Towards a role-centric and context-aware information distribution system for manufacturing

ICT platforms, in the manufacturing context, provide a number of tools, such as sensors, wireless networks, mobile devices, MES, ERP and information management systems in order to support shop-floor and back-office personnel. There is a need for the vast amount of information gathered and generated by such ICT systems to be utilized in a manner that can truly speed up production processes and facilitate immediate reaction to issues and shortcomings. This study presents an ontology-based approach for context modelling that has been developed by taking into account the main factory objects such as products, processes, resources, production units and enriches them with context information. The proposed context ontology aims at defining a fundamental data model for context extraction in a manufacturing environment. Moreover, the concept of a generic architecture and the key components for role-based and context aware information distribution is also described. An industrial application scenario, for the proposed role-centric and context-aware architecture, is described. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.