Integrating process and ontology for supply chain modelling

This paper introduces an ontology model developed to support supply chain process modelling. Supply chain provides the business context for achieving interoperability of enterprise systems. It is observed that the emphasis on ontology development for enterprise interoperability could result in information models that are not relevant to real business needs. This work explicitly defines the generic business processes relevant to supply chain operations and develops the ontology that was tested in the creation of the information model to support the information exchange needs three industry case studies. It demonstrated that prior identification of processes the ontology is supposed to support facilitates its development and also its subsequent validation. This paper introduces the overall ontology development approach together with some of the findings that summarise our experiences in developing the ontology model to support supply chain process modelling.