Process Composition in Logistics: An Ontological Approach15

Abstract

Maintenance of complex engineering artifacts is a complex issue that often consumes significant resources. An even more critical situation is represented by the ad-hoc intervention that takes place in the presence of a failure. Autonomic Logistics Services (ALS) is an emerging approach that aims on the one hand to minimize periodical maintenance interventions and on the other to apply advanced diagnostics to anticipate unexpected failures, minimizing ad-hoc interventions. For the latter, ALS requires dynamic service composition, typically consisting of interleaved diagnostics and repairing operations. In the paper we propose an ontological framework supporting ALS and the dynamic composition of its ad-hoc maintenance programs. In particular we propose BPAL (Business Process Abstract Language) as the formal ontological foundation, derived from the (informal) BPMN proposed by the OMG.