CIMOSA - News

Vol. 7/1,  date 2000-04-15


Editor: Martin Zelm, Gehenbuehlstr. 18A, D-70499 Stuttgart, zelm@cimosa.de

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 http://www.cimosa.de.



Contents

CIMOSA Web Site

The new CIMOSA Web site http://www.cimosa.de continues to be populated  with selected documents on Enterprise Engineering and Integration offering specific knowledge in the field. Recently, the following documents have been added:

Major Events

The "Open MISSION Interest Group“ (OMIG) has been founded on March 9 during the ‘ASIM Confer-ence on Simulation in Production and Logistics’ held at the IPK Fraunhofer Institute, Berlin. Within OMIG, a wider range of organisations will get detailed informa-tion about the IMS Project MISSION, the concepts developed therein and the project’s progress. First releases of the software developed can be given to OMIG members free of charge. The project partners expect from OMIG to receive additional ideas, indus-trial requirements, feedback and intense contact to companies working in the simulation area. Regular OMIG meetings will be held at least once a year, whenever possible close to fairs, exhibitions or confer-ences. Further, a periodical quarterly newsletter will be published. Approximately 30 interested parties from academia and industry, including CIMOSA Association  have signed up for the membership in OMIG.

The AIT Forum was held in Paris on March 29-30, 2000 with presentations from AIT members and the EU. The latter addressing the programme status and the next calls for proposals. Demos of four selected AIT projects: MOKA IMPLANT, ADCOMS, STAUMECS have been presented at the MICAD 2000 Computer Fair. The IMPLANT project has developed a process model of the innovation and change management process with a pilot tool for documentation and navigation. An interactive discussion was conducted on various subjects like new methods of work, knowledge management, standardisation, user interfaces. As follow up the formation of temporary problem oriented working groups organised in the Internet is planned.

CIMOSA Applications

Transformation of CIMOSA Models into Petrinet Models: CIMOSA enables modelling of discrete processes resulting in business process models that focus on user oriented representation, in order to make the proc-ess scenario and the interaction of its components transparent and easy to understand. Petrinets models are generally less transparent due to their formal representation. A study has been carried out to define general rules for the transformation and implementation of CIMOSA models into Petrinet-models with the modelling tool PACE. (http://www. ibepace.com). The rules have been verified with an illustrative application of a process model The model has been applied in dynamic simulation of the scenario in order to predict throughputs, resource utilisation and waiting queues. The general transformation rules will be further validated in more complex examples. These rules have to be extended by additional rules, which for instance include re-usable sets of Events and sets of Enterprise Activities.

Modelling Tools

Interfacing Technologies Corporation has announced a new version of their business process modelling tool FirstSTEP Designer .FirstSTEP Designer 4 provides significant improved process modelling functionality in a single tool. Models can be dynamically simulated to evaluate performance, visualise current operations, test the impact of change and identify alternative process designs and opportunities for improvement. FirstSTEP Designer 4, incorporates such enhancements as a new reporting wizard, improved modelling flexibility, faster simulation, increased model security, multiple language support, project management inte-gration. Recurring projects in FirstSTEP Designer 4 can be better managed, analysed and continuously improved by exporting the model to Microsoft Project. Further, the FirstSTEP Designer 4 model data to can be exported in XML format for document generation and integration with CASE tools and databases, see http://www.interfacing.com

UEML Interest Group

The Interest Group for a unified enterprise modelling language (UEML) within the IFAC/IFIP Task Force lead by F. Vernadat - who proposed this development in the ICEIMT '97 initiative - has identified the work scope and requirements:
UEML must be seen as a user-oriented language to be used as a common front-end to Enterprise Modelling/Analysis/Simulation tools.
A base for UEML will be an analysis of existing EM tools and languages. It is proposed to follow a similar approach than the one which led to the development of the GERAM framework. To perform this analysis, it is proposed to use the UML language to compare meta-models of most well-known tools and languages. Contact : vernadat@agip.sciences.univ-metz.fr

Standardisation

The CIMOSA Association together with CEN TC310 and DIN/NAM 96.5.1 are organising jointly a workshop in Berlin, Germany on May 24-26. This workshop will prepare inputs for the CEN/ISO new Work Items in enterprise engineering and integration. These new work items are concerned with adaptations and extensions of the CEN prenorms ENV 40003 and ENV 12204. Both ENVs are specialisations of the ISO Standards IS 14258 and IS 15704 providing more details and are aimed on common representation of enterprise models.

Publications

Trust and confidence Newsletter: A periodical newsletter to enhance public access to information on Trust & Confidence issues in the IST programme is published by the EU. Contact: infso-c4@cec.eu.int.

Upcoming Events


CIMOSA Promotion material and literature

‘Enterprise Engineering and Integration - Why and How', a primer on concepts, purpose and business value, CIMOSA Association, private publication.
‘CIMOSA - a primer on key concepts, purpose and business value’, CIMOSA Association. This brochure as well as other selected papers, abstracts and literature hyperlinks are available at  www.cimosa.de and cimosa.cnt.pl.

CIMOSA Association

The CIMOSA Association (COA) is a non-profit organisation involved in promotion of Enterprise Engineering and Integration based on CIMOSA and its active support in national, European and international standardisation. COA members are industrial and research organisations.