environments. Production environments are complex due to multi-faced actors, products, manufacturing equipment and processes. Hence, the modeling of context is sophisticated, particularly to determine relevant context. The goal of this paper is to facilitate and support context modeling in production environments. Our contribution is an analysis method for conceptual context modeling suited for Industry 4.0 and an extensible engineering context model as starting point for modeling of different Industry 4.0 use cases. The analysis model consists of a graphical notation for a simplified and abstract context model and a template-based concept to detail the model. Furthermore, we evaluate the approach by modeling a real use case from the car manufacturing industry.