CIMOSA: Open System Architecture for CIM

Book excerpt: Enterprise operation efficiency is seriously constrained by the inability to provide the right information, in the right place, at the right time. In spite of significant advances in technology it is still difficult to access information used or produced by different applications due to the hardware and software incompatibilities of manufacturing and information processing equipment. But it is this information and operational knowledge which makes up most of the business value of the enterprise and which enables it to compete in the marketplace. Therefore, sufficient and timely information access is a prerequisite for its efficient use in the operation of enterprises. It is the aim of the ESPRIT project AMICE to make this knowledge base available enterprise-wide. During several ESPRIT contracts the project has developed and validated CIMOSA: Open System Architecture for CIM. The CIMOSA concepts provide operation structuring based on cooperating processes. Enterprise operations are represented in terms of functionality and dynamic behaviour (control flow). Information needed and produced, as well as resources and organisational aspects relevant in the course of the operation are modelled in the process model. However, the different aspects may be viewed separately for additional structuring and detailing during the enterprise engineering process.