Ontologies- and Standards-based Approaches to Interoperability for Concurrent Engineering

As the use of information technology and computer-driven systems in manufacturing and construction design has matured, the necessity for software applications to work together, exchange data, processes and information has become crucial to the conduct of business and operations in organisations. This capability is referred to as interoperability (Pouchard 2000), (Pouchard 2002), (Ray 2003). To be competitive and maintain good economic performance, organisations need to employ increasingly effective and efficient data and computer systems. Such systems should result in the seamless integration of application data and exchange of processes between applications. Organisations should also be able to conserve and retrieve on demand the knowledge contained in their business and operational processes, regardless of the applications used to produce and handle these processes.