Editor. M. Zelm, Gehenbuehlstr. 18A, D-70499 Stuttgart
The CIMOSA - News is published by the CIMOSA Association. The CIMOSA News will report on CIMOSA applications, evolution of its technical specification, advancements in standardisation and related items. Contributions from other parties are welcome. The CIMOSA - News will be printed periodically and is also available in the internet at the dedicated WWW server http://cimosa.cnt.pl/News/
ESPRIT Project 21859 is a project jointly lead by the CIMOSA Association and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The project is sponsored by the FIAT company together with the IFAC and IFIP organisations.
OBJECTIVES: To develop an international pre-normative consensus among users and suppliers of on s synthesised set of technical issues sufficient to provide a common context for the discussion and comparison of EI technology alternatives.
The project has organised a series of ICEIMT Workshops. The following themes have been selected for the Workshops:
Schedules of the ICEIMT Workshops are given below in the chapter Upcoming Events, more details of the Workshop contents are provided in the attached flyer.
The Workshop results will be presented in a concluding conference ICEIMT'97 to be held in Turin, Italy, October 28 - 30, 1997.
The ESPRIT Project PRIMA project (EP 8234) has the objective to apply the CIMOSA modelling methodology for the analysis and modellisation of continuous processes typical for enterprises in the chemical industry. A continuous process can be considered a s a simple event driven process whose activities are mostly control type activities with many requirements for exception handling. This modelling approach will be validated in a test case within the PRIMA consortium.
In the course of several process modelling activities at SME's performed in the DARIF project, the Petri net based modelling and simulation tool PACE has been significantly enhanced to enable the use of information from elswhere in the enterprise. Via the Direct Data Exchange (DDE) interface, external standard applications like for example MS-Access or MS-Excel can be connected to the PACE tool. This enables the modeller to import and use information stored in other applications for the dynamic simulat ion of his process model and for various business reports based on the results of the simulation. Examples are optimisation of order management, resource utilisation, cost analysis or strategic decisions support. In addition the tool offers graphical anim ation of the simulation scenario. For more details contact Fachhochschule Offenburg (Contact: sternemann@fh-offenburg.de)
MIM'97, The Workshop of the IFAC-TC on Manufacturing, Modelling and Control was held in Vienna/Austria on. 97-02-03/05 and was attended by some 100 engineers and computer scientists. Eighty papers and five survey lectures were given on :
Papers on Enterprise Modelling addressed the following topics :
Eight papers including a survey lecture were directly related to CIMOSA.
The role of GERAM (Generic Reference Architecture and Methodology) as an embracing framework - of which CIMOSA is a subset - seems to be generally accepted. Harmonisation of GERAM with existing reference architectures has evolved further. A new contrib ution made by P. Bernus was the introduction of the relation between life history and life cycle. This resolves the issue on the mode of operation of using the life cycle concept (top-down, bottom-up, iterative). The relation between the two concepts clea rly shows the life cycle concept identifying the necessary process steps and life history defining the time sequence of action. These may be top-down in the start-up phase of a project or program, but will be iterative for most of the life cycle phases an d for most of the life time of the entity. The results of the meeting have been presented to the Task Force and to ISO, both meetings followed the MIM'97 .
ISO TC 184/SC5/WG1 meeting, in Vienna/Austria, 97-02-06/07. The CD 14258 'Concepts and Rules for Enterprise Models' has been accepted as DIS (Draft International Standards.
The meeting focused on the new work item which has been renamed to 'Compliance Requirements for Enterprise Reference Architectures and Methodologies'. New inputs have been provided by the IFAC/IFIP Taskforce (see above) and by the Swiss representatives . The Swiss presentation indicated the need for a consolidated modelling approach referencing especially the work of ISO TC 207/SC4 on 'Environmental Management - Environmental Performance Evaluation'. WG1 accepted the need for recognition of the environm ental aspects in the further work on the new work item.
Discussion started on the set of requirements identified in the WG1 document N364 (accepted by international Ballot as the base for the new work item). Work will continue in the next meeting held in Frankfurt/Germany on, 97-04-07/09 .
IHM'97, the International Fair for Crafts and Small Enterprises is an event held yearly in Munich from March 8 - 16, 1997, and attended by 200.000 visitors, mostly from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. The European Commission has partic ipated with a stand where selected projects recommended by the EC were presented. The CIMOSA contribution consisted of two applications of business process modelling in SME's developed with the Engineering School Offenburg and implemented on the modelling tool PACE , a demo of the business process management tool FirstSTEP (TM Interfacing Technologies, St.-Laurent/Quebec), and posters and information material on Enterprise Integration with CI MOSA and on ICEIMT'97.
Contacts have been established to professional crafts organisations - including two presentations to groups with participants from European countries - to people from the EU, press and television, to consultants, academia and to endusers e.g. owners o r managers of craft businesses and SME's. Even small enterprises recognise the benefits of decision support by modelling their business processes, with a standardised modelling language to represent their process organisation. Small enterprises need simpl e-to-use tools, with presentation and documentation in national language, enabling them to both design and to utilise their enterprise model and supporting integration of existing business applications.
A two days seminar on CIMOSA has been prepared. The seminar covers enterprise modelling and integration, tools and modelling applications with demonstrations as well as standardisation. A pilot was held at ITEM-St.Gallen University to present CIMOSA an d FirstSTEP. The first full seminar is scheduled at ADITEC Aachen in February 97. For more information contact K. Kosanke.
'CIMOSA - a primer on key concepts, purpose and business value', provides an overview on enterprise modelling, applications and business benefits.
Computer Assisted Tutorial 'CIMOSA Modelling', for interactive learning and training.
The CIMOSA Association is involved in promotion of CIMOSA, its active support in national, European and international standardisation and in consolidation of the evolution of its technical specifications. Members of the CIMOSA Association are industria l and research organisations involved in exploitation of CIMOSA or interested in the subject of enterprise integration (EI).
www-cimosa@cnt.pl, 30.04.1997 (last update: 30.04.1997)