Ontology-Services Agent to Help in the Structural and Semantic Heterogeneity

There is a growing recognition that current manufacturing enterprises must be agile, that is, capable of operating profitably in a competitive environment of continuously changing customer demands. The use of a virtual enterprise (VE) is becoming increasingly prevalent, and that has been made possible, in part, due to the significant advances in communication and information technology in recent years. A manufacturing system is one of the competitive factors that forms an effective VE. Therefore, for manufacturers wishing to obtain a contract in VE, it is crucial to present attractive and competitive offers to other coalition members. There are several criteria to these offers, such as cycle time, fulfilment of due date or quick shipping date, cost, and quality assurance for the ordered products. Manufacturing system simulation could endorse the basic estimates of the criteria for the strategic offer. The distributed simulation model concept provides practical solutions to facilitate such a large-scaled precise simulation model in the VE environment, because it is constructed as the integration of several manufacturing simulation models of each production module in the factory. As a solution to realize this integration, we propose a Distributed Virtual Factory (DVF) concept that consists of distributed precise simulation models connected by several synchronization mechanisms named Time Bucket algorithms. A DVF enables precise evaluations of the whole manufacturing system, especially in terms of the material flows. In this study, we introduce an Activity Based Costing (ABC) method into the DVF architecture to estimate the detailed cost analysis of the products. The methodology facilitates strategic enterprise management to prepare the request for the bids in the VE environment. The effectiveness of the proposed concept in agile manufacturing is discussed with simulation experiments.

Due to the advent of knowledge-based economy and virtual enterprise business model, the enterprises get the knowledge not only from themselves but also from others. In order to support knowledge retrieval in virtual enterprises, the distributed case-based reasoning system (DCBRs) plays an important role for enabling knowledge-driven virtual enterprises. Hence, this paper aims to develop a mechanism for ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning using characteristic of ontology and a proposed multistage algorithm, to effectively support knowledge retrieval within the virtual enterprise environment. This study involves the following tasks: (i) designing an ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning architecture and procedure, (ii) developing techniques related to the ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning, and (iii) implementing an ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning mechanism. In developing techniques related to the ontology-based distributed case-based reasoning, which involves definition and representation of user query model, definition and representation of case model, definition and establishment of case index structure, and development of distributed case retrieval and case adaptation methods.

Virtual enterprise oriented projects need the support of distributed project management system which concerns the collaboration of different departments and enterprises. In this chapter, we propose a multiagent system with negotiation strategies for project schedule control - a collaborative system framework wherein a distributed project can be scheduled dynamically by agents in the virtual enterprise environment. A prototype of the multiagent systems with the negotiation strategies is implemented by Java, JADE, FIPA-ACL, and the negotiation strategies are experimentally validated. It successfully demonstrates on the online coordination and resolution of scheduling dynamically while encountering unexpected events to meet each project participant’s requirements.

A single company cannot survive in today's global business environment without collaborating with others. A virtual enterprise is good practice for sharing core resources, experiences and information between companies with the same business goal. Through sharing product information, a company can prevent unnecessary spending in developing similar products that already exist. Although some attempts have been made to facilitate product searches, these methods are typically not suitable for structural product searches under virtual enterprise environments. In this work, an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) based structural product retrieval system for virtual enterprises is proposed to conquer this deficiency. A structural product is first transformed into component strings using a structure parsing algorithm. The structural similarity measurement between a product query and target product is designated and evaluated using a component matching algorithm and fuzzy mode composition. XML technology is used as the data exchange standard so that variant product information can be exchanged smoothly among heterogeneous database platforms. A comparison with a general Boolean search approach shows that the proposed structural search method can help users find desired product information more quickly and correctly. It is believed that virtual enterprise partners can benefit from using this system to increase their competitive advantage.

Virtual enterprise (VE) is such an effective and collaborative way for today's enterprise to jointly face the great pressures from quickly growing globalization and world-wide market competition. In order for enterprises to quickly form a VE and perfectly achieve interactions among the VE's members, a conceptual model based-on enterprise core capability and an agent-based architecture are proposed in this paper. Furthermore, a wiki & blog-based knowledge-sharing mechanism and its prototype system are designed for supporting enterprises to inter-communicate, share knowledge and manage knowledge within a VE environment.

An information management system for production planning in virtual enterprises

A transaction is a bilateral exchange between two parties in which goods are delivered in return for payment. In virtual enterprise environments, transactions are the principal means of collaboration among the enterprise members, as well as the mechanism with which the enterprise provides its products to its external clients. In this paper we examine the concept of transactions in virtual enterprises. We define transactions as recursive processes (similar to supply chains), and we formalize the concept of transaction cost. We then examine transaction failure and transaction risk, which lead us to the concept of transaction expected loss. The overall goal is to allow enterprise members to launch those transactions that minimize their expected losses. We also discuss how initiating redundant transactions can further reduce expected losses.KeywordsProduction PlanCost ModelExpected LossVirtual EnterpriseTransaction ModelThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Industrial enterprises are required to show an increasing agile behaviour in order to participate in temporary alliances (virtual enterprises) and to keep their competitiveness while facing new emerging manufacturing trends such as mass customization. The required agility should not be confined to the high-level management aspects, but has to be a characteristic supported at all levels of the enterprise. A particularly challenging area is the shop-floor agility. Starting with a set of real world case studies, this paper presents the motivations for a proposal of a re-engineering methodology, introduces and characterises its main steps, and then focus on code generation for the control/supervision system of evolving shopfloors.KeywordsAssembly LineShop FloorMass CustomizationVirtual EnterpriseManufacture Execution SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This paper describes the terminology of Virtual Enterprise Environments as a construct to enable the combination of spaces for open innovation and Virtual Enterprises. This shall contribute towards better management of innovation processes in collaborative networks. Consequently this includes the Business Innovation Space and the Value Production Space, which are shared by the collaborating enterprises. Initial attempts are made to characterize the schematics of these spaces and their interactions.KeywordsVirtual Enterprise EnvironmentOpen InnovationInnovation SpaceValue Production Spacemodelling innovation processes

When it comes to modeling social life, few paradigms are more suitable than multi-agent systems (MASs). MASs have helped gain a deeper understanding of countless social phenomena (through agent-based social simulation) that were hard to study using analytical approaches. More recently, MASs have evolved into handy assistants to the human users they can act on behalf of. One example of such use of MASs is in implementing virtual enterprises (VEs), i.e. temporary alliances of geographically distributed organizations created in order to exploit a specific business opportunity. Competition, negociation and cooperation mechanisms are usually copresent in the creation and operation of VEs, with individual members being simultaneously autonomous self-interested entities and parts of a larger whole, the benefits of which they are also trying to maximize. In turn, VEs have application areas such as commerce, manufacturing, and tourism, offering important contributions to the universal contemporary strife to obtain customer-driven products while optimizing time, costs, and quality. In this chapter, we aim to review the most important applications of MASs in social sciences, with a focus on VEs as a special case.

Nowadays, virtual enterprise (VE) is an important paradigm of business management in an agile environment. VE exists in several kinds of business organization through multi-layered product flows. It is obvious that a mechanism, through which these different enterprises can be integrated together, is required for the better management of VE. In this paper, we focus on the negotiation process in VE formulation as a basic research to clarify its effective management. Each enterprise in VE is defined as a software agent with multi-utilities, and three types of primitive business models are targeted, such as the vertically integrated business model, horizontally specialized business model and hybrid business model. We develop a three-layered VE model for computer simulation so as to clarify VE formulation dynamism with the proposed negotiation mechanism.

Distributed agent-mediated knowledge management (AMKM) has attracted much attention as a way to improve knowledge sharing across the world. In AMKM, many systems can potentially interact with each other and share their knowledge while keeping their own ontology such as health care systems that handle problems of distributed experience and search engines that search distributed information in the Internet. The main problem for those systems is to make the agents understand each other adequately. Concept learning is an enabling technique. However, the semantic heterogeneity problem may occur. That is, those concepts may have been defined differently in separate ontologies and conflicts become inevitable. In order to overcome the problem of semantic heterogeneity, we present a mechanism for concept learning based on social networking that can be used to effectively resolve possible conflicts that may occur during the learning process.

Modern large-scale information systems often use multiple database management systems, not all of which are necessarily relational. In recent years, NoSQL databases have gained acceptance in certain domains while relational databases remain de facto standard in many others. Many "legacy" information systems also use relational databases. Unlike relational database systems, NoSQL databases do not have a common data model or query language, making it difficult for users to access data in a uniform manner when using a combination of relational and NoSQL databases or simply several different NoSQL database systems. Therefore, the need for uniform data access from such a variety of data sources becomes one of the central problems for data integration. In this paper we provide an overview of the main problems, methods, and solutions for data integration between relational and NoSQL databases, as well as between different NoSQL databases. We focus mainly on the problems of structural, syntactic, and semantic heterogeneity and on proposed solutions for uniform data access, emphasizing some of the more recent proposals.

Virtual enterprise is the outcome of fierce competition in the world market. The selection of partners is one of the key factors for the success of virtual enterprises. Multi-agent system is an incompact agent federation composed of many agents, with its characteristics identical to virtual enterprises. It is, therefore, reasonable and effective to apply to the selection of enterprises' partner. The issue of trust is a hot topic in multi-agent system. The present trust model cannot well solve the problem of identifying the initial trust value of applicant agents. Moreover, there is room for improvement as to the calculation of agent trust value. This study puts forward a new trust management model based on multi-agent system. In the model, a fuzzy algorithm is used to calculate the initial value of the agent instead of a static definition. In addition, an independent validation module is used to test information reliability. Therefore, the problems of identifying initial trust value can be solved. Through system simulation, it is noted that based on the trust management model the cooperation rate has been enhanced and individual agent's income has risen by a big margin.

New advancements in computers and information technologies have yielded novel ideas to create more effective virtual collaboration platforms for multiple enterprises. Virtual enterprise (VE) is a collaboration model between multiple independent business partners in a value chain and is particularly suited to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The most challenging problem in implementing VE systems is ineffcient and inflexible data storage and management techniques for VE systems. In this research, an ontology-based multi-agent virtual enterprise (OMAVE) system is proposed to help SMEs shift from the classical trend of manufacturing part pieces to producing high-value-added, high-tech, innovative products. OMAVE targets improvement in the flexibility of VE business processes in order to enhance integration with available enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The architecture of OMAVE supports the requisite flexibility and enhances the reusability of the data and knowledge created in a VE system. In this article, a detailed description of system features along with the rule-based reasoning and decision support capabilities of OMAVE system are presented. To test and verify the functionality and operation of this system, a sample product was manufactured using OMAVE applications and tools with the contribution of three SMEs.