Structure and Behaviour of Virtual Organisation Breeding Environments

This paper provides an outline of a formal approach that we are developing for modelling Virtual Organisations (VOs) and their Breeding Environments (VBEs). We propose different levels of representation for the functional structures and processes that VBEs and VOs involve, which are independent of the specificities of the infrastructures (organisational and technical) that support the functioning of VBEs. This allows us to reason about properties of tasks performed within VBEs and services provided through VOs without committing to the way in which they are implemented

Towards a Formal Model of Privacy-Sensitive Dynamic Coalitions

The concept of dynamic coalitions (also virtual organizations) describes the temporary interconnection of autonomous agents, who share information or resources in order to achieve a common goal. Through modern technologies these coalitions may form across company, organization and system borders. Therefor questions of access control and security are of vital significance for the architectures supporting these coalitions. In this paper, we present our first steps to reach a formal framework for modeling and verifying the design of privacy-sensitive dynamic coalition infrastructures and their processes. In order to do so we extend existing dynamic coalition modeling approaches with an access-control-concept, which manages access to information through policies. Furthermore we regard the processes underlying these coalitions and present first works in formalizing these processes. As a result of the present paper we illustrate the usefulness of the Abstract State Machine (ASM) method for this task. We demonstrate a formal treatment of privacy-sensitive dynamic coalitions by two example ASMs which model certain access control situations. A logical consideration of these ASMs can lead to a better understanding and a verification of the ASMs according to the aspired specification.Comment: In Proceedings FAVO 2011, arXiv:1204.579

Service-oriented Approach Supporting Dynamic Manufacturing Networks Operations

[EN] In the current economic crisis, also the manufacturing sector is asked to evolve towards more dynamic organizational structures within which, composing manufacturing processes, almost in real time, will become a need. This work aims at introducing flexibility and dynamisms to current manufacturing processes by separating its tasks from its final performers. With the proposed approach, the performers replacement can be done almost seamlessly. Additionally, the approach shows how dynamic negotiation and contracting, either for a whole process or a single activity, can be smoother if the task specification is based on a standard service interface defined at the ecosystem level. At the end, a prototype implementation is briefly described.Franco Pereyra, RD.; Ortiz Bas, Á.; Gómez-Gasquet, P. (2013). Service-oriented Approach Supporting Dynamic Manufacturing Networks Operations. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. 408:345-354. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-40543-3_37S345354408Osório, A.L., Afsarmanesh, H., Camarinha-Matos, L.M.: Open Services Ecosystem Supporting Collaborative Networks. In: Ortiz, Á., Franco, R.D., Gómez Gasquet, P. (eds.) BASYS 2010. IFIP AICT, vol. 322, pp. 80–91. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)Afsarmanesh, H., Camarinha-Matos, L., Msanjila, S.: On management of 2nd generation Virtual Organizations Breeding Environments. Annual Reviews in Control 33(2), 209–219 (2009)Afsarmanesh, H., Camarinha-Matos, L.: A Framework for Management of Virtual Organization Breeding Environments. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H., Ortiz, A. (eds.) Collaborative Networks and Their Breeding Environments. IFIP, vol. 186, pp. 35–48. Springer, Boston (2005)Franco, R.D., Ortiz Bas, A., Gómez-Gasquet, P., Rodriguez Rodriguez, R.: Open Ecosystems, Collaborative Networks and Service Entities Integrated Modeling Approach. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Xu, L., Afsarmanesh, H. (eds.) Collaborative Networks in the Internet of Services. IFIP AICT, vol. 380, pp. 74–83. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)Minguez, J., Zor, S., Reimann, P.: Event-driven business process management in Engineer-to-Order supply chains. In: 2011 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD), pp. 624–631 (2011)Wang, X., Cai, H., Xu, B.: An Extended Petri-Net Based Approach for Supply Chain Process Modeling and Web Service Transformation. In: International Conference on Management and Service Science, MASS 2009, pp. 1–5 (2009)Mowshowitz, A.: The switching principle in Virtual Organization. eJOV 1(1), 7–18 (1999)Franco, Ortiz Bas, Lario Esteban, F.C.: Modeling extended manufacturing processes with service-oriented entities. Service Business 3(1), 31–50 (2009)Vallejos, R.V., Lima, C., Varvakis, G.: A Framework To Create A Virtual Organization Breeding Environment In The Mould And Die Sector. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H., OIlus, M. (eds.) Network-Centric Collaboration and Supporting Frameworks. IFIP, vol. 224, pp. 599–608. Springer, Boston (2006)Bocchi, L., Fiadeiro, J., Rajper, N., Reiff-Marganiec, S.: Structure and Behaviour of Virtual Organisation Breeding Environments (January 2010)Romero, D., Molina, A.: VO breeding environments & virtual organizations integral business process management framework. Information Systems Frontiers 11(5), 569–597 (2009)Ulieru, M., Grobbelaar, S.: Engineering Industrial Ecosystems in a Networked World. In: 5th IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, vol. 1, pp. 1–7 (2007)Rajini, S.N.S., Bhuvaneswari, D.T.: Service Based Architecture for Manufacturing Sector (2010)Lobov, A., Puttonen, J., Herrera, V.V., Andiappan, R., Lastra, J.L.M.: Service oriented architecture in developing of loosely-coupled manufacturing systems. In: 6th IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, INDIN 2008, pp. 791–796 (2008)Jammes, F., Smit, H., Lastra, J.L.M., Delamer, I.M.: Orchestration of service-oriented manufacturing processes. In: 10th IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA 2005, vol. 1, pp. 617–624 (2005)Zor, S., Görlach, K., Leymann, F.: Using BPMN for Modeling Manufacturing Processes. Neuer Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, Wien (2010

A structured approach to VO reconfigurations through Policies

One of the strength of Virtual Organisations is their ability to dynamically and rapidly adapt in response to changing environmental conditions. Dynamic adaptability has been studied in other system areas as well and system management through policies has crystallized itself as a very prominent solution in system and network administration. However, these areas are often concerned with very low-level technical aspects. Previous work on the APPEL policy language has been aimed at dynamically adapting system behaviour to satisfy end-user demands and - as part of STPOWLA - APPEL was used to adapt workflow instances at runtime. In this paper we explore how the ideas of APPEL and STPOWLA can be extended from workflows to the wider scope of Virtual Organisations. We will use a Travel Booking VO as example.Comment: In Proceedings FAVO 2011, arXiv:1204.579

A generic vobe framework to manage home healthcare collaboration

In this paper we propose a conceptual framework to manage Home HealthCare (HHC) provision and stakeholder collaborations using the concepts of Virtual Breeding Environment (VBE) and Virtual Organisation (VO). Providing healthcare at home is gaining popularity as more and more patients prefer to receive care in the comfort of their homes. Providing care at home is complex and involves many stakeholders; collaboration and resource sharing between these stakeholders is essential for a successful home healthcare provision. In this paper we outline a framework to classify different parties involved in Home Healthcare (HHC) collaboration based on their roles. The framework consists of two main components which we call HHC-VBE and HHC-VO. The proposed framework is applied to a simple home healthcare case study and it is later evaluated. The result shows that the framework is simple and flexible and can be applied to other scenarios. This research contributes towards addressing the ongoing challenge of HHC collaboration management