Ontology-based semantic models for supply chain management

The efficiencies of supply chain management (SCM) are often impaired by inconsistent exchange and sharing of knowledge semantics among supply chain partners. To address this problem with semantic integration, this paper presents an approach to developing ontologies of supply chain management (Onto-SCM) as a common semantic model of the SCM domain. The Onto-SCM semantic model is constructed in a modular way in order to enhance its reusability and maintainability. The IDEF5 schematic language is employed to provide the graphical representation of Onto-SCM for intuitive communication between domain experts and users. Furthermore, Ontolingua is adopted to define formal semantics of Onto-SCM for effective knowledge interoperability. In addition, a case study of a printer supply chain is illustrated to demonstrate the proposed approach to semantic integration for SCM. Finally, a prototype is developed to support visualized knowledge modeling of the case system using the IDEF5 schematic language and to implement consistent knowledge transformation among heterogeneous applications in the supply chain.