![](bga.png)
However, for operational use – as APPRIS
strives for – knowledge representation is not enough
but an enterprise ontology must be enhanced to an
enterprise repository as suggested by Hinkelmann et
al. (2010), Thönssen (2011), (2010)). In our
approach we go in this direction by mapping entities
of the Supply Management System’s database to
ontological concepts.
Chi (2010) developed a rule-based ontological
knowledge base for monitoring partners across
supply network. Although Chi (2010) provides a
sound methodology for modelling the domain of the
supply network in an ontology, its content remains
application specific since no standard is considered.
Furthermore, as forward-chaining is the applied
technique for inferring new knowledge it can be
assumed that the knowledge base increases largely
over time and thus becomes unmanageable in the
end. But most important is that the approach is not
integrated in the daily operations but an isolated
task.
4 CONCLUSIONS / FURTHER
WORK
Detecting risks as early as possible is of vital interest
for all enterprises. At present risk management is
performed – if ever – on the basis of in-house
information, e.g. extracted from ERP systems like
delays in delivery. More and more information
would be available, either offered by information
providers like Dun & Bradstreet or LexisNexis or
publicly available on the web. Yet, risks are often
detected too late due to late publication, not
recognized importance or hidden impacts.
Our approach of an early warning system
addresses this problem by combining the analysis of
different information sources, types and formats in
order to early identify and assess risks in the supply-
chain. We showed how an enterprise ontology is
used to represent domain knowledge and how it is
integrated into the EWS by Direct Mapping to
entities of an RDBMS, and ontology to object
mapping based on Java annotations. The results of
our approach, i.e. of the risk evaluation, are
interpreted and displayed within a commercial
Supply-Management-System that has been enhanced
for this purpose. Our approach contributes
significantly to improving risk management in the
supply chain and thus is of considerable economic
importance.
The EWS will be formally evaluated by the
APPPRIS project’s business partners and the
technical partner will implement the prototype’s
functionality in his Supply-Management-System.
However, there are still several aspects not
considered yet, for example how the EWS could be
improved to identify not only risks but also
opportunities, how a replacement for a product
could be automated, or how supplier selection could
be supported, to name a few.
REFERENCES
Bertolazzi, P. et al., 2001. An Approach to the Definition
of a Core Enterprise Ontology : CEO. In International
Workshop on Open Enterprise Solutions: Systems,
Experiences, and Organizations - OES-SEO 2001.
Rome, pp. 104-115.
Chi, Y.-L., 2010. Rule-based ontological knowledge base
for monitoring partners across supply networks.
Expert Systems with Applications, 37(2), pp.1400-
1407. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/
retrieve/pii/S0957417409006514 [Accessed March 6,
2012].
Chung, W. W. C., Yam, A. Y. K. & Chan, M. F. S., 2004.
Networked enterprise: A new business model for
global sourcing. International Journal of Production
Economics, 87(3), pp.267-280. Available at: http://
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0925527303002
226 [Accessed July 12, 2011].
Cyganiak, R., 2012. The D2RQ Platform – Accessing
Relational Databases as Virtual RDF Graphs.
Available at: http://d2rq.org/.
Dietz, J. L. G., 2006. Enterprise Ontology. Theory and
Methodology, Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Emmerson, C., 2011. Global Risks 2011 Sixth Edition,
Fox, M. S. & Grüninger, M., 1998. Enterprise Modeling.
AI Magazine, 19(3), pp.109-121.
Fox, M. S. et al., 1996. An Organization Ontology for
Enterprise Modelling. Simulating Organizations:
Computational Models of Institutions and Groups,
(AAAI/MIT Press), pp.131-152.
Friedman-Hill, E., 2008. Jess, the Rule Engine for the Java
Platform V7.1., pp.1-198. Available at: http://
www.jessrules.com/jess/index.shtml.
Geerts, G. L. & McCarthy, W. E., 2000. The Ontological
Foundation of REA Enterprise Information Systems,
Geissbauer, R. & D’heur, M., 2011. 2010-2012. Global
Supply Chain Trends,
Grosse-Ruyken, P. T. & Wagner, S. M., 2011. APPRIS
Project Report, Zürich.
Grubic, T. & Fan, I.-shing, 2010. Computers in Industry
Supply chain ontology : Review , analysis and
synthesis. Computers in Industry, 61(8), pp.776-786.
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.compind.2010.05.006.
Hinkelmann, K., Merelli, E. & Thönssen, B., 2010. The
Role of Content and Context in Enterprise
Repositories. In Proceedings of the 2nd International
ImprovingSupply-Chain-ManagementbasedonSemanticallyEnrichedRiskDescriptions
79