IFIP/IFAC Task Force on Enterprise Integration

IFIP/IFAC Task Force on
Architectures for Enterprise Integration

Task Force events:

Singapore (November 1994), Galway (April 1995), West Lafayette (June 1995) Heron Island (November 1995), San Francisco IFAC World Congress July 1996, Canberra IFIP World Congress (1996)

History of the IFAC/IFIP Task Force on Architectures for Integrating Manufacturing Activities and Enterprises

In 1990 IFIP and IFAC set up the Task Force (TF) on Architectures for Integrating Manufacturing Activities and Enterprises with the aim of defining and evaluating Enterprise Reference Architectures.

The timeliness of this move was marked by the fact that by that time several groups around the world had been working on the definition of reference architectures and there was no way to compare or evaluate the results. These groups included private organisations/ sw/hw vendors, academic research institutions, and standards bodies.

In its first triennium the TF produced a major report and several conference papers (see references). This is now available as a book [2].

Highlights of the study
completed in the first triennium (1990-93):

The identification of TWO types of enterprise reference architectures, those which describe the structure of the control-/information system of the enterprise, and those which provide a life-cycle model of how to carry out enterprise integration.
Detailed study of three important architectures of the latter type (CIM-OSA, GIM and Purdue Enterprise Reference Architectures).
Development of a matrix method by which it is possible to
- map concepts of one architecture to concepts of another and to
- identify the elements that a complete reference architecture must contain
- characterise the contribution of any architecture to a complete enterprise reference architecture.
- Recommendations for possible completion of available architectures either separately or by way of combining them into an encompassing Enterprise Reference Architecture.
It is important that the TF identified: the studied architectures could complement one another rather then compete.
- Recommendations to carry out case studies which will uncover in more detail the strengths and weaknesses of the presently available architectures.

Highlights of the study
completed in the second triennium (1993-96):

The Task Force continued its work as an IFAC Technical Committee ( TC MIA -- Architectures for Enterprise Integration) and as a Special Interest Group of IFIP TC5 with the same name.

Liaisons with relevant other IFIP and IFAC groups have been essential, and especially the liaison with ISO TC184 `Industrial Automation Systems and Integration' has been very important. TC184 SC5 appointed the Task Force as a Category A Liaison and the convener of the ISO TC184/SC5/WG1 , Mr Jim Nell has become corresponding member of the Task Force.

The Task Force has adopted the GERAM framework as a basis for requirements that any enterprise reference architecture should fulfill; GERAM is now being developed in detail and the result of the work will be reported at the IFIP and IFAC World Congress in 1996.

The Task Force is recruiting further members in view of extending the disciplinary base of the TF with the aim of keeping a balance of information technology (IS, SE), organisational and management, control engineering, economics, an socio-technical views.

The IFIP General Assembly in September 1996 approved the establishment of a new Working Group WG5.12 Architectures for Enterprise Integration that consists of the former members of the TC5 Special Interest group. This now continues to form the IFIP arm of the IFIP/IFAC Task Force.

The members of the Task Force from the major developers of reference architectures and modelling frameworks are now able to map their respective contributions to GERAM thereby making the contribution of each of them clear to the research and user community.

The area of work for the next triennium continues to be Enterprise Reference Architectures of both types, the evaluation of case studies, further detailed work on the definition of a complete reference architecture, the relationship of enterprise reference architectures and architectures of more limited scope, and various modelling issues. The details of the action plan will be worked out in the next future.

Future Work of the Task Force
(1996-)

The Heron Island meeting of the Task Force (6-7 November 1995) concluded that the Task Force needs to concentrate on the following issues in the next triennium of its work:

Continuously develop the GERAM concept to the extent that the end user community can benefit as much as possible from the information contained within GERAM. As part of this development establish a universally accessible point (on the world wide web) that contains all definitions and details of GERAM and is a starting point for the exploration of individual methods available for any user contemplating an enterprise change programme.
Develop means to test the extent to which existing architectures and methodologies meet the requirements and scope of GERAM, both for the benefit of better understanding by the developer community of how existing methods may sinergistically be used with their own developed methods, and for the user community to better understand what individual methods embraced can or can not do.
The dissemination of the information to the identified user communities such as end users (companies that contemplate change of various natures and magnitude), consultancy companies and consultants, and CASE tool developers Computer-aided Enterprise Engineering Tool developers.
Foster the acceptance of the discipline of Enterprise Integration and continue building the Enterprise Integration Community. As a first step IFAC has established its Technical Committee TC MIA and in 1996 the IFIP WG5.12 Working Group has been established by the IFIP General Assembly. It is the Task Force's responsibility and area of competence to forge alliances and cross fertilise disciplines that contribute to Enterprise Integration.
It is envisaged that through the organisation of events, especially joint events with other groups or professional bodies, the Task Force will be able to actively build links between now segregated communities and disciplines.
Foster programmes that allow the discipline of Enterprise Integration to find its way into university and other forms of professional education.

Relationship of the Task Force's Work to that of others

We plan to describe here relationships, such as:

Relationship with ISO TC184/SC5/WG1

Relationship with CIM-OSA

Relationship with technologies for enterprise integration

Relationship with Open Distributed Processing

Relationship with GIM (GRAI Integrated Method)

Relationship with information system integration methods (DCE, Corba, OMG, Heterogeneous database integration)

Relationship with Concurrent/simultaneous engineering

Relationship with Business Process Re-engineering

Relationship with Coordination science

Present membership of the Task Force (as of July 1996):

Chair: Dr Peter Bernus (Griffith University, AUS)
Vice-chair: Prof. Theodore J. Williams (Purdue University, USA)

REGULAR MEMBERS

Dipl. Ing. Mihai Avram IPA-SA Romania
Prof. James BROWNE University College Galway Galwa
Dr Christoph Bussler University of Erlangen-Nuernberg Germany
Dr. David Chen Laboratoire GRAI / LAP Bordeaux University France
Professor Chen, Yuliu Tshinghua University Peoples Republic of China
Prof. Guy Doumeingts Laboratoire GRAI / LAP Bordeaux University France
Dr. John Edwards Loughborough University of Technology UK
Mr Fadi G. Fadel Canada
Dr. eng. Florin Gh. Filip ICI-Institute of Research in Informatics Romania
Prof. Mark S Fox University of Toronto Canada
Dr Yoshiro Fukuda Technical research Institute of JSPMI Japan
Dr Michael Gruninger University of Toronto Canada
Mr Bruce Guthridge SystemHouse, Inc. USA
Dr. Geza Haidegger Computer and Automation Research Institute Hungary
Professor Zengjin Han Tsinghua University Peoples Republic of China
Dr. Atsui Inamoto Mitsubishi Electric Co. Japan
Dr. R. Jochem Fraunhofer Institute (IPK Berlin) Germany
Prof. Peter Kopacek Technische Universitat Wien Austria
Dr Kurt Kosanke CIMOSA Association e.V. Germany
Dr. George L. Kovacs Computer and Automation Institute Hungary
Dr. Hong Li IIES, Purdue University USA
Professor John Mylopoulos Department of Computer Science The University of Toronto Toronto M5S 1A4 Canada
Dr. L. Nemes CSIRO Australia
Mr James L. Nevins USA
Mr. Ajit Pardasani National Research Council Canada
Professor Michael G Rodd University College of Swansea UK
Dr. N. Rozsenich BM f. Wissenschaft u. Forschung Austria
Professor Yusaku Shibata Aomori University Japan
Dr. David Shorter IT Focus UK
Prof. Francois B. Vernadat Universite de Metz France
Prof R H Weston Loughborough University of Technology UK CORRESPONDING MEMBERS

Dr. Cheng Leong Ang GINTIC Institute of Manufacturing Technology Singapore
Mr. Sam Bansal GINTIC Institute of Manufacturing Technology Singapore
Prof Luis Basanez Institut de Cibernetica Universitat Politechnica de Catalunya Spain
Mr James Brosvic USA
Prof Ziqiong Deng Narvik Institute of Technology Norway
Professor Joel Favrel CIM Centre (AIPRAO) France
Dr Arturo Molina Gutierrez ITESM, Campus Monterrey Mexico
Prof.Dr. Matthias Jarke RWTH Aachen Germany
Dr. Toru Mikami NEC Corporation Japan
Mr H.-J. Molstand Danish Standards Association Denemark
Mr Jim Nell National Institute of Standards and Technology USA
Prof Dr Gunter Schmidt Universitat des Saarlandes Germany
Dr Ljubisa Vlacic Griffith University Australia
Dr Jakob Vlietstra Willits, USA

REFERENCES

[1] Williams, T.J., Bernus, P., Brosvic, J., Cheng, D., Doumeingts, G., Nemes, L., Nevins, J.L., Vallespir, B., Vlietstra, J., Zoetekouw, D., ``Architectures for Integrating Manufacturing Activities and Enterprises,'' in Prepr. IFAC World Congress 1993, Sydney, Vol.X. pp273-283, (July,1993)

[2] Bernus, P., Nemes, L., T.J.Williams (editors) ``Architectures for Enterprise Integration,'' Chapman and Hall, London (1996).

[3] Williams, T.J., Bernus, P., Brosvic, J., Cheng, D., Doumeingts, G., Nemes, L., Nevins, J.L., Vallespir, B., Vlietstra, J., Zoetekouw, D., Architectures for Integrating Manufacturing Activities and Enterprises,'' Computers in Industry Vol 24, No 2-3, Special Issue on CIM (1994) pp111-140

[4] ``Architectures for Integrating Manufacturing Activities and Enterprises,'' Control Engineering Practice Vol 2. No 6 (December 1994) pp939-960

[5] Bernus,P., Nemes,L., `` A Framework to Define a Generic Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology,'' ICARV'94, Singapore, (November 1994) pp88-92

[6] Williams, T.J., et al., ``Architectures for Integrating Manufacturing Activities and Enterprises,'' (keynote address) at {\em Design of Information Infrastaructure Systems for Manufacturing}, Prepr. IFIP WG 5.3 Working Conference, Tokyo (November 1993)pp1-17.

[7] Bernus,P., Nemes,L., Morris,R. `` Possibilities and Limitations of Reusing Enterprise Models,'' (plenary paper), 2nd IFIP/IFAC/IFORS Workshop on Intellingent Manufacturing Systems (IMS'94), OPWZ, Vienna, Austria (June 1994) pp11-16.

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(last update 29 January 1996)

IFIP/IFAC Task Force on Architectures for Enterprise Integration