1. CROSS-DISCIPLINARY COMMUNICATION APPROACHES AND ONTOLOGIES : FROM THE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT TO THE CONSTRUCTION WORKS - Example of Supply Chain Management -
Prof A.F. CUTTING-DECELLE, Evry University,
IUT Organisation and Production Management Department, EVRY, F
Dr. L. POUCHARD, Computer Science and Mathematics Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Department of Energy (US)
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2. CONTENTS OF THE PRESENTATION
- Introduction
- A cross-disciplinary communication approach : Supply chain
- A supply chain scenario
Management of the information exchanges in the SC : problems faced
The Process Specification Language (PSL)
- Management of the SC information exchanges with PSL (X-SLANG)
- Conclusion / perspectives
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INTRODUCTION
SUPPLY CHAIN : example of a cross-functional activity between organisations and companies involved in the construction process :
Suppliers of industrial products
Construction company
Subcontractors
Transport
Retailers, …
- Analysis made in terms of :
- information flows
- information and knowledge exchanges
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4. A CROSS-DISCIPLINARY COMMUNICATION APPROACH : SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Main features of a supply chain (manufacturing - construction) :
- converging chain directing all materials to the construction site
- “construction factory” : set up around one single product
- temporary chain
- 4 major roles of SCM in construction : (not exclusive)
* reduce costs and duration of activities on the site
* reduce costs of logistics, lead time and inventory
* increase the concurrency between activities
* integrated management of the site production
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Complexity of the construction SC : focused on the informational aspect
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6. Supply chain information identification and modelling :
 Analysed on a Supply chain scenario
Project IMCRC X-SLANG, Univ. of Loughborough, UK
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7. Supply chain management issues :
A SUPPLY CHAIN SCENARIO
Supply chain management issues :
Policy - partnership not adversarial
Information exchange / sharing - must exist or should be implemented
Information flow requirements - accurate, timely and in coordinated fashion with minimum distortion
Specific information applications – Order processing; Demand forecasting and Management information may be considered for controlling a supply chain
Use of “industrial products” on a construction site : knowledge related to the product different according to the actor of the construction project
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8. A cross-disciplinary supply chain scenario :
Encompasses
Construction company
Construction site
Manufacturer
Retailer
Transporter
initiates most of the activities
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9. Cross-disciplinary supply chain (high level) functions :
 Construction company: receives order; places order; prepares payments; releases payment etc.
 Manufacturer: processes order; despatches goods to customer; prepares payments to suppliers; obtains remittance from the customer etc.
Transporter: receives shipment order; collects and delivers goods; obtains remittance from the customer etc.
 Retailer: receives order; processes order; delivers goods; places order
to distributors; prepares payments to suppliers; obtains remittance
from the customer etc.
 Construction site: receives delivery notification; confirms receipt of goods;
returns damaged goods; releases undamaged goods to users etc.
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10. Approach followed for the scenario :
• List of the processes for the different nodes  
• IDEF3 process model
• Analysis of the information flows between the process for the different nodes
• Identification of the contents of the flows : example
• Process ontology needed for the scenario
• Correspondences between the ontologies of the different nodes
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PROCESS LIST
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12. IDEF3 process representation :
Construction Company
Top level IDEF3 process schematic
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A brief system configuration of sharing concepts/information within the supply chain scenario
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14. Typical information structure definition :
Purchase order Form
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15. MANAGEMENT OF THE INFORMATION EXCHANGES IN THE SC :
PROBLEMS FACED
- SCM = integration of suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, so that
merchandise is produced in the right quantities, at the right location,
at the right time
==> BIG problem for the SC partners to share a common knowledge :
vocabulary, common interpretation of the content of a delivery
document : between the supplier and the sub-contractor
- for delivery of a component at a given place, at a given date,
- under a specific packaging : pallet filled in the right order
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Need of a common ontology :
- to provide a terminology shared by all
- to define the meaning of the terminology in an unambiguous way
(use of First Order Logic)
- to develop a set of axioms capturing properties and constraints
of the terminology, in order to enable an automatic deduction from
the SC knowledge
--> role of the axioms : integrity checking of the knowledge
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17. Example of a process ontology from the scenario :
built from the life cycle of the “order processing” process
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18. Example of a process ontology from the scenario :
also built from the structured list of processes
Network node number and name
Function name
Process name
5. Retailer
1. Order processing
Receive customer’s order
Analyse customer’s order
Notify acceptance of customer’s order
2. Distribution planning
and scheduling
Update goods delivery schedule
Update warehouse picking list
Update vehicle schedule
Notify goods delivery date to customer
3. Procuring
Collect goods from warehouse
4. Goods handling
Deliver goods to customer’s site
Notify delivery of goods to customer
Receive site’s notification on goods
5. Accounting
Send invoice to customer
Receive payment confirmation
Close customer’s account
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19. THE PROCESS SPECIFICATION LANGUAGE (PSL)
- A neutral, standard description of manufacturing processes :
ISO PSL standard
- Sets of definitions for processes expressed in the Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF is itself an ISO candidate standard)
- A grammar of processes
- A core ontology and extensions for each process domain
- Translation mechanisms between individual applications and PSL
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20. PSL is also an ontology of process definitions :
As an ontology, PSL is a computer-readable language that specifies :
concepts,
a terminology and definitions for manufacturing processes,
relationships between the above,
axioms constraining the use of definitions and relationships
All the above are machine-readable and processable.
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21. The architecture of PSL
Part 11 PSL Core
Parts 4 Definitional Extensions
Concept
Part 12 PSL Outer Core
Parts Theories
A core ontology
ISO
An outer core
ISO
Foundational theories
ISO , 14, 15
Definitional extensions
ISO xxx
Concept
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The PSL core
Everything in PSL is either an activity, an activity occurrence, an object, or a timepoint.
Primitive Categories
Activity
Activity_occurrence
An activity_occurrence is associated with a unique activity and begins and ends at specific points in time.
Timepoint
Object
Anything that is not a time-point, not an activity and not an activity occurrence. An object typically associates a timepoint and an activity-occurrence.
Primitive relations
Before
Occurrence_of
Participates_in
Primitive Functions
Beginof
Endof
Individuals
Inf+
Inf
PSL uses KIF (prefix) syntax. There are symbols reserved for KIF. The PSL concepts are also reserved in the language.
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23. Example: Activity and Activity Occurrence
“activity” and “activity_occurrence” are reserved notations and defined in PSL. ?a, ?occ are any variables that take values a, b, etc... An activity and activity occurrence are noted as:
(activity ?a), (activity_occurrence ?occ)
The activity (paint House1 PaintCanK1) is an instance of the class of painting activities.
(painting (paint House1 PaintCanK1)
An occurrence of this activity is not an instance of this activity. There may be several occurrences of this activity, starting and ending at different times:
(occurrence_of Occ1 (paint House1 PaintCanK1)) (occurrence_of Occ2 (paint House1 PaintCanK1)) (= (beginof Occ1) 11AM) (= (endof Occ1) 12AM) (= (beginof Occ2) 3PM) (= (endof Occ2) 5PM)
There may be another instance of the Painting activity denoted:
(Painting (paint House1 PaintCanK2), but this instance has no occurrence.
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24. The PSL Outer-core and its dependencies
Atomic Activity
Theory
Complex Activity
Activity Occurrence
Activity Occurrence Theory
Complex Activity Theory
Atomic Activity Theory
Subactivity Theory
Occurrence Tree Theory
Discrete State Theory
Part 12:
Outer Core
Part 12:
Outer Core
Discrete State
Theory
Occurence Tree Theory
Subactivity
Theory
Part 11: PSL Core
Part 11:
PSL Core
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25. The Foundational Theories
Duration and ordering theories
Duration
Subactivity occurrence ordering
Resource theories
Resource requirements
Resource sets
Activity performance theories
Activity performance
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26. Example of a Definitional Extension: the Activity Extension
Permuting Activity Trees
Compacting Branch Structure
Skeletal Activity Tree
Folding Branch Structure
Spectrum for Atomic Activities
Repetitive Branch Structure
Permuting Branch Structure
Atomic Activities: Downward Activities
Atomic Activities: Upward Concurrency
Preconditions for activities
Spectrum and Sub-tree Containment
Activity Trees and Re-ordering
Branch Structure and Ordering
Embedding Constraints for Activities
ISO
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27. Other Definitional Extensions
Temporal and State Extensions
Preconditions, Effects, Distribution, Variation, Embedded Activity Trees, Atomic Activities
Activity Ordering and Duration Extensions
Duration, Subactivity Occurrence Ordering, Envelops and Umbrae, Iterated Occurrence Ordering
Resource Roles
Resource Roles, Capacity-Based Concurrency, Reasoning About Resource Divisibility, Reasoning about Resource Usage
Resource Sets
Resource Set-Based Activities, Substitutable Resources, Homogenous Resource Sets, Inventory Resource Sets, Resource Pools
Processor Activity Extensions
Processor Activity, Resource Path
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28. Example: describing resources in an activity
The resource PaintCan K1 is a consumable resource. Represented in PSL, it is defined as:
A resource ?k1 is consumable by an activity ?a if any other activity ?b that also requires ?k1 is not possible to perform after ?a completes its occurrence.
((forall (?k1 ?a)
(consumable ?k1))
The definition of the consumable relation is found in Resource Roles:
defrelation consumable (?k1 ?a)
(forall (?a ?occ1 ?occ2)
(implies (and (common ?a ?b ?k1) (do ?a ?occ1 ?occ2))
(forall (?b ?occ3)
(implies
(and (branch ?occ3 ?b) (precedes ?occ2 ?occ3))
(not (poss ?b ?occ3))))))))
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Relations between Definitional Extensions and the Core and Outer Core theories
The Definitional Extensions are the ones to be used when expressing application processes in the PSL language
The Core, Outer Core and Foundational Theories support the Definitional Extensions and provide PSL with a formal logic. Machine reasoning upon the concepts in PSL is possible, and consistency to its roots can be proven thanks to those
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30. Who is the target audience for PSL?
End users :
Engineers, staff, anyone who needs to exchange process information among applications within their company
Collaborators from partnering companies
Suppliers and customers in vertical integration
Prescribers :
Software developers and vendors who produce the design tools, such as CAD, project planning softwares, etc… and need to incorporate PSL translators into their tools
Software developers and vendors to make their design tools PSL compliant
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31. Process Representation Studied for the development of PSL
<I-N-OVA> Constraint Model
Knowledge Interchange Format
O-Plan Task Formalism
OZONE
PAct
PAR2
Part 49
PERT Networks
Petri Nets
Process Flow Representation
Process Interchange Format V.1.1
Quirk Model
Visual Process Modeling Language
ACT
A Language for Process Specification
AP213
Behavior Diagrams
Core Plan Representation (CPR)
Entity-Relationship (E-R)
EPFL Petri Net Representation
Functional Flow Block Diagrams
Gantt Charts
Generalized Activity Networks (GAN)
Hierarchical Task Networks (HTN)
IDEF0
IDEF3
AND/OR Graphs
Data Flow Diagrams
Directed Graphs
State Transition Diagrams
Tree Structures
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The Standardization of PSL : ISO Process Specification Language (PSL)
An open standard in the International Standards Organization
Technical committee 184 : Industrial Automation Systems and Integration, sub-committee 4 (SC4) : Industrial Data.
A standard for the specification of process data
Does not represent product data
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Use of PSL :
Addresses semantic interoperability by providing process definitions usable by software
The process definitions can be used with reasoning or inference engines :
PSL can be used in a stack of interoperability standards to ensure semantic interoperability between the layers of the stack
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34. Standardization of ISO 18629 (as of June, 2005)
Part 1: PSL Overview
International Standard
Parts 1x: PSL Core Theories
Part 11: PSL Core
Part 12: PSL Outer Core
Part 13: Duration and Ordering Theories
Draft International Standard
Part 14: Resource Theories
Parts 2x: External Mappings: EXPRESS, XML, others
Part 3: Reserved according to SC 4 rules
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35. Parts 4x : Definitional Extensions
Part 41: Activity Extensions
Draft International Standard
Part 42: Temporal and State Extensions
Part 43: Activity Ordering and Relations
Part 44: Resource Extensions
CD ballot (completed)
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36. PSL and other standards
Standards are used in stacks :
For interoperability, standards or conformance to a standard must exist at all levels
PSL can be extended due to the richness of its concepts and the representation language (KIF)
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PSL in action :
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38. Process Exchange between two applications : general principles
Two tasks for each applications are required :
A syntactic translation:
The application native syntax is parsed to PSL syntax, for instance:
IDEF3 to KIF
C++ to KIF
Application concepts are expressed in KIF
A semantic translation:
KIF definitions are written for application concepts using PSL reserved terminology and relations
A 20-question wizard available at the National Institute of Standards and Technology assists in the process
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39. Process Exchange using PSL
Application A
expressed using
PSL concepts
own syntax &
terminology
Syntax into KIF
ontology
Application B
Parsing of relevant
PSL concepts
for Application B
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40. Expressing Application A concepts using PSL
(forall (?r)
(=> (inject_mold)
(rA ?r)))
(forall (?r ?a)
(<=> (rA ?r)
(exists (?a)
(reusable ?r ?a))))
Unconditional mapping to PSL concepts
(and resource ?r)
(reusable ?))) 1 2 3
Application A
expressed using
PSL concepts
own syntax &
terminology
Syntax into KIF
ontology 2 1 3
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41. Expressing Application B concepts using PSL
expressed using
PSL concepts
own syntax &
terminology
Syntax into KIF
ontology 4
One additional step:
inverting the table
(Application B => PSL)
(PSL => Application B) 4
Parsing of relevant
PSL concepts
for Application B
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The Twenty Questions Wizard at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
An aid to expressing an application’s concepts in PSL
A class name for your activity is required
At least one check per question is required
This mandatory approach allows compliance with PSL
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43. THE SC INFORMATION EXCHANGES WITH PSL (X-SLANG)
MANAGEMENT OF
THE SC INFORMATION EXCHANGES WITH PSL (X-SLANG)
Role of knowledge in SCM :
- for a SC approach on the basis of the shareable information
expressed in terms of product - process - resources
Towards a common SC language (1/2) :
- SC well suited to the application of grammatical models :
* each stage (inventory, transportation, … ) : discrete step
* SC often deeply layered
* many coordination constraints
* constituents of the SC are repetitive
- aim : develop a high level grammatical description of SCs
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Towards a common SC language (2/2) :
- grammatical description of SCs made of abstract constituents
providing a framework for expressing more specialised processes
- abstract grammar : very important since it provides the basis for
comparisons and changes
- SC lexicon : set of terms : plants, trucks, warehouses, purchase
orders, inventory or else manufacturing, storing, ordering
- SC grammar : way of organising the structure of the terms
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Role of PSL in the X-SLANG project :
- identify terms of a common vocabulary of the SC in order to
make software tools used by the actors of the SC interoperable
Stages of the work (X-SLANG project) :
- identify the different BP / technical processes of a real scenario
of information exchanges in SC
- process modelling : IDEF3 representation (graphical + language)
- identify terms of a common SC language
(based on PSL principles and ontologies)
- check the procedure on a real scenario
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PSL 20-question wizard
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PSL translation definition
of the concept
“Send_purchase_order”
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Tabulated PSL_wizard’s translation results of the 10 concepts (X-SLANG)
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49. CONCLUSION / PERSPECTIVES
Cross-disciplinary supply chain :
complex
creates interoperability problems
requires solution
Process identification of the SC scenario is an important stage towards this solution
IDEF3 process schematics of the scenario provides a step towards understanding the requirements of a language
PSL provides an important enabler to an improved interface
Project focused on an evaluation of the capability of PSL to meet the requirements identified in the IDEF3 process models
New work starting : enlarging the scope of the scenario, in collaboration with
NIST, ORNL
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
X-SLANG project : funded through the EPSRC IMCRC strategic research programme, Loughborough University, UK
Joint work by :
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Civil and Building Engineering departments of Loughborough University, UK
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, COmputer Science and Mathematics, USA (*)
University of Evry/IUT-Dept Organisation and Production Management, F
(*) The submitted manuscript has been authored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed for the U. S. DOE by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract No. DE-AC05-00OR Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.
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QUESTIONS ?
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