An ontology supported risk assessment approach for the intelligent configuration of supply networks

As progress towards globalisation continues, organisations seek ever better ways with which to configure and reconfigure their global production networks so as to better understand and be able to deal with risk. Such networks are complex arrangements of different organisations from potentially diverse and divergent domains and geographical locations. Moreover, greater focus is being put upon global production network systems and how these can be better coordinated, controlled and assessed for risk, so that they are flexible and competitive advantage can be gained from them within the market place. This paper puts forward a reference ontology to support risk assessment for product-service systems applied to the domain of global production networks. The aim behind this is to help accelerate the development of information systems by way of developing a common foundation to improve interoperability and the seamless exchange of information between systems and organisations. A formal common logic based approach has been used to develop the reference ontology, utilising end user information and knowledge from three separate industrial domains. Results are presented which illustrate the ability of the approach, together with areas for further work

Design of Sustainable Product-service Systems (PSS): Towards an Incremental Stepwise Assessment Method

AbstractCompanies are increasingly selling functionalities of integrated solutions of products and services instead of selling mere products. This integration of products and service solutions is known as Product Service Systems (PSS), which allows to maximize customer value and overcome increasing competition in the manufacturing sector. In this sense, PSS designers require adapted tools to support the design of sustainable solutions. This article aims to address this question by proposing a methodological framework for integrating sustainability considerations into the PSS design process. To this end a review of the peculiarities of the PSS design process was performed and which aims to explore potential ways of integrating sustainability considerations within PSS design. Several requirements have been drawn from PSS design and sustainability literature which contributed towards the formalization of a methodological framework supporting the design of sustainable PSS