Standardized configuration knowledge representations as technological foundation for mass customization

The effective integration of configuration system development with industrial software development is crucial for a successful implementation of a mass customization strategy. On the one hand, configuration knowledge bases must be easy to develop and maintain due to continuously changing product assortments. On the other hand, flexible integrations into existing enterprise applications, e-marketplaces and different facets of supply chain settings must be supported. This paper shows how the model-driven architecture (MDA) as an industrial framework for model development and interchange can serve as a foundation for standardized configuration knowledge representation, thus enabling knowledge sharing in heterogeneous environments. Using UML/Object Constraint Language as standard configuration knowledge representation languages, the representation of configuration domain-specific modeling concepts within MDA is shown and a formal semantics for these concepts is provided which allows a common understanding and interpretation of configuration task descriptions.