Mediator: an Intelligent Information System Supporting the Virtual Manufacturing Enterprise

Mediator is an open architecture information and knowledge management system designed to provide a flexible technology to support the management of complex manufacturing activities throughout the product life cycle. A heterogeneous environment is assumed in which the sub-systems are geographically dispersed and involve different application packages, not necessarily designed to work together, multiple platforms, protocols and forms of user interface. The function of Mediator is to provide a knowledge support system for all those involved in the manufacturing process from requirements through design, engineering, production, to maintenance and recycling. It is designed to facilitate communication, compliance with constraints including physical restrictions and legal obligations, and to generally represent knowledge about any activity or subsystem relevant to the manufacturing process. This paper reports on a second-generation Mediator implementation based on World-Wide-Web protocols and browsers augmented by specialist helper and server applications.