Ontology approach for the interoperability of networked enterprises in supply Chain environment

Abstract

The System-of-Systems (SoS) paradigm is widely recognized and has become quite studied since a decade, as it has potentially practical applicability in systems engineering. SoS-organized systems could make efficient use of resources from a variety of domains. In this paper, we are studying one of the typical forms of networked enterprises: the supply chain. We will apply the SoS paradigm to this kind of "so-called" system-of-networked enterprises and we will then explore and analyze the interoperation problem in heterogeneous networked enterprises systems. Focusing on information flows in supply chain, we are proposing an approach for developing a supply chain ontology for networked enterprises interoperability, based on an extension of the ONTO-PDM product ontology. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.