Utilizing information and knowledge models to support global manufacturing co-ordination decisions

In recent years, researchers have devoted great attention to global manufacturing co-ordination (GMC). The focus of GMC is on integrating the activities across both functions (supply, manufacturing, distribution) and geographic areas, that is not only on synchronising and smoothing production operations but also on product shifting. Successful international co-ordination and collaboration requires information integration and sharing. Representation and provision of a common source of high quality information, through information models, is one of the fundamental requirements of effective information integration and sharing. This paper proposes an approach that utilizes a combination of information and knowledge models to support GMC decision-making. Three models have been identified and their structures have been defined and modelled using Rational Rose UML, An experimental system, based on the object-oriented DBMS ObjectStore and Visual C ++, has been constructed and used to explore the approach taken. This has shown that the new structures of the three models defined in this paper can capture the required information and knowledge, and that these provide effective information and knowledge support for GMC decisions.