Resilient Ontology Support Facilitating Multi-Perspective Process Integration in Industry 4.0

Abstract

A major challenge for Industry 4.0 organizations is the mutual alignment of automation and information technology while increasing effectiveness and agility of processes. From a technological view, it requires architectures and systems coupling heterogeneous technologies, from an operations perspective, it requires context-sensitive representations. Ontologies do not only support alignment, but also integration and development processes. For the introduced ontology we utilize the multi-perspective RAMI4.0 framework, as it provides several layers and perspectives, including production and business processes. We suggest using Subject-oriented Business Process Management (S-BPM) models to represent executable processes, as they allow encapsulating industry standard-conform as well as stakeholder behavior. Thereby, the ontology backs perspective specific knowledge, and can be adapted as semantic baseline in a flexible way.