CROSSDISCIPLINARY COMMUNICATION APPROACHES AND ONTOLOGIES : FROM THE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT TO THE CONST

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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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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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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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Supply chain information identification and
modelling
? Analysed on a Supply chain scenario
Project IMCRC X-SLANG, Univ. of Loughborough, UK
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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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A cross-disciplinary supply chain scenario

• Encompasses
• Construction company
• Construction site
• Manufacturer
• Retailer
• Transporter
• Construction company
• initiates most of the activities

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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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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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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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Typical information structure definition
Purchase order Form
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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 gt 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 --gt role of
the axioms integrity checking of the knowledge
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Example of a process ontology from the scenario
built from the life cycle of the order
processing process
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Example of a process ontology from the scenario
also built from the structured list of processes
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THE PROCESS SPECIFICATION LANGUAGE (PSL)
- A neutral, standard description of
manufacturing processes ISO 18629 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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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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The architecture of PSL

• A core ontology
• ISO 18629-11
• An outer core
• ISO 18629-12
• Foundational theories
• ISO 18629-13, 14, 15
• Definitional extensions
• ISO 18629-4xxx

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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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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The PSL Outer-core and its dependencies

• 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
Subactivity Theory
Part 11 PSL Core
Part 11 PSL Core
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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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Example of a Definitional Extension the Activity
Extension
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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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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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• The definitions of entities and relations found
  in the definition of consumable are
• poss and precedes
• defined in Part 12, Outer Core, Theory of
  Occurrence Trees.
• branch
• defined in Part 41, Activity Extensions.
• common is defined in the requires.th
  (requirements theory)
• do is defined in the complex.th (complex activity
  theory)
• The symbols found in the definition of
  consumable belong to KIF
• defrelation, forall, implies, and, not

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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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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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Process Representation Studied for the
development of PSL

• ltI-N-OVAgt 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 18629 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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Standardization of ISO 18629 (as of June, 2005)
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(No Transcript)
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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
http//www.mel.nist.gov/psl
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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
• http//www.mel.nist.gov/psl/20questions.html

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Process Exchange using PSL
Parsing of relevant PSL concepts for Application
B
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Expressing Application A concepts using PSL
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Expressing Application B concepts using PSL
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One additional step inverting the
table (Application B gt PSL) (PSL gt
Application B)
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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 applications 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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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_wizards translation results of the
10 concepts (X-SLANG)
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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-AC05-00OR22725. 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 ?