Development of an Anything Relationship Management Prototype for
the Smart Factory
Jon
athan P. Knoblauch, Rebecca Bulander and Thomas Greiner
Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, Tiefenbronner Str. 65, 75175 Pforzheim, Germany
Keywords: Anything Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, Industrial Internet, Smart
Factory, Internet of Things, Services and Data.
Abstract: The Internet of Things, Services and Data (IoTSD) enters into more and more areas of the business, private
and public sector. Typical areas are Smart Factory, Smart Home, Smart Grid, Connected Vehicles and
Smart City. The area of Smart Factory (also called industrial internet) will be the most important one in the
manufacturing sector. For several years There has been another development in information and
communications technology (ICT) observable, called Anything Relationship Management (xRM), trying to
systematically manage all stakeholders, physical objects and virtual entities of an enterprise through the use
of powerful IT platforms. xRM can be used as a cloud management platform for smart industrial production
units combined with stakeholder management. In this paper we use xRM to develop a top-down prototype
in the Smart Factory environment. The main objective is to demonstrate how xRM could be used in the
future Smart Factory. We therefore recreate the structure of an existing machine for mixing liquids as a
service on an xRM cloud platform. Furthermore typical data exchange activities between machine and an
xRM cloud platform as well as customers and production machine are simulated. The xRM prototype
demonstrates why using an xRM cloud platform is helpful for flexile production environments.
1 INTRODUCTION
The Internet of Things, Services and Data enters into
more and more areas of the business, private and
public sector. Typical areas are Smart Factory Smart
Home, Smart Grid, Connected Vehicles and Smart
City or newer areas like Smart Farming. Cisco
estimates that by 2020, 50 billion devices and
objects will be connected to the internet (Evans,
2011). This progress will lead to a huge “Value at
Stake” and bring new innovations which are not
imaginable today. Cisco believes that the internet of
Things and Services will create $14.4 trillion in
“Value at Stake” from 2013 to 2022 (Bradley, 2013,
p. 1). The area of Smart Factory (also called
industrial internet) will be the most important one in
the manufacturing sector.
For several years there has been another
development in information and communications
technology observable, called Anything Relationship
Management, trying to systematically manage all
stakeholders, physical objects and virtual entities of
an enterprise through the use of powerful IT
platforms. xRM can be used as a management
platform for smart industrial production units
combined with stakeholder management.
In this paper we use xRM to develop a top-down
prototype in the Smart Factory environment. The
main objective is to demonstrate how xRM could be
used in the future Smart Factory. We therefore
recreate the structure of an existing machine for
mixing liquids as a service on an xRM cloud
platform. Furthermore typical data exchange
activities between machine and xRM cloud platform
and customers and machine are simulated. The xRM
prototype demonstrates why using an xRM cloud
platform is helpful for flexile production
environments. The benefit of using xRM is that a
flexile cloud platform is provided with the ability to
map and create almost any entity, relationship and
process in business flieds and to manage them
systematically. Next to the field of Smart Factory
there are other areas, where to use xRM; just to
mention some examples: Business Partner
Relationship Management, Emplyee Relationship
Management bust also Patient Relationship
Management at an hospital or Student Relationship
Management at an university.
127
Knoblauch J., Bulander R. and Greiner T..
Development of an Anything Relationship Management Prototype for the Smart Factory.
DOI: 10.5220/0005444601270134
In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science (CLOSER-2015), pages 127-134
ISBN: 978-989-758-104-5
Copyright
c
2015 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
2 FUNDAMENTALS
2.1 Definition of xRM
The term xRM has already been defined several
times in a variety of ways. In a previsous paper we
did an extensive literatur review about the term xRM
(see Knoblauch and Bulander, 2014). In most
definitions xRM is seen as the further stage of
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as well
as the realization of the theoretical foundations of
relationship management. In addition, xRM includes
a technological component (IT system or platform)
and a conceptual component (management concept
and strategy). In newer definitions xRM is seen as
an opportunity to manage objects in the IoTSD
(Internet of Things, Services and Data, also called
Internet of Everything in an intersectoral way). The
following definition covers the main aspects of
xRM: “Anything Relationship Management, as an
advancement of CRM, is a consistent and holistic
concept of Relationship Management between and
in-between enterprises, people, physical things and
virtual assets. It is based on one or more flexible,
modular and scalable IT platforms, which can be
focussed on different branches. xRM helps
enterprises to capture, coordinate and analyse
entities and their relationships as well as processes
in the Internet of Everything” (Knoblauch and
Bulander, 2014).
2.2 xRM Cloud Platforms
In this section a brief overview about xRM
platforms is given. An xRM platform as an
extensible foundation provides core functionalities
which can be used by multiple modules; each
module can interact with each other through defined
interfaces (Tiwana et al., 2010). Most xRM
platforms use Cloud Computing technologies based
on the fundamentals of SOA. xRM platforms
provide high-value functions that improve the
relationship structures and also any related
applications. Business logic and associated user
interfaces are based on the defined model. Also the
creation of business objects as well as their
networking is supported at a conceptual level.
The architecture of an xRM platform can be
divided into three layers. The management layer in
xRM describes the conceptual approach to manage
the n:n interaction, coordination and collaboration
between all entities. The middleware layer
interconnects people, enterprises, virtual assets and
smart objects to create virtual organizations and
cross-company business processes. This layer has to
be implemented as a highly efficient and dynamical
platform with the capability of interoperability. The
back-end layer integrates various systems in a
homogeneous system landscape. Besides ERP and
SCM systems this layer also has to integrate
intelligent physical things like Cyber Physical
Systems (CPS) or virtual things such as cloud
computing services.
xRM platforms should be highly connected and
integrated in multiple ways, also across business
operations and domain boundaries. The provisioning
of electively networked, cooperating, and human-
interactive systems will be an essential component in
the adoption of such solutions in the future.
In our research project we did also an extensive
xRM market analysis over 26 software suppliers
which offer CRM platforms with xRM
functionnalities. We want just mention some global
players out of this analysis to underline the
importance of this topic: Microsoft with Dynamics
CRM 4.0, Salesforce with their Salesforce1
Plattform or Selligent GmbH with CRM &
Interactive-Marketing-Suite (see Knoblauch and
Bulander, 2014).
2.3 Advantages through xRM
By using xRM platforms and appropriate
management concepts a range of advantages for
enterprises are given. In the following the most
important ones are summarized.
xRM as platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provides a
cloud-based software development environment for
xRM applications (Britsch et al., 2012, p. 86). Such
a platform has a flexible and scalable infrastructure
as well as the ability of interoperability. Thus, the
use of well-defined communication models and
communication protocols is necessary (Günthner
and Hompel, 2010, p. 79). The software
development environment includes components like
a repository or has debug functions and the ability to
install plug-ins.
Another advantage of xRM is the existence of a
configurable framework. Such a framework provides
an implementation of important application services
like access management or administration functions
and a first area of application (typically CRM).
One benefit of xRM is the possibility to build
Point-and-Click apps and to customize them easily
out of the box. This is one of the core principles that
xRM brings along and therefore allows apps to be
built fast and easily without the need for extensive
implementation skills.
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Furthermore, the data models of xRM platforms
don’t have a fixed schema but a flexible and
extensible one. This means, that xRM platforms can
hold any data model and can generate or extend the
data model without much programming knowledge.
xRM enables the mapping of any kind of entity
(stakeholder, virtual asset or physical object) in an
application. This allows comprehensive business
requirements to be fulfilled on one IT platform. The
next level of xRM is integrating smart objects or
shared virtual objects through the Internet Things,
Services and Data.
Many xRM platforms follow the service
orientation paradigm and are built on a service-
oriented architecture (SOA). This allows the
platform consumer to be served with service
orientated capabilities like immediate availability
and well-defined behavior of servicers or service
composition.
With xRM company-wide and system-wide
workflows can be established more easily, since one
or more interoperable platforms or well-defined
communication standards are in place. This leads to
less workflow disruptions and a faster cycle time as
well as a more consistent management of workflows
and business processes.
Finally any graphical user interface (GUI) of an
xRM application can be customized by the user.
Depending on user preferences and access
restrictions one and the same xRM application can
have a completely different GUI.
2.4 xRM, IoTSD and Smart Factory
The Internet of Things, Services and Data is “a
dynamic global network infrastructure with self-
configuring capabilities based on standards and
interoperable communication protocols where
physical and virtual "things" [like services] have
identities, physical attributes and virtual
personalities and use intelligent interfaces and are
seamlessly integrated into the information network”
(Martinez, 2012, p. 3). In the Internet of Things,
Services and Data xRM can be used to define clear
relationship structures and to link real and virtual
entities dynamically with the right context (Britsch
et al., 2012, p. 87). Furthermore, xRM enables the
stakeholders of an organization to be connected to
enterprise services, virtual assets and physical
things. In a nutshell, xRM brings people, things,
services and data together on a business platform
that allows the systematic management of all
relevant business objects.
xRM must also be considered in the context of
the Smart Factory. According to acatech (2013)
there are three overarching aspects for implementing
the Smart Factory (in Germany called “Industry
4.0”): A horizontal integration through value
networks, a holistic integration of engineering across
the entire value chain and a vertical integration
along networked manufacturing systems (acatech,
2013, pp. 20). By using xRM concepts and platforms
it will be possible to build powerful solutions across
the vertical integration by reconfiguring whole
manufacturing systems over an xRM user interface
with regards to business use cases. xRM platforms
will help to make connections between multiple
companies as well as stakeholders in the horizontal
integration of interoperable, to share business
context and to extend value networks.
3 REQUIREMENTS
ENGINEERING
The definition of objectives are essential in the
requirements engineering process of software
development. We want to highlight the main
objectives of the xRM prototype, demonstrate the
added value, describe the software development
items and explain restrictions in this chapter.
3.1 Achievable Objectives
Objective 1: The proposed xRM prototype should
map and link customers, suppliers, employees,
business partners and the industrial production units
within the xRM application.
Objective 2a: The proposed xRM prototype
should simulate an industrial production unit for
mixing liquids as a service.
Objective 2b: The service of mixing liquids is
explained as an example for an industrial production
unit.
Objective 3: The xRM prototype sensors of the
industrial production unit should receive fictive
sensor values and save them within the entity.
Objective 4: A saved sales order can also be
saved as an XML file that could be sent to an
industrial production unit for further processing.
Objective 5: A business process of the sales
order via the mixed liquid as a service should be
demonstrated.
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3.2 Advantages and Added Value of
the Prototype
Different advantages and added values are shown
through the implementation of the corresponding
xRM prototype. The main advantage of the xRM
prototype is to demonstrate how xRM can be used in
the Smart Factory as a platform for relationship
management and value network design. The xRM
prototype refers to a use case of process engineering.
Tt is not useful to think in objects (e. g. with RFID-
Tags or barcodes) in process engineering, but rather
to think in the category of sales orders and their
items as well as production services. The xRM
prototype elucidates why this is necessary and useful
in the Smart Factory. The elements of the industrial
production unit of the Smart Factory are called
Cyber Physical Production Systems (CPPS), since
they are CPS for production.
The tracing of ingredients, products, batches etc.
can be carried out with the xRM prototype.
Furthermore monitoring and maintenance of the
production machine is enabled by receiving
important key figure values like temperature, power
consumption, number of revolutions or plant
utilization in real-time. This in turn enables
machines and their components to be checked
remotely through specific xRM GUIs. Key figures
can also be used to alert if values are out of range.
Moreover an improved accounting and reporting by
using actual material and production plant
consumption is possible. A stronger relationship
between customers und customer needs is given by
thinking in services. The customer becomes the
producer of his product with the xRM prototype.
Customers can choose their production services and
start their production process over the cloud.
3.3 Development Items
In this section we want to give an overview of the
chosen development items for the xRM prototype.
There are three basic development items that are
described in the following section.
The objective of the first development item is to
model an industrial production unit with all existing
components on an xRM platform. The industrial
production unit is used to mix two different liquids.
Furthermore customers, suppliers, employees,
business partners and ingredients are also modeled.
Therefore, a suitable entity relationship model
(ERM) is needed. After the specification of the ERM
this can be used to build the logic on an xRM
platform via Point-and-Click-Customization. This is
the primary development item of the xRM
prototype.
In the second development item the objective is
to transfer a sales order with corresponding order
items into an XML file that can be sent to an
industrial production unit. Besides information about
the customer information about the product and the
industrial production unit also has to be saved in the
created XML file. The idea behind this development
item is that information saved as XML can easily be
merged in a data exchange format like PLCopen
XML. We also want to backtrace the effort that is
needed to implement such a function with this
development item.
In the last development item we want to
implement a simulation of the real-time data
exchange of the industrial production unit and the
xRM platform. Data out of the machine sensors is
saved in the related xRM entity of the xRM
platform. Furthermore, each new sensor value is
saved within the entity. The current sensor value is
always set to the main sensor value attribute. Older
sensor values are saved in an XML file.
3.4 Restrictions of the Prototype
The xRM prototype has some restrictions that have
to be mentioned. Even though the xRM prototype
simulates an existing industrial production unit,
there is no direct communication linkage for now.
The xRM prototype follows the top-down approach
since a working smart industrial production unit is
unavailable. Additionally, the data sent to the xRM
prototype is randomly generated data. Finally, the
generated XML files of the sales order are not sent
directly to the industrial production unit, they are
saved in a storage location for further processing.
4 IMPLEMENTATION
4.1 xRM Software (SugarCRM)
The xRM platform SugarCRM was chosen to
implement the xRM prototype. In its basics
SugarCRM is a Customer Relationship Management
application that was founded in 2004 as an open
source project for Silicon Valley companies. Today
there are different product editions of SugarCRM
existing. These are a Community Edition (open
source), that is licensed under the GNU General
Public License and several fee-based software
editions. The SugarCRM platform is written in the
programming language PHP. SugarCRM has
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evolved into an xRM platform over the last years,
fulfilling xRM principles like the existence of a
configurable framework, a plugin installation
module and a Point-and-Click functionality. The
reason why SugarCRM was chosen is listed below.
1. The platform in its community edition is
open source and therefore free in use.
2. SugarCRM offers a big community and
there have been lots of installations.
3. The platform can be installed as on-premise
software or used as an on-demand service.
4. SugarCRM allows the software developer to
easily access and modify the code as well as
the database.
5. The platform offers good functions to build
Point-and-Click applications.
6. SugarCRM has a consistently good
usability.
The Sugar Community Edition 6.5.17 was the
chosen version for developing the xRM prototype.
4.2 Data Model and Business Logic of
the Prototype
A corresponding data model is needed first for
implementing the structure of a smart machine for
mixing liquids. This data model includes the
following entities.
In figure 1, the data model of the xRM prototype
is visualized. In order to reduce complexity not all
attributes of the entities are shown.
Table 1: Entities of the xRM prototype – Part 1.
Entity Description
Customer A customer is an external stakeholder
who wants to buy a certain amount of
mixed liquid.
Sales Order A customer places a sales order to buy
mixed liquid.
Order Item Each sales order has one or more order
items that describe what the customer
wants to have mixed, with which
mixing ratio, how much and in which
volume per filling.
Product/
Ingredient
A mixed liquid is made up out of at
least two ingredients/products.
Therefore, an order item always
includes at least two ingredients.
Supplier The ingredients are delivered by a
supplier.
CPPS-
Service
A CPPS-Service is a virtual entity.
Thus, mixing liquids is defined as a
service.
CPPS-
Module
The physical modules of a CPPS-
Service are named CPPS-Module. A
CPPS-Module is a distinguishable part
of a machine that is responsible for a
specific task in the production process.
Figure 1: Data model of the xRM prototype.
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Table 2: Entities of the xRM prototype – Part 2.
CPPS-
Component
A CPPS-Module is built up out of
smaller components called CPPS-
Components. For example these
elements can be seen as the sensors and
the actuator of the module.
Event
Document
In a CPPS-Component different events
are triggered form inside or outside.
These events get saved in an entity
named Event Document which is linked
to the corresponding entity.
Owner Each CPPS-Service and CPPS-Module
has an Owner who is responsible for
maintenance, order processing etc. The
Owner can be an employee of the
organization, a department of the
organization or a business partner.
An xRM platform enables an application to be built
out of this data model with the Point-and-Click
functionality. In SugarCRM this is carried out in the
function “Module Builder”. This data model was
transferred one-to-one on the xRM platform. A
customer places a sales order with order items. Each
order item has two ingredients (liquid for mixing)
that are delivered by a supplier. In addition, each
order item gets a mixing service allocated. This
mixing service (CPPS-Service) is responsible for the
production of the mixed liquid. A CPPS-Service is
constructed out of CPPS-Modules that can be seen
as parts of an industrial production unit. A CPPS-
Module in turn has various sensors and actuators
(CPPS-Components).
CPPS-Components also have an Event-
Document that records activities. Furthermore
CPPS-Components and CPPS-Services have an
Owner who is responsible for production and
predictive maintenance.
The next step is to fill the entities with content.
Here we focus on the content of the industrial
production unit for liquid mixing. Figure 2 shows a
liquid mixing service we have defined with five
CPPS-Modules that have sensors and actuators.
4.3 Sales Orders via XML
In future customers will configure and produce their
own products in the Smart Factory over the cloud.
We simulated what such a business process could
look like with the xRM prototype (see section 4.5).
The customer selects which liquids he wants to have
mixed, defines the mixing ratio and the boxing
(bottles, barrels etc.) over the xRM cloud interface.
Additionally, the customer also chooses a CPPS-
Service which will produce his mixed liquid. After
the order item is saved the production can be
triggered by sending the data of the item to a CPPS-
Service.
We implemented a function on the SugarCRM
platform in the main menu of the sales order
interface that allows the creation of an XML file that
contains all relevant data of an order item. This can
be done by defining own PHP-classes that are
extensions of the class DOMElement.
The XML file can be sent via HTTP-POST to an
existing cloud server of the industrial production
unit. Communication via SOAP web services is also
feasible. In the following, there is a short example
what content in the XML file might look like.
This generated example contains information
about an order item that wants to have the liquids
cola and soda mixed in five bottles with the mixing
ration 90/10.
Figure 2: Elements of the liquid mixing service.
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Figure 3: Example of an XML file for data exchange.
4.4 Real-time Data Exchange via Web
Services
The exchange of data is necessary to trace the
production process of the mixing liquid service. In
SugarCRM data can be sent directly to the platform
entities (SugarCRM calls them “Modules”) via web
services. We implemented a PHP script for the xRM
prototype that sends data to all of the CPPS-
Components of a CPPS-Service. This PHP script
simulates how a mixing liquid production process
would actually send data to the SugarCRM platform.
Thus, it enables employees to monitor the
production process in real-time. Besides monitoring
sensor values, finished process steps and status can
also be visualized through the platform interface.
The following figure illustrates the interface to
monitor values of CPPS-Components.
Figure 4: Interface to monitor production process values.
To evaluate past data every new sensor value can
also be saved in the entity Event Document that has
a relationship to the corresponding CPPS-
Component. This event document is linked to an
XML file which saves sensor values and time
stamps. Hence, it is possible to evaluate past data by
analysis tools. Through this approach we want to
emphasize the importance of saving data in the
entity it belongs to and not to save unstructured data
somewhere else.
4.5 Implemented Business Scenario
To illustrate the big picture of the implemented
business scenario a corresponding business process
is shown in the Business Process Management
Notation (BPMN) in figure 5. Thereby, only the
important process steps were depicted.
Figure 5: Business process of the xRM prototype.
The business process starts with the event
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“Customer wants to mix liquid”. While placing the
sales order and the order items it is verified if
necessary ingredients are in stock. If not, they are
ordered from a supplier through a purchase system.
Afterwards a CPPS-Service for mixing liquids as a
Service is chosen by the customer or by the
employee (if customer doesn’t have the skills or
permissions). Depending on the chosen CPPS-
Service the business process on the one hand is
transferred to a business partner (if its own
organization cannot accept the sales order) and on
the other hand further processed in its own
organization. If the sales order is transferred to a
business partner this is registered and will lead to a
brokerage for the organization.
The further process steps inits own organization
are the scheduling for the manufacturing, the final
saving of sales order with an acknowledgment via
email and the start of the manufacturing process
when possible or desired. The two filling tanks are
first filled with the chosen ingredients of the order
item in the manufacturing process. The next step is
to mix these ingredients in the mixing tank and to
send notification to the customer when finished. In
the third step the mix liquid gets pumped to the final
holding tank. The last step is to fill the mixed liquid
out of the holding tank in chosen volumes per filling
(bottles etc.) of the order item and to send another
email to the customer when completed. After the
manufacturing process is finish the mixed liquid is
prepared for shipping to the customer.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Organizations are confronted with a rapidly
changing environment today in which relationship
management is more important than ever. By using
xRM concepts and xRM platforms an approach is
given to handle the increasing complexity. In future,
production services will also be able to
automatically allocate their sales orders among their
related industrial production units.
We predict that industrial production units will
independently configure themselves according to the
relations in the xRM. As an example the liquid
mixing service we have shown could have a third
filling tank added on the xRM platform. This would
create a task in the Smart Factory that ends up by
adding such a tank to the industrial production unit
and connecting it to the other modules. Vice versa,
adding a new tank cloud also automatically creates
the relationship in xRM.
Regardless of the data flow direction, xRM
platforms and their relationship networks will
become more and more important in the future.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the research
program of Karl Steinbuch of the MFG Innovation
Agency for ICT and Media for the financial support
of the research project “Ma-x-RM – Management
concept of Anything Relationship Management”.
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