Lai Xu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Lai Xu

Research paper thumbnail of Supporting Predictive Maintenance in Virtual Factory

Springer eBooks, 2021

In Industry 4.0 manufacturing collaborative network, product design processes, manufacturing proc... more In Industry 4.0 manufacturing collaborative network, product design processes, manufacturing processes, maintenance processes should be integrated across different factories and enterprises. The collaborative manufacturing network 4.0 allows the amalgamation of manufacturing resources in multiple organizations to operate processes in a collaborative manner for reacting to the fast changes of markets or emergencies. In this paper, we propose a predictive maintenance service as a part of a virtual factory, a form of collaborative manufacturing network. Data-driven predictive maintenance service is built-in FIWARE, an industry 4.0 framework. To optimize predictive maintenance services based on different criteria within a virtual factor, such as geographical locations, similar types of machinery, or cost/time efficiency, etc., we provide our design and implementation to deal with providing better maintenance services and data exchanging across different collaborative partners with different requirements and modularizing of related functions.

Research paper thumbnail of Integration Framework of MES Toward Data Security Interoperation

Springer eBooks, 2020

The core problem of the application of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) in intelligent manufa... more The core problem of the application of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) in intelligent manufacturing systems is integration, which solves the problem of the data interoperation between the distributed manufacturing systems. The previous researches on MES integration rarely considered the problem of system data security access. A three-level data security access mechanism based on the independence of the system administrators, security administrators, and security auditors is proposed which integrated into the MES integration framework to guarantee the business and engineering data security access for the related distributed clients. The principle is using the domain to make the logical isolation for different clients and data sources and applying the pre-defined data sharing rules for safe access. In the proposed MES integration framework model, the data interoperation between MES and the engineering software systems is discussed which includes ERP (Enterprise Resource Management), CAPP (Computer Aided Process Planning), DNC (Distribution Numerical Control), WMS (Warehouse Management System), and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), etc., the implementation method of personalized data display GUI is discussed as well. The study is based on the KMMES developed by Wuhan KM-Software of China, and it has been deployed in over forty companies from the sections of aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding and other industries.

Research paper thumbnail of Supporting collaborative business processes: a BPaaS approach

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2018

Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Clo... more Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Cloud-based business process management services have provided small medium enterprises (SMEs) with a pay-per-use manner for their daily business needs, i.e. some simple business process applications, e.g. salesforce provides cloud-based CRM to boost SMEs' sales. This raises the question how cloud-based business process management solutions can support the fast pace of change of business collaborations among business partners? For example, collaborative processes for managing industrial incidents are short term, low frequency processes. This paper proposes an architecture meta-model, which is used to design the concrete architecture and to further analyse the performance of the proposed solution. A real world case of collaborative processes for incident and maintenance notifications is used to explain the design and implementation of the cloudbased solution for supporting collaborative business processes. Service improvement of the new solution and computing power costs are analysed accordingly.

Research paper thumbnail of Selecting SaaS CRM Solution for SMEs

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems and Technologies

The use of CRM system has helped many organisations to manage and analyze business interaction wi... more The use of CRM system has helped many organisations to manage and analyze business interaction with customers in several ways. However, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are often struggling to find an optimal solution to fit their business and financial conditions. When faced with different SaaS-based CRM solutions, SMEs need to save investments in IT infrastructure, the cost of CRM deployment, and the maintenance cost. To select the best solution for the SME is critical for the business. This paper look at What systematic approach SMEs needs to follow when choosing the best SaaS CRM solution that would suit their company business strategy? To answer this question, this study presents a comprehensive decision-making framework for SaaS CRM evaluation and selection approach using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). The proposed selection approach is also applied to an SME, Biyemfat Enterprise, a small private real estate company. A case study of selecting a SaaS CRM solution for Biyemfat Enterprise is presented with an evaluation of the cost-benefit analysis.

Research paper thumbnail of Verification and Compliance in Collaborative Processes

Boosting Collaborative Networks 4.0, 2020

Evidently, COVID-19 has changed our lives and is likely to make a lasting impact on our economic ... more Evidently, COVID-19 has changed our lives and is likely to make a lasting impact on our economic development and our industry and services. In the ongoing process of digital transformation in industry and services, Collaborative Networks (CNs) is required to be more efficient, productive, flexible, resilient and sustainable according to change of situations and related rules applied afterwards. Although the CN area is relatively young, it requires the previous research to be extended, i.e. business process management from dealing with processes within a single organization into processes across different organizations. In this paper, we review current business process verification and compliance research. Different tools approaches and limitations of them are compared. The further research issues and potential solutions of business process verification and compliance check are discussed in the context of CNs.

Research paper thumbnail of EU H2020 FIRST- vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovation

The manufacturing industry is entering a new era in which new ICT technologies and collaboration ... more The manufacturing industry is entering a new era in which new ICT technologies and collaboration applications are integrated with traditional manufacturing practices and processes to increase flexibility in manufacturing, mass customization, increase speed, better quality and to improve productivity. Virtual factories are key building blocks for Manufacturing 2.0, enabling the creation of new business ecosystems. In itself, the concept of virtual factories is a major expansion upon virtual enterprises in the context of manufacturing, which only integrates collaborative business processes from different enterprises to simulate, model and test different design options, to evaluate performance, thus to save time-to-production. Creating virtual factories requires the integration of product design processes, manufacturing processes, and general collaborative business processes across factories and enterprises. An important aspect of this integration is ensure straightforward compatibilit...

Research paper thumbnail of EU H2020 FIRST- vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovation

Research paper thumbnail of Does Alibaba limit Chinese Small and Medium Enter­prises or enrich them?

Research paper thumbnail of A Federated Simulation Framework for Cross-organisational Processes

Springer eBooks, 2021

Simulation is a significant tool that can be used to evaluate, monitor and enhance the processes ... more Simulation is a significant tool that can be used to evaluate, monitor and enhance the processes and to predict the behaviour of a system in a particular scenario. Collaborative processes involving multiple organisations are becoming important in the changing landscape of the manufacturing industry towards industry 4.0. Simulating these processes require an independent and distributed execution because of the privacy concerns of partner organisations and the re-usability of existing simulators. In this paper, we propose a simulation framework based on a federated approach for the simulation of collaborative processes. The federated approach enables the simulation of parts of the processes from multiple organisations by combining independent simulators through a common interface. The common interface is responsible for the synchronisation of all the simulators within the federation. The framework will be evaluated using an industrial case study of textile manufacturing using Virtual Organisations.

Research paper thumbnail of E-Contracting Challenges

IGI Global eBooks, May 26, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Supporting collaborative business processes: a BPaaS approach

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2018

Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Clo... more Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Cloud-based business process management services have provided small medium enterprises (SMEs) with a pay-per-use manner for their daily business needs, i.e. some simple business process applications, e.g. salesforce provides cloud-based CRM to boost SMEs' sales. This raises the question how cloud-based business process management solutions can support the fast pace of change of business collaborations among business partners? For example, collaborative processes for managing industrial incidents are short term, low frequency processes. This paper proposes an architecture meta-model, which is used to design the concrete architecture and to further analyse the performance of the proposed solution. A real world case of collaborative processes for incident and maintenance notifications is used to explain the design and implementation of the cloudbased solution for supporting collaborative business processes. Service improvement of the new solution and computing power costs are analysed accordingly.

Research paper thumbnail of A Comparative Assessment of Collaborative Business Process Verification Approaches

Springer eBooks, 2017

Industry 4.0 is a key strategic trend of the economy. Virtual factories are key building blocks f... more Industry 4.0 is a key strategic trend of the economy. Virtual factories are key building blocks for Industry 4.0 where product design processes, manufacturing processes and general collaborative business processes across factories and enterprises are integrated. In the context of EU H2020 FIRST (vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovaTion) project, end users of vFs are not experts in business process modelling to guarantee correct collaborative business processes for realizing execution. To enable automatic execution of business processes, verification is an important step at the business process design stage to avoid errors at runtime. Research in business process model verification has yielded a plethora of approaches in form of languages and tools that are based on Petri nets family and temporal logic. However, no report specifically targets and presents a comparative assessment of these approaches based on criteria as one we propose. In this paper we present an assessment of the most common verification approaches based on their expressibility, flexibility, suitability and complexity. We also look at how big data impacts the business process verification approach in a data-rich world.

Research paper thumbnail of A Predictive Maintenance Model for Flexible Manufacturing in the Context of Industry 4.0

Frontiers in big data, Aug 25, 2021

The Industry 4.0 paradigm is the focus of modern manufacturing system design. The integration of ... more The Industry 4.0 paradigm is the focus of modern manufacturing system design. The integration of cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of things, cyber-physical systems, big data analytics, and cloud computing requires a flexible platform supporting the effective optimization of manufacturing-related processes, e.g., predictive maintenance. Existing predictive maintenance studies generally focus on either a predictive model without considering the maintenance decisions or maintenance optimizations based on the degradation models of the known system. To address this, we propose PMMI 4.0, a Predictive Maintenance Model for Industry 4.0, which utilizes a newly proposed solution PMS4MMC for supporting an optimized maintenance schedule plan for multiple machine components driven by a data-driven LSTM model for RUL (remaining useful life) estimation. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is demonstrated using a real-world industrial case with related data. The results showed the validity and applicability of this work.

Research paper thumbnail of Incorporating a Prediction Engine to a Digital Twin Simulation for Effective Decision Support in Context of Industry 4.0

Springer eBooks, 2022

Simulation has been widely used as a tool to enhance the manufacturing processes by effectively d... more Simulation has been widely used as a tool to enhance the manufacturing processes by effectively detecting the errors and performance gaps at an early stage. However, in context of industry 4.0, which involves increased complexity, decisions need to be made more quickly to maintain higher efficiency. In this paper, we use a prediction engine along with a Digital Twin simulation to enhance the decision-making process. We show how, based upon a simulation of a process, a prediction model can be used to determine process parameters based upon desired process outcomes that enhance the manufacturing process. To evaluate our architecture, an industrial case study based on Inventory, Storage and Distribution will be used.

Research paper thumbnail of A reference architecture for big data systems

Over dozens of years, applying new IT technologies into organizations has always been a big conce... more Over dozens of years, applying new IT technologies into organizations has always been a big concern for business. Big data certainly is a new concept exciting business. To be able to access more data and empower to analysis big data requires new big data platforms. However, there still remains limited reference architecture for big data systems. In this paper, based on existing reference architecture of big data systems, we propose new high level abstract reference architecture and related reference architecture notations, that better express the overall architecture. The new reference architecture is verified using one existing case and an additional new use case.

Research paper thumbnail of The FIRST (vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovaTion) Project: Service Management for Virtual Factories

Communications in computer and information science, 2020

The H2020 FIRST project addresses the virtual factories, which are digital abstractions of real f... more The H2020 FIRST project addresses the virtual factories, which are digital abstractions of real factories. The exploitation of virtual factories enables interoperability between real components inside a factory as well as between different factories belonging to the same supply chain. Moreover, virtual factories can be exploited to manage and compose services inside a factory, defining dynamic adaptation of set of services depending on high-level goals. In this paper we sketch the project results and its current state.

Research paper thumbnail of Correction to: Process Driven Access Control and Authorization Approach

Advances in intelligent systems and computing, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of A generic and modularized Digital twin enabled human-robot collaboration

Research paper thumbnail of Verifying for Compliance to Data Constraints in Collaborative Business Processes

Springer eBooks, 2019

Production processes are nowadays fragmented across different companies and organized in global c... more Production processes are nowadays fragmented across different companies and organized in global collaborative networks. This is the result of the first wave of globalization that, among the various factors, was enabled by the diffusion of Internet-based Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at the beginning of the years 2000. The recent wave of new technologies possibly leading to the fourth industrial revolution-the so-called Industry 4.0is further multiplying opportunities. Accessing global customers opens great opportunities for organizations, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but it requires the ability to adapt to different requirements and conditions, volatile demand patterns and fast-changing technologies. Regardless of the industrial sector, the processes used in an organization must be compliant to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Thus, compliance verification is a major concern, not only to keep pace with changing regulations but also to address the rising concerns of security, product and service quality and data privacy. The software, in particular process automation, used must be designed accordingly. In relation to process management, we propose a new way to pro-actively check the compliance of current running business processes using Descriptive Logic and Linear Temporal Logic to describe the constraints related to data. Related algorithms are presented to detect the potential violations.

Research paper thumbnail of Process Driven Access Control and Authorization Approach

Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Dec 1, 2019

Compliance to regulatory requirements is key to successful collaborative business process executi... more Compliance to regulatory requirements is key to successful collaborative business process execution. The review of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) brought to the fore the need to comply with data privacy. Access control and authorization mechanisms in workflow management systems based on roles, tasks, and attributes do not sufficiently address the current complex and dynamic privacy requirements in collaborative business process environments due to diverse policies. This paper proposes process driven authorization as an alternative approach to data access control and authorization where access is granted based on a legitimate need to accomplish a task in the business process. Due to vast sources of regulations, a mechanism to derive and validate a composite set of constraints free of conflicts and contradictions is presented. An extended workflow tree language is also presented to support constraint modeling. An industry case pick and pack process is used for illustration.

Research paper thumbnail of Supporting Predictive Maintenance in Virtual Factory

Springer eBooks, 2021

In Industry 4.0 manufacturing collaborative network, product design processes, manufacturing proc... more In Industry 4.0 manufacturing collaborative network, product design processes, manufacturing processes, maintenance processes should be integrated across different factories and enterprises. The collaborative manufacturing network 4.0 allows the amalgamation of manufacturing resources in multiple organizations to operate processes in a collaborative manner for reacting to the fast changes of markets or emergencies. In this paper, we propose a predictive maintenance service as a part of a virtual factory, a form of collaborative manufacturing network. Data-driven predictive maintenance service is built-in FIWARE, an industry 4.0 framework. To optimize predictive maintenance services based on different criteria within a virtual factor, such as geographical locations, similar types of machinery, or cost/time efficiency, etc., we provide our design and implementation to deal with providing better maintenance services and data exchanging across different collaborative partners with different requirements and modularizing of related functions.

Research paper thumbnail of Integration Framework of MES Toward Data Security Interoperation

Springer eBooks, 2020

The core problem of the application of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) in intelligent manufa... more The core problem of the application of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) in intelligent manufacturing systems is integration, which solves the problem of the data interoperation between the distributed manufacturing systems. The previous researches on MES integration rarely considered the problem of system data security access. A three-level data security access mechanism based on the independence of the system administrators, security administrators, and security auditors is proposed which integrated into the MES integration framework to guarantee the business and engineering data security access for the related distributed clients. The principle is using the domain to make the logical isolation for different clients and data sources and applying the pre-defined data sharing rules for safe access. In the proposed MES integration framework model, the data interoperation between MES and the engineering software systems is discussed which includes ERP (Enterprise Resource Management), CAPP (Computer Aided Process Planning), DNC (Distribution Numerical Control), WMS (Warehouse Management System), and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), etc., the implementation method of personalized data display GUI is discussed as well. The study is based on the KMMES developed by Wuhan KM-Software of China, and it has been deployed in over forty companies from the sections of aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding and other industries.

Research paper thumbnail of Supporting collaborative business processes: a BPaaS approach

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2018

Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Clo... more Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Cloud-based business process management services have provided small medium enterprises (SMEs) with a pay-per-use manner for their daily business needs, i.e. some simple business process applications, e.g. salesforce provides cloud-based CRM to boost SMEs' sales. This raises the question how cloud-based business process management solutions can support the fast pace of change of business collaborations among business partners? For example, collaborative processes for managing industrial incidents are short term, low frequency processes. This paper proposes an architecture meta-model, which is used to design the concrete architecture and to further analyse the performance of the proposed solution. A real world case of collaborative processes for incident and maintenance notifications is used to explain the design and implementation of the cloudbased solution for supporting collaborative business processes. Service improvement of the new solution and computing power costs are analysed accordingly.

Research paper thumbnail of Selecting SaaS CRM Solution for SMEs

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems and Technologies

The use of CRM system has helped many organisations to manage and analyze business interaction wi... more The use of CRM system has helped many organisations to manage and analyze business interaction with customers in several ways. However, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are often struggling to find an optimal solution to fit their business and financial conditions. When faced with different SaaS-based CRM solutions, SMEs need to save investments in IT infrastructure, the cost of CRM deployment, and the maintenance cost. To select the best solution for the SME is critical for the business. This paper look at What systematic approach SMEs needs to follow when choosing the best SaaS CRM solution that would suit their company business strategy? To answer this question, this study presents a comprehensive decision-making framework for SaaS CRM evaluation and selection approach using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). The proposed selection approach is also applied to an SME, Biyemfat Enterprise, a small private real estate company. A case study of selecting a SaaS CRM solution for Biyemfat Enterprise is presented with an evaluation of the cost-benefit analysis.

Research paper thumbnail of Verification and Compliance in Collaborative Processes

Boosting Collaborative Networks 4.0, 2020

Evidently, COVID-19 has changed our lives and is likely to make a lasting impact on our economic ... more Evidently, COVID-19 has changed our lives and is likely to make a lasting impact on our economic development and our industry and services. In the ongoing process of digital transformation in industry and services, Collaborative Networks (CNs) is required to be more efficient, productive, flexible, resilient and sustainable according to change of situations and related rules applied afterwards. Although the CN area is relatively young, it requires the previous research to be extended, i.e. business process management from dealing with processes within a single organization into processes across different organizations. In this paper, we review current business process verification and compliance research. Different tools approaches and limitations of them are compared. The further research issues and potential solutions of business process verification and compliance check are discussed in the context of CNs.

Research paper thumbnail of EU H2020 FIRST- vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovation

The manufacturing industry is entering a new era in which new ICT technologies and collaboration ... more The manufacturing industry is entering a new era in which new ICT technologies and collaboration applications are integrated with traditional manufacturing practices and processes to increase flexibility in manufacturing, mass customization, increase speed, better quality and to improve productivity. Virtual factories are key building blocks for Manufacturing 2.0, enabling the creation of new business ecosystems. In itself, the concept of virtual factories is a major expansion upon virtual enterprises in the context of manufacturing, which only integrates collaborative business processes from different enterprises to simulate, model and test different design options, to evaluate performance, thus to save time-to-production. Creating virtual factories requires the integration of product design processes, manufacturing processes, and general collaborative business processes across factories and enterprises. An important aspect of this integration is ensure straightforward compatibilit...

Research paper thumbnail of EU H2020 FIRST- vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovation

Research paper thumbnail of Does Alibaba limit Chinese Small and Medium Enter­prises or enrich them?

Research paper thumbnail of A Federated Simulation Framework for Cross-organisational Processes

Springer eBooks, 2021

Simulation is a significant tool that can be used to evaluate, monitor and enhance the processes ... more Simulation is a significant tool that can be used to evaluate, monitor and enhance the processes and to predict the behaviour of a system in a particular scenario. Collaborative processes involving multiple organisations are becoming important in the changing landscape of the manufacturing industry towards industry 4.0. Simulating these processes require an independent and distributed execution because of the privacy concerns of partner organisations and the re-usability of existing simulators. In this paper, we propose a simulation framework based on a federated approach for the simulation of collaborative processes. The federated approach enables the simulation of parts of the processes from multiple organisations by combining independent simulators through a common interface. The common interface is responsible for the synchronisation of all the simulators within the federation. The framework will be evaluated using an industrial case study of textile manufacturing using Virtual Organisations.

Research paper thumbnail of E-Contracting Challenges

IGI Global eBooks, May 26, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Supporting collaborative business processes: a BPaaS approach

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2018

Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Clo... more Collaborative business processes are increasingly driven by business flexibility and agility. Cloud-based business process management services have provided small medium enterprises (SMEs) with a pay-per-use manner for their daily business needs, i.e. some simple business process applications, e.g. salesforce provides cloud-based CRM to boost SMEs' sales. This raises the question how cloud-based business process management solutions can support the fast pace of change of business collaborations among business partners? For example, collaborative processes for managing industrial incidents are short term, low frequency processes. This paper proposes an architecture meta-model, which is used to design the concrete architecture and to further analyse the performance of the proposed solution. A real world case of collaborative processes for incident and maintenance notifications is used to explain the design and implementation of the cloudbased solution for supporting collaborative business processes. Service improvement of the new solution and computing power costs are analysed accordingly.

Research paper thumbnail of A Comparative Assessment of Collaborative Business Process Verification Approaches

Springer eBooks, 2017

Industry 4.0 is a key strategic trend of the economy. Virtual factories are key building blocks f... more Industry 4.0 is a key strategic trend of the economy. Virtual factories are key building blocks for Industry 4.0 where product design processes, manufacturing processes and general collaborative business processes across factories and enterprises are integrated. In the context of EU H2020 FIRST (vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovaTion) project, end users of vFs are not experts in business process modelling to guarantee correct collaborative business processes for realizing execution. To enable automatic execution of business processes, verification is an important step at the business process design stage to avoid errors at runtime. Research in business process model verification has yielded a plethora of approaches in form of languages and tools that are based on Petri nets family and temporal logic. However, no report specifically targets and presents a comparative assessment of these approaches based on criteria as one we propose. In this paper we present an assessment of the most common verification approaches based on their expressibility, flexibility, suitability and complexity. We also look at how big data impacts the business process verification approach in a data-rich world.

Research paper thumbnail of A Predictive Maintenance Model for Flexible Manufacturing in the Context of Industry 4.0

Frontiers in big data, Aug 25, 2021

The Industry 4.0 paradigm is the focus of modern manufacturing system design. The integration of ... more The Industry 4.0 paradigm is the focus of modern manufacturing system design. The integration of cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of things, cyber-physical systems, big data analytics, and cloud computing requires a flexible platform supporting the effective optimization of manufacturing-related processes, e.g., predictive maintenance. Existing predictive maintenance studies generally focus on either a predictive model without considering the maintenance decisions or maintenance optimizations based on the degradation models of the known system. To address this, we propose PMMI 4.0, a Predictive Maintenance Model for Industry 4.0, which utilizes a newly proposed solution PMS4MMC for supporting an optimized maintenance schedule plan for multiple machine components driven by a data-driven LSTM model for RUL (remaining useful life) estimation. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is demonstrated using a real-world industrial case with related data. The results showed the validity and applicability of this work.

Research paper thumbnail of Incorporating a Prediction Engine to a Digital Twin Simulation for Effective Decision Support in Context of Industry 4.0

Springer eBooks, 2022

Simulation has been widely used as a tool to enhance the manufacturing processes by effectively d... more Simulation has been widely used as a tool to enhance the manufacturing processes by effectively detecting the errors and performance gaps at an early stage. However, in context of industry 4.0, which involves increased complexity, decisions need to be made more quickly to maintain higher efficiency. In this paper, we use a prediction engine along with a Digital Twin simulation to enhance the decision-making process. We show how, based upon a simulation of a process, a prediction model can be used to determine process parameters based upon desired process outcomes that enhance the manufacturing process. To evaluate our architecture, an industrial case study based on Inventory, Storage and Distribution will be used.

Research paper thumbnail of A reference architecture for big data systems

Over dozens of years, applying new IT technologies into organizations has always been a big conce... more Over dozens of years, applying new IT technologies into organizations has always been a big concern for business. Big data certainly is a new concept exciting business. To be able to access more data and empower to analysis big data requires new big data platforms. However, there still remains limited reference architecture for big data systems. In this paper, based on existing reference architecture of big data systems, we propose new high level abstract reference architecture and related reference architecture notations, that better express the overall architecture. The new reference architecture is verified using one existing case and an additional new use case.

Research paper thumbnail of The FIRST (vF Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovaTion) Project: Service Management for Virtual Factories

Communications in computer and information science, 2020

The H2020 FIRST project addresses the virtual factories, which are digital abstractions of real f... more The H2020 FIRST project addresses the virtual factories, which are digital abstractions of real factories. The exploitation of virtual factories enables interoperability between real components inside a factory as well as between different factories belonging to the same supply chain. Moreover, virtual factories can be exploited to manage and compose services inside a factory, defining dynamic adaptation of set of services depending on high-level goals. In this paper we sketch the project results and its current state.

Research paper thumbnail of Correction to: Process Driven Access Control and Authorization Approach

Advances in intelligent systems and computing, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of A generic and modularized Digital twin enabled human-robot collaboration

Research paper thumbnail of Verifying for Compliance to Data Constraints in Collaborative Business Processes

Springer eBooks, 2019

Production processes are nowadays fragmented across different companies and organized in global c... more Production processes are nowadays fragmented across different companies and organized in global collaborative networks. This is the result of the first wave of globalization that, among the various factors, was enabled by the diffusion of Internet-based Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at the beginning of the years 2000. The recent wave of new technologies possibly leading to the fourth industrial revolution-the so-called Industry 4.0is further multiplying opportunities. Accessing global customers opens great opportunities for organizations, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but it requires the ability to adapt to different requirements and conditions, volatile demand patterns and fast-changing technologies. Regardless of the industrial sector, the processes used in an organization must be compliant to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Thus, compliance verification is a major concern, not only to keep pace with changing regulations but also to address the rising concerns of security, product and service quality and data privacy. The software, in particular process automation, used must be designed accordingly. In relation to process management, we propose a new way to pro-actively check the compliance of current running business processes using Descriptive Logic and Linear Temporal Logic to describe the constraints related to data. Related algorithms are presented to detect the potential violations.

Research paper thumbnail of Process Driven Access Control and Authorization Approach

Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Dec 1, 2019

Compliance to regulatory requirements is key to successful collaborative business process executi... more Compliance to regulatory requirements is key to successful collaborative business process execution. The review of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) brought to the fore the need to comply with data privacy. Access control and authorization mechanisms in workflow management systems based on roles, tasks, and attributes do not sufficiently address the current complex and dynamic privacy requirements in collaborative business process environments due to diverse policies. This paper proposes process driven authorization as an alternative approach to data access control and authorization where access is granted based on a legitimate need to accomplish a task in the business process. Due to vast sources of regulations, a mechanism to derive and validate a composite set of constraints free of conflicts and contradictions is presented. An extended workflow tree language is also presented to support constraint modeling. An industry case pick and pack process is used for illustration.