Integrating process and ontology to support supply chain modelling

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Many researchers have recognised a lack of common framework to support supply chain modelling and analysis and proposed their solutions accordingly. Majority of the approaches proposed are more concerned with building an object model of a supply chain than identifying processes that realistically describe a supply chain. Although object models provide means or building blocks necessary to model and analyse different elements of a supply chain, absence of supply chain processes promotes a 'black box' view on the supply chain. This study proposes an ontology model specifically developed to support supply chain process modelling and analysis. It is based on a premise that prior identification of processes the ontology is supposed to support facilitates the ontology development and validation. This study introduces development, validation and application of supply chain ontology to support supply chain process modelling and analysis. 1. Introduction The interest for the study of supply chain modelling has been steadily growing ever since the topic of supply chain management (SCM) emerged as an area of intensive research some 20 years ago. The approaches proposed are very diverse and range from more general supply chain modelling topics, typified by works of Beamon (1998), Min and Zhou (2002) and Biswas and Narahari (2004), to more specific applications of simulation in supply chain modelling and analysis, as those introduced by Huang et al. have recognised a lack of common supply chain modelling framework and proposed their solutions accordingly. For example, the framework by van der Zee and van der Vorst (2005) aims to model control structures of a supply chain, while framework by Jain (2006) aims to cover different aspects of a supply chain. Unfortunately , they all lack a very important ingredient, a characterisation of relevant …