Copyright 2007 Information Interoperability for Supply Chain CIFE TAC 2007 1 Information Interoperability for Engineering and Construction Supply Chain

Copyright 2007

Information Interoperability for Supply Chain

1CIFE TAC 2007

Information Interoperability for Information Interoperability for Engineering and Construction Engineering and Construction

Supply ChainSupply Chain

Kincho H. Law, Gio Wiederhold,

Charles Han, Jack Cheng

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2CIFE TAC 2007

The big idea

Information Mapping and IntegrationInformation Mapping and Integration, which can be leveraged to

- establish a network of information and services for AEC virtual supply chain

- facilitate the virtual design and construction process

- enhance collaboration, decision-making and cost saving.

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3CIFE TAC 2007

Motivating Engineering/Business Problem

Motivating Problem Point of Departure Semantic Similarity Information Mapping CIFE Goals Plan, Risk, Funding

Owner

Subcontractors

GeneralContractor

Architect/ DesignConsultants

Suppliers

Current AEC Supply Chain

Courtesy: Hans Bjornsson

• Scattered information sources

• Fragmented SC

• Different hardware and software

• Different information models

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4CIFE TAC 2007

Inevitable Need for Data Exchange


3D Models in Autodesk ADT eQUEST Model for HVAC

IFC gbXML

???

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5CIFE TAC 2007

Consequences

• Lack of information reuse and sharing• Decreased corporation and system accountability and

transparency• Increased lead-time• Reduced customer service level

Can it be improved?Can it be improved?


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6CIFE TAC 2007

Points of Departure

• Information Interoperability is often neglected in Information Interoperability is often neglected in a network of systems (a network of systems (e.g. supply chain network, e.g. supply chain network,

workflow networkworkflow network))• A single, unifying standard model is commonly A single, unifying standard model is commonly

builtbuilt• Mapping between different standards is now Mapping between different standards is now

manualmanual


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7CIFE TAC 2007

Online Web Services 1: Integrating Online Catalog with CAD and Inventory Management

Architectural Design

Inventory Management

Automated Procurement

WebServices

Web Service Gateway

Deployed Suppliers Web Services

Further Simulation

Availability Check Order &

Invoice


Autodesk i-drop

Automated Workflow/ Supply Chain

Information Interoperability

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8CIFE TAC 2007

Online Web Services 2: Integrating Online Weather Service to Engineering Simulation

Online Weather Information

Information ofWeather Impact

ProcessWeatherImpact

Re-Schedulethe Project

Re-Simulatethe Project

NotifyParticipants

SchedulingInformation

(e.g., P3, MS Project,or Database)

Microsoft Excel

Autodesk ADT

<?xml version="1.0"?><WeatherReport><weather date="2003-9-23"><location><zipcode value="33410" /></location><conditions value=" Isolated thunderstorms early, mainly cloudy overnight with a few showers" /><temperature><templow c="23.3" f="74.0" /><temphigh c="32.2" f="90.0" /></temperature>……</weather>……


Information Interoperability

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9CIFE TAC 2007

Point of Departure (2/3)Unified Information Models

Building a single, unifying model of concepts and definitions is neither efficient nor practical [Source: Steve Ray (Division Chief, NIST Manufacturing Systems Integration Division) ]


BIM

Product, process, organization information

Design, analysis, procurement, installation, etc.

Separated yet linkedlinked models, differentiated by types and scopes

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10CIFE TAC 2007

• Multiple information standards or data model structures in AEC industry:

– Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)– OmniClass Construction Classification System– CIMsteel Integration Standards (CIS/2)– Automating Equipment Information Exchange (AEX)– UniFormatTM

– MasterFormatTM

– etc.

• Mapping is now done manually by domain experts– Time-consuming– Labor-intensive– Ineffecient

Point of Departure (3/3)Manual Information Mapping Between Standards

Mapping is needed for model rebuilding and data exchange purpose…


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11CIFE TAC 2007

Manual Mapping CIS/2 and IFC for Structural Steel

Reference: Lipman (2006)

CIS/2

IFC

Took 2 Years!

Located_part

Coord_system_cartesian_3d

Section_profile

IfcColumn

IfcLocalPlacement

IfcShapeProfileDef


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12CIFE TAC 2007

Research Methods

• Two basic work packages:– Knowledge-Driven Approach for Semantic Similarity

Comparison Discover similarity of concepts “Harmonize” different ontological standards

– Methodologies to Information Transformation and Integration Formal operations for mapping Information across scopes and applications Web service framework


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13CIFE TAC 2007

Making Use of Ontology

Ontology – Terminology and structure of information sources meaningful information exchange and sharing

Gartner Group*: “By 2010, ontologies ….will be the basis for 80 percent of

application integration projects”

Heterogeneous Representation of Ontologies:• Term Difference (Elevator vs. Lift)• View/Contextual Difference (Transportation vs. Equipment)• Schema Difference (BPEL vs. PSL vs. WSML vs. etc.)• Version Difference (IfcWorkTask – IFC 2.0 vs. IfcTask – IFC 2x)


*Jacobs, J. and Linden (2002), A. Semantic Web Technologies Take Middleware to the Next Level, Technical Report T-17-5338, Gartner Group.

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14CIFE TAC 2007

Mediation for Information Articulation

• Mediation semantic differences of formats• Metadata (ontology) are defined and extracted

Source Domain 1:Owned and maintained by Organization A

Source Domain 2:Owned and maintained by Organization B

Result contains shared terms

Terms useful for linking rules

Mediation


Metadata MetadataText-miningText-miningData-miningData-mining

Information Information ArticulationArticulation

Courtesy:Gio Wiederhold

Knowledge Corpus

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15CIFE TAC 2007

Semantic Comparison Between OmniClass and ifcXML

Regulation Set (International Building Code, IBC)

Ontology 1 (OmniClass) Ontology 2 (ifcXML)

IfcSlab

steel


Source Domain 1

Source Domain 2

Knowledge Corpus for Mediation

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16CIFE TAC 2007

Knowledge-Driven Approach for Semantic Similarity Comparison

[F] 903.4.2 Alarms. Approved audible devices shall be connected to every automatic sprinkler system. Such sprinkler water-flow alarm devices shall be activated by water flow equivalent to the flow of a single sprinkler of the smallest orifice size installed in the system. Alarm devices shall be provided on the exterior of the building in an approved location. Where a fire alarm system is installed, actuation of the automatic sprinkler system shall actuate the building fire alarm system.

sprinkler system

orifice

O1

fire

alarm O1

water flowO2

fire alarm systemO2


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17CIFE TAC 2007

Information Transformation and Integration

• Migration of data:– In same domain (e.g. MasterFormat to UniFormat, proprietary

schemas to open standards)– Across disciplines (e.g. green building information with product

geometry information)

• Form – physical structure and contentFit – entity’s semantics or meaningFunction – purpose of how the entity is used


Sellers Suppliers (Form, Fit, Function)

Product cost (buyer)[obtain and store]

Product cost (suppliers) (Form, Fit) [produce and store]

Product cost (suppliers) (Form, Function) [price it sells the item]

???

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18CIFE TAC 2007

Relationship to CIFE Goals

• Engineering Modeling Methods:– Modeling of product, process and organization data for information

exchange and sharing• Analysis Methods:

– Establishment of formal methodologies and operations to solve the information interoperability problem

• Business Metrics:– Support for information flow and global supply chain

• Strategic Management:– Integration of distributed information and services for decision-making

• Economic Impact Analysis:– Cost saving because of efficient collaboration between stakeholders

and interoperation among heterogeneous applications


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19CIFE TAC 2007

Research Tasks, Schedule and Milestone

2007 2008

Autumn Quarter Winter Quarter Spring Quarter Summer Quarter

Define and develop methodologies for the mediation tools, and the information interoperability infrastructure

Implement and test the information interoperability result with a simple procurement supply chain application

Define and scope a series of case scenarios with increasing complexity with collaborators (e.g. NIST, GSA)

Demonstrate a set of case scenarios of modest scale with a Web service framework and solicit feedback

Validation and calibration of the information system will be an ongoing activity


Deliverables

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20CIFE TAC 2007

Risks• Establishment of a comprehensive information system

infrastructure is a task beyond a 1- or 2-year seed research proposal

• We will make use of:– Pilot project leading to fundamental understanding– Collaborations with other researchers and their

organizations

• Publications:– J. Cheng, C. P. Cheng, M. A. L. Thi, and K. H. Law. "Engineering Simulations with Web-based

Services," Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, (ICCCBE XI), Montreal, Canada, June 14-16, 2006.

– C. P. Cheng, G. T. Lau, J. Pan, K. H. Law, and A. Jones "Domain-Specific Ontology Mapping by Corpus-Based Semantic Similarity," Scientific Foundations Workshop of End-to-End Service Utility (E2ESU), NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, USA, March 22-23, 2007.

– C. P. Cheng, G. T. Lau, and K. H. Law "Mapping Regulations to Industry-Specific Taxonomies" 11th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, June 4-8, 2007.


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21CIFE TAC 2007

External Involvement

• Potential Interest from industry organizations and government agencies

• Collaborations:– Prof. Hans Bjornsson (Chalmers, Sweden and UC Merced)– Dr. Robert Lipman (NIST, IAI’s ifc & CIS/2 Interoperability

project)– Dr. Mark Palmer (NIST, FIATECH’s AEX Interoperability project)– Dr. Albert Jones (NIST Enterprise Systems Group)– Mr. Dave Conover (International Code Council)– Dr. Calvin Kam (GSA)

– others... (for example, ENSURE partners with EU researchers)


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22CIFE TAC 2007

Potential Funding Sources

• Key initiative at various agencies: NSF, NIST, FIATECH, EU Framework 7, etc.

• NIST (as well as FIATECH):– “Information interoperability and supply chain

management” is the upcoming key initiative– Established strong collaboration with NIST

Further funding support is anticipated


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23CIFE TAC 2007

Documents

Copyright 2007 Information Interoperability for Supply Chain CIFE TAC 2007 1 Information Interoperability for Engineering and Construction Supply Chain