sylvain Kubler Kubler | Université de Lorraine (original) (raw)

Papers by sylvain Kubler Kubler

Research paper thumbnail of Open IoT Ecosystem for Enhanced Interoperability in Smart Cities—Example of Métropole De Lyon

Sensors, 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT) has promised a future where everything gets connected. Unfortunately... more The Internet of Things (IoT) has promised a future where everything gets connected. Unfortunately, building a single global ecosystem of Things that communicate with each other seamlessly is virtually impossible today. The reason is that the IoT is essentially a collection of isolated " Intranets of Things " , also referred to as " vertical silos " , which cannot easily and efficiently interact with each other. Smart cities are perhaps the most striking examples of this problem since they comprise a wide range of stakeholders and service providers who must work together, including urban planners, financial organisations, public and private service providers, telecommunication providers, industries, citizens, and so forth. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) discuss business and technological implications as well as challenges of creating successful open innovation ecosystems, (ii) present the technological building blocks underlying an IoT ecosystem developed in the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 programme, (iii) present a smart city pilot (Heat Wave Mitigation in Métropole de Lyon) for which the proposed ecosystem significantly contributes to improving interoperability between a number of system components, and reducing regulatory barriers for joint service co-creation practices.

Research paper thumbnail of Open IoT Ecosystem for Sporting Event Management

Open IoT Ecosystem for Sporting Event Management

By connecting devices, people, vehicles, and infrastructures everywhere in a city, governments an... more By connecting devices, people, vehicles, and infrastructures everywhere in a city, governments and their partners can improve community well-being and other economic and financial aspects (e.g., cost and energy savings). Nonetheless, smart cities are complex ecosystems that comprise many different stakeholders (network operators, managed service providers, logistic centers, and so on), who must work together to provide the best services and unlock the commercial potential of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). This is one of the major challenges that faces today's smart city movement, and the emerging ''API economy.'' Indeed, while new smart connected objects hit the market every day, they mostly feed ''vertical silos'' (e.g., vertical apps, siloed apps, and so on) that are closed to the rest of the IoT, thus hampering developers to produce new added value across multiple platforms and/or application domains. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is twofold: 1) present the strategic vision and ambition of the EU to overcome this critical vertical silos' issue and 2) introduce the first building blocks underlying an open IoT ecosystem developed as part of an EU (Horizon 2020) Project and a joint project initiative (IoT-EPI). The practicability of this ecosystem, along with a performance analysis, is carried out considering a proof-of-concept for enhanced sporting event management in the context of the forthcoming FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. INDEX TERMS Internet of Things, smart city, interoperability, ecosystem, open innovation, API economy.

Research paper thumbnail of A state-of the-art survey & testbed of Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) applications

As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteri... more As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) has been applied to a wide range of applications. As of the time of writing there is no state of the art survey of FAHP, we carry out a literature review of 190 application papers (i.e., applied research papers), published between 2004 and 2016, by classifying them on the basis of the area of application, the identified theme, the year of publication, and so forth. The identified themes and application areas have been chosen based upon the latest state-of-the-art survey of AHP conducted by Vaidya and Kumar (2006). To help readers extract quick and meaningful information, the reviewed papers are summarized in various tabular formats and charts. Unlike previous literature surveys, results and findings are made available through an online (and free) testbed, which can serve as a ready reference for those who wish to apply, modify or extend FAHP in various applications areas. This online testbed makes also available one or more fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices (FPCMs) from all the reviewed papers (255 matrices in total).
In terms of results and findings, this survey shows that: (i) FAHP is used primarily in the Manufacturing, Industry and Government sectors; (ii) Asia is the torchbearer in this field, where FAHP is mostly applied in the theme areas of Selection and Evaluation; (iii) a significant amount of research papers (43% of the reviewed literature) combine FAHP with other tools, particularly with TOPSIS, QFD and ANP (AHP's variant); (iv) Chang's extent analysis method, which is used for FPCMs' weight derivation in FAHP, is still the most popular method in spite of a number of criticisms in recent years (considered in 57% of the reviewed literature).

Research paper thumbnail of A state of the art survey & testbed of fuzzy AHP (FAHP) applications

A state-of the-art survey & testbed of Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) applications

As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteri... more As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) has been applied to a wide range of applications. As of the time of writing there is no state of the art survey of FAHP, we carry out a literature review of 190 application papers (i.e., applied research papers), published between 2004 and 2016, by classifying them on the basis of the area of application, the identified theme, the year of publication, and so forth. The identified themes and application areas have been chosen based upon the latest state-of-the-art survey of AHP conducted by [Vaidya, O., & Kumar, S. (2006). Analytic hierarchy process: An overview of applications. European Journal of operational research, 169(1), 1–29.]. To help readers extract quick and meaningful information, the reviewed papers are summarized in various tabular formats and charts. Unlike previous literature surveys , results and findings are made available through an online (and free) testbed, which can serve as a ready reference for those who wish to apply, modify or extend FAHP in various applications areas. This online testbed makes also available one or more fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices (FPCMs) from all the reviewed papers (255 matrices in total).

In terms of results and findings, this survey shows that: (i) FAHP is used primarily in the Manufacturing, Industry and Government sectors; (ii) Asia is the torchbearer in this field, where FAHP is mostly applied in the theme areas of Selection and Evaluation; (iii) a significant amount of research papers (43% of the reviewed literature) combine FAHP with other tools, particularly with TOPSIS, QFD and ANP (AHP's variant); (iv) Chang's extent analysis method, which is used for FPCMs'weight derivation in FAHP, is still the most popular method in spite of a number of criticisms in recent years (considered in 57% of the reviewed literature).

Research paper thumbnail of Data Quality Assessment of Maintenance Reporting Procedures

Data Quality Assessment of Maintenance Reporting Procedures

Today's largest and fastest growing companies' assets are no longer physical, but rather digital ... more Today's largest and fastest growing companies' assets are no longer physical, but rather digital (software, algorithms. . .). This is all the more true in the manufacturing, and particularly in the maintenance sector where quality of enterprise maintenance services are closely linked to the quality of maintenance data reporting procedures. If quality of the reported data is too low, it can results in wrong decision-making and loss of money. Furthermore, various maintenance experts are involved and directly concerned about the quality of enterprises' daily maintenance data reporting (e.g., maintenance planners, plant managers.. .), each one having specific needs and responsibilities. To address this Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem, and since data quality is hardly considered in existing expert maintenance systems, this paper develops a Maintenance Reporting Quality Assessment (MRQA) dashboard that enables any company stakeholder to easily – and in real-time – assess/rank company branch offices in terms of maintenance reporting quality. From a theoretical standpoint, AHP is used to integrate various data quality dimensions as well as expert preferences. A use case describes how the proposed MRQA dashboard is being used by a Finnish multinational equipment manufacturer to assess and enhance reporting practices in a specific or a group of branch offices.

Research paper thumbnail of Open Data Portal Quality Comparison using AHP

During recent years, more and more Open Data becomes available and used as part of the Open Data ... more During recent years, more and more Open Data becomes available and used as part of the Open Data movement. However, there are reported issues with the quality of the metadata in data portals and the data itself. This is a serious risk that could disrupt the Open Data project, as well as e-government initiatives since the data quality needs to be managed to guarantee the reliability of e-government to the public. First quality assessment frameworks emerge to evaluate the quality for a given dataset or portal along various dimensions (e.g., information completeness). Nonetheless, a common problem with such frameworks is to provide meaningful ranking mechanisms that are able to integrate several quality dimensions and user preferences (e.g., a portal provider is likely to have different quality preferences than a portal consumer). To address this multi-criteria decision making problem, our research work applies AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), which compares 146 active Open Data portals across 44 countries, powered by the CKAN software.

Research paper thumbnail of Opportunities for enhanced lean construction management using Internet of Things standards

Opportunities for enhanced lean construction management using Internet of Things standards

Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains c... more Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains challenging. The ad-hoc production control methods that are usually used, most of which are informal, foster uncertainty that prevents smooth production flow. Lean construction methods such as the Last Planner System have partially tackled this problem by involving site teams into the decision making process and having them report back to the production management system. However, such systems have relatively long " lookahead " planning cycles to respond to the dynamic production requirements of construction, where daily, if not hourly control is needed. New solutions have been proposed such as VisiLean, KanBIM, etc., but again these types of construction management systems require the proximity and availability of computer devices to workers. Through this paper, the authors investigate how the communication framework underlying such construction management systems can be further improved so as to fully or partially automate various communication functions across the construction project lifecycle (e.g., to enable lean and close to real-time reporting of production control information). To this end, the present paper provides evidences of how the Internet of Things (IoT) and related standards can contribute to such an improvement. The paper then provides first insights – through various construction scenarios – into how the proposed communication framework can be beneficial for various actors and core business perspectives, from lean construction management to the management of the entire building lifecycle.

Research paper thumbnail of Opportunity to Leverage Information-as-an-Asset in the IoT -- The Road Ahead

2015 3rd International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud, 2015

In traditional product companies, creating value meant identifying enduring customer needs and ma... more In traditional product companies, creating value meant identifying enduring customer needs and manufacturing well-engineered solutions. Two hundred and fifty years after the start of the Industrial Revolution, this pattern of activity plays out every day, especially in a connected world where products are no longer one-and-done. Making money is not anymore limited to physical product sales and other revenue streams become possible after the initial product sale, which are service-based information and knowledge in today’s IoT (including subscriptions and apps, new analytics for cognitive capabilities...). While information and knowledge are the “new oil” of the IoT era, it nonetheless remains challenging to perceive and extract the real value of those assets, as information is not as tangible and concrete as physical assets. In this respect, this paper introduces the major “laws of information” and discusses how these laws can be leveraged to their full extend thanks to the IoT possibilities. Further, the paper discusses the key challenges that remain to be addressed in today’s IoT to concretize such laws. Finally, a set of real-life business use cases identified by the Open Platform 3.0TM Forum are presented from the information law perspectives.

Research paper thumbnail of Data Quality Assessment of Company’s Maintenance Reporting: A Case Study

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Data Management Technologies and Applications, 2015

Businesses are increasingly using their enterprise data for strategic decision-making activities.... more Businesses are increasingly using their enterprise data for strategic decision-making activities. In fact, information, derived from data, has become one of the most important tools for businesses to gain competitive edge. Data quality assessment has become a hot topic in numerous sectors and considerable research has been carried out in this respect, although most of the existing frameworks often need to be adapted with respect to the use case needs and features. Within this context, this paper develops a methodology for assessing the quality of enterprises' daily maintenance reporting, relying both on an existing data quality framework and on a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique. Our methodology is applied in cooperation with a Finnish multinational company in order to evaluate and rank different company sites/office branches (carrying out maintenance activities) according to the quality of their data reporting. Based on this evaluation, the industrial partner wants to establish new action plans for enhanced reporting practices.

Research paper thumbnail of Data supply chain in Industrial Internet

2015 IEEE World Conference on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS), 2015

The Industrial Internet promises to radically change and improve many industry's daily business a... more The Industrial Internet promises to radically change and improve many industry's daily business activities, from simple data collection and processing to context-driven, intelligent and pro-active support of workers’ everyday tasks and life. The present paper first provides insight into a typical industrial internet application architecture, then it highlights one fundamental arising contradiction: “Who owns the data is often not capable of analyzing it”. This statement is explained by imaging a visionary data supply chain that would realize some of the Industrial Internet promises. To concretely implement such a system, recent standards published by The Open Group are presented, where we highlight the characteristics that make them suitable for Industrial Internet applications. Finally, we discuss comparable solutions and concludes with new business use cases.

Research paper thumbnail of Towards data exchange interoperability in building lifecycle management

Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Emerging Technology and Factory Automation (ETFA), 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Two-Way Communications Through Firewalls Using QLM Messaging

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of QLM Messaging Standards: Introduction and Comparison with Existing Messaging Protocols

Studies in Computational Intelligence, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Open Data Format (O-DF), an Open Group Internet of Things (IoT) Standard

Research paper thumbnail of Addressing information flow in lean production management and control in construction

Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been a challenging area, where the ad... more Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been a challenging area, where the ad-hoc production control methods foster uncertainty - one of the biggest enemies of efficiency and smooth production flow. Lean construction methods such as the Last Planner System have partially tackled this problem by addressing the flow aspect through means such as constraints analysis and commitment planning. However, such systems have relatively long planning cycles to respond to the dynamic production requirements of construction, where almost daily if not hourly control is needed. New solutions have been designed by researchers to improve this aspect such as VisiLean, but again these types of software systems require the proximity and availability of computer devices to workers. Given this observation, there is a need for a communication system between the field and site office that is highly interoperable and provides real-time task status information. A High-level communication f...

Research paper thumbnail of Communicating Material for Enhanced Product Lifecycle Management

In recent years, some scholars claimed the usage of intelligent products to make systems more eff... more In recent years, some scholars claimed the usage of intelligent products to make systems more efficient throughout the Product Life Cycle (PLC). Integrating intelligence and information into products themselves is possible with, among others, auto-ID technologies (barcode, RFID,…). In this paper, a new kind of intelligent product is introduced, referred to as "communicating material" paradigm. Through this paradigm, a product is i) capable of embedding information on all or parts of the material that it is made of, ii) capable of undergoing physical transformations without losing its communication ability and the data that is stored on it. This new material is used in our study to convey information between the different actors of the PLC, thus improving data interoperability, availability and sustainability. Although "communicating materials" provide new abilities compared to conventional products, they still have low memory capacities compared to product databa...

Research paper thumbnail of Product Specification in a Service-Oriented Holonic Manufacturing System Using Petri-Nets

11th IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, 2013, 2013

ABSTRACT

Research paper thumbnail of Opportunities for enhanced lean construction management using Internet of Things standards

Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains c... more Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains challenging. The ad-hoc production control methods that are usually used, most of which are informal, foster uncertainty that prevents smooth production flow. Lean construction methods such as the Last Planner System have partially tackled this problem by involving site teams into the decision making process and having them report back to the production management system. However, such systems have relatively long “lookahead” planning cycles to respond to the dynamic production requirements of construction, where daily, if not hourly control is needed. New solutions have been proposed such as VisiLean, KanBIM, etc., but again these types of construction management systems require the proximity and availability of computer devices to workers. Through this paper, the authors investigate how the communication framework underlying such construction management systems can be further improved so as to fully or partially automate various communication functions across the construction project lifecycle (e.g., to enable lean and close to real-time reporting of production control information). To this end, the present paper provides evidences of how the Internet of Things (IoT) and related standards can contribute to such an improvement. The paper then provides first insights – through various construction scenarios – into how the proposed communication framework can be beneficial for various actors and core business perspectives, from lean construction management to the management of the entire building lifecycle.

Research paper thumbnail of P2P Data Synchronization for Product Lifecycle Management

Intelligent products are an undeniable asset for efficient product lifecycle management (PLM), pr... more Intelligent products are an undeniable asset for efficient product lifecycle management (PLM), providing ways to capture events related to physical objects at various locations and times. Today and more than ever before, PLM tools and systems must be built upon standards for enhancing interoperability among all product stakeholders and developing tools independent of specific vendors, applications, and operating systems. Based on this observation, this paper develops strategies to improve « information sustainability » in PLM environments using standardized communication interfaces defined by a recent standard proposal named quantum lifecycle management (QLM) messaging standards. More concretely, data synchronization models based upon QLM standards are developed to enable the synchronization of product-related information among various systems, networks, and organizations involved throughout the product lifecycle. Our proposals are implemented and assessed based on two distinct platforms defined in the healthcare and home automation sectors.

Research paper thumbnail of A standardized approach to deal with firewall and mobility policies in the IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) is intended to provide a network where information flows could easily be... more Internet of Things (IoT) is intended to provide a network where information flows could easily be set up between any kinds of products, devices, users and information systems in general. This vision is getting closer to become real due to the continuous development of new information system concepts and technologies. Nonetheless, this new reality requires special attention on particular aspects of the IoT such as security and mobility. First, people and companies want to secure their assets/data using firewalls, which inevitably leads to a challenging conflict between data security and usability. Second, products are becoming increasingly mobile, operating in environments where it can be difficult to contact them directly using their IP address (e.g., due to the presence of NAT or to access restrictions). It might therefore be necessary in some IoT applications to enable two-way communications through any type of firewall, e.g. to enable real-time control and maintenance. Quantum Lifecycle Management (QLM) messaging standards have been designed to provide generic and standardized application-level interfaces for the IoT that make it possible, among other things, to achieve such two-way communication. This paper provides a high-level description of QLM messaging standards with a particular focus on this QLM feature, along with proofs-of-concept through real-life implementations in building and automotive domains.

Research paper thumbnail of Open IoT Ecosystem for Enhanced Interoperability in Smart Cities—Example of Métropole De Lyon

Sensors, 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT) has promised a future where everything gets connected. Unfortunately... more The Internet of Things (IoT) has promised a future where everything gets connected. Unfortunately, building a single global ecosystem of Things that communicate with each other seamlessly is virtually impossible today. The reason is that the IoT is essentially a collection of isolated " Intranets of Things " , also referred to as " vertical silos " , which cannot easily and efficiently interact with each other. Smart cities are perhaps the most striking examples of this problem since they comprise a wide range of stakeholders and service providers who must work together, including urban planners, financial organisations, public and private service providers, telecommunication providers, industries, citizens, and so forth. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) discuss business and technological implications as well as challenges of creating successful open innovation ecosystems, (ii) present the technological building blocks underlying an IoT ecosystem developed in the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 programme, (iii) present a smart city pilot (Heat Wave Mitigation in Métropole de Lyon) for which the proposed ecosystem significantly contributes to improving interoperability between a number of system components, and reducing regulatory barriers for joint service co-creation practices.

Research paper thumbnail of Open IoT Ecosystem for Sporting Event Management

Open IoT Ecosystem for Sporting Event Management

By connecting devices, people, vehicles, and infrastructures everywhere in a city, governments an... more By connecting devices, people, vehicles, and infrastructures everywhere in a city, governments and their partners can improve community well-being and other economic and financial aspects (e.g., cost and energy savings). Nonetheless, smart cities are complex ecosystems that comprise many different stakeholders (network operators, managed service providers, logistic centers, and so on), who must work together to provide the best services and unlock the commercial potential of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). This is one of the major challenges that faces today's smart city movement, and the emerging ''API economy.'' Indeed, while new smart connected objects hit the market every day, they mostly feed ''vertical silos'' (e.g., vertical apps, siloed apps, and so on) that are closed to the rest of the IoT, thus hampering developers to produce new added value across multiple platforms and/or application domains. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is twofold: 1) present the strategic vision and ambition of the EU to overcome this critical vertical silos' issue and 2) introduce the first building blocks underlying an open IoT ecosystem developed as part of an EU (Horizon 2020) Project and a joint project initiative (IoT-EPI). The practicability of this ecosystem, along with a performance analysis, is carried out considering a proof-of-concept for enhanced sporting event management in the context of the forthcoming FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. INDEX TERMS Internet of Things, smart city, interoperability, ecosystem, open innovation, API economy.

Research paper thumbnail of A state-of the-art survey & testbed of Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) applications

As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteri... more As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) has been applied to a wide range of applications. As of the time of writing there is no state of the art survey of FAHP, we carry out a literature review of 190 application papers (i.e., applied research papers), published between 2004 and 2016, by classifying them on the basis of the area of application, the identified theme, the year of publication, and so forth. The identified themes and application areas have been chosen based upon the latest state-of-the-art survey of AHP conducted by Vaidya and Kumar (2006). To help readers extract quick and meaningful information, the reviewed papers are summarized in various tabular formats and charts. Unlike previous literature surveys, results and findings are made available through an online (and free) testbed, which can serve as a ready reference for those who wish to apply, modify or extend FAHP in various applications areas. This online testbed makes also available one or more fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices (FPCMs) from all the reviewed papers (255 matrices in total).
In terms of results and findings, this survey shows that: (i) FAHP is used primarily in the Manufacturing, Industry and Government sectors; (ii) Asia is the torchbearer in this field, where FAHP is mostly applied in the theme areas of Selection and Evaluation; (iii) a significant amount of research papers (43% of the reviewed literature) combine FAHP with other tools, particularly with TOPSIS, QFD and ANP (AHP's variant); (iv) Chang's extent analysis method, which is used for FPCMs' weight derivation in FAHP, is still the most popular method in spite of a number of criticisms in recent years (considered in 57% of the reviewed literature).

Research paper thumbnail of A state of the art survey & testbed of fuzzy AHP (FAHP) applications

A state-of the-art survey & testbed of Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) applications

As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteri... more As a practical popular methodology for dealing with fuzziness and uncertainty in Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) has been applied to a wide range of applications. As of the time of writing there is no state of the art survey of FAHP, we carry out a literature review of 190 application papers (i.e., applied research papers), published between 2004 and 2016, by classifying them on the basis of the area of application, the identified theme, the year of publication, and so forth. The identified themes and application areas have been chosen based upon the latest state-of-the-art survey of AHP conducted by [Vaidya, O., & Kumar, S. (2006). Analytic hierarchy process: An overview of applications. European Journal of operational research, 169(1), 1–29.]. To help readers extract quick and meaningful information, the reviewed papers are summarized in various tabular formats and charts. Unlike previous literature surveys , results and findings are made available through an online (and free) testbed, which can serve as a ready reference for those who wish to apply, modify or extend FAHP in various applications areas. This online testbed makes also available one or more fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices (FPCMs) from all the reviewed papers (255 matrices in total).

In terms of results and findings, this survey shows that: (i) FAHP is used primarily in the Manufacturing, Industry and Government sectors; (ii) Asia is the torchbearer in this field, where FAHP is mostly applied in the theme areas of Selection and Evaluation; (iii) a significant amount of research papers (43% of the reviewed literature) combine FAHP with other tools, particularly with TOPSIS, QFD and ANP (AHP's variant); (iv) Chang's extent analysis method, which is used for FPCMs'weight derivation in FAHP, is still the most popular method in spite of a number of criticisms in recent years (considered in 57% of the reviewed literature).

Research paper thumbnail of Data Quality Assessment of Maintenance Reporting Procedures

Data Quality Assessment of Maintenance Reporting Procedures

Today's largest and fastest growing companies' assets are no longer physical, but rather digital ... more Today's largest and fastest growing companies' assets are no longer physical, but rather digital (software, algorithms. . .). This is all the more true in the manufacturing, and particularly in the maintenance sector where quality of enterprise maintenance services are closely linked to the quality of maintenance data reporting procedures. If quality of the reported data is too low, it can results in wrong decision-making and loss of money. Furthermore, various maintenance experts are involved and directly concerned about the quality of enterprises' daily maintenance data reporting (e.g., maintenance planners, plant managers.. .), each one having specific needs and responsibilities. To address this Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem, and since data quality is hardly considered in existing expert maintenance systems, this paper develops a Maintenance Reporting Quality Assessment (MRQA) dashboard that enables any company stakeholder to easily – and in real-time – assess/rank company branch offices in terms of maintenance reporting quality. From a theoretical standpoint, AHP is used to integrate various data quality dimensions as well as expert preferences. A use case describes how the proposed MRQA dashboard is being used by a Finnish multinational equipment manufacturer to assess and enhance reporting practices in a specific or a group of branch offices.

Research paper thumbnail of Open Data Portal Quality Comparison using AHP

During recent years, more and more Open Data becomes available and used as part of the Open Data ... more During recent years, more and more Open Data becomes available and used as part of the Open Data movement. However, there are reported issues with the quality of the metadata in data portals and the data itself. This is a serious risk that could disrupt the Open Data project, as well as e-government initiatives since the data quality needs to be managed to guarantee the reliability of e-government to the public. First quality assessment frameworks emerge to evaluate the quality for a given dataset or portal along various dimensions (e.g., information completeness). Nonetheless, a common problem with such frameworks is to provide meaningful ranking mechanisms that are able to integrate several quality dimensions and user preferences (e.g., a portal provider is likely to have different quality preferences than a portal consumer). To address this multi-criteria decision making problem, our research work applies AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), which compares 146 active Open Data portals across 44 countries, powered by the CKAN software.

Research paper thumbnail of Opportunities for enhanced lean construction management using Internet of Things standards

Opportunities for enhanced lean construction management using Internet of Things standards

Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains c... more Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains challenging. The ad-hoc production control methods that are usually used, most of which are informal, foster uncertainty that prevents smooth production flow. Lean construction methods such as the Last Planner System have partially tackled this problem by involving site teams into the decision making process and having them report back to the production management system. However, such systems have relatively long " lookahead " planning cycles to respond to the dynamic production requirements of construction, where daily, if not hourly control is needed. New solutions have been proposed such as VisiLean, KanBIM, etc., but again these types of construction management systems require the proximity and availability of computer devices to workers. Through this paper, the authors investigate how the communication framework underlying such construction management systems can be further improved so as to fully or partially automate various communication functions across the construction project lifecycle (e.g., to enable lean and close to real-time reporting of production control information). To this end, the present paper provides evidences of how the Internet of Things (IoT) and related standards can contribute to such an improvement. The paper then provides first insights – through various construction scenarios – into how the proposed communication framework can be beneficial for various actors and core business perspectives, from lean construction management to the management of the entire building lifecycle.

Research paper thumbnail of Opportunity to Leverage Information-as-an-Asset in the IoT -- The Road Ahead

2015 3rd International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud, 2015

In traditional product companies, creating value meant identifying enduring customer needs and ma... more In traditional product companies, creating value meant identifying enduring customer needs and manufacturing well-engineered solutions. Two hundred and fifty years after the start of the Industrial Revolution, this pattern of activity plays out every day, especially in a connected world where products are no longer one-and-done. Making money is not anymore limited to physical product sales and other revenue streams become possible after the initial product sale, which are service-based information and knowledge in today’s IoT (including subscriptions and apps, new analytics for cognitive capabilities...). While information and knowledge are the “new oil” of the IoT era, it nonetheless remains challenging to perceive and extract the real value of those assets, as information is not as tangible and concrete as physical assets. In this respect, this paper introduces the major “laws of information” and discusses how these laws can be leveraged to their full extend thanks to the IoT possibilities. Further, the paper discusses the key challenges that remain to be addressed in today’s IoT to concretize such laws. Finally, a set of real-life business use cases identified by the Open Platform 3.0TM Forum are presented from the information law perspectives.

Research paper thumbnail of Data Quality Assessment of Company’s Maintenance Reporting: A Case Study

Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Data Management Technologies and Applications, 2015

Businesses are increasingly using their enterprise data for strategic decision-making activities.... more Businesses are increasingly using their enterprise data for strategic decision-making activities. In fact, information, derived from data, has become one of the most important tools for businesses to gain competitive edge. Data quality assessment has become a hot topic in numerous sectors and considerable research has been carried out in this respect, although most of the existing frameworks often need to be adapted with respect to the use case needs and features. Within this context, this paper develops a methodology for assessing the quality of enterprises' daily maintenance reporting, relying both on an existing data quality framework and on a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique. Our methodology is applied in cooperation with a Finnish multinational company in order to evaluate and rank different company sites/office branches (carrying out maintenance activities) according to the quality of their data reporting. Based on this evaluation, the industrial partner wants to establish new action plans for enhanced reporting practices.

Research paper thumbnail of Data supply chain in Industrial Internet

2015 IEEE World Conference on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS), 2015

The Industrial Internet promises to radically change and improve many industry's daily business a... more The Industrial Internet promises to radically change and improve many industry's daily business activities, from simple data collection and processing to context-driven, intelligent and pro-active support of workers’ everyday tasks and life. The present paper first provides insight into a typical industrial internet application architecture, then it highlights one fundamental arising contradiction: “Who owns the data is often not capable of analyzing it”. This statement is explained by imaging a visionary data supply chain that would realize some of the Industrial Internet promises. To concretely implement such a system, recent standards published by The Open Group are presented, where we highlight the characteristics that make them suitable for Industrial Internet applications. Finally, we discuss comparable solutions and concludes with new business use cases.

Research paper thumbnail of Towards data exchange interoperability in building lifecycle management

Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Emerging Technology and Factory Automation (ETFA), 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Two-Way Communications Through Firewalls Using QLM Messaging

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of QLM Messaging Standards: Introduction and Comparison with Existing Messaging Protocols

Studies in Computational Intelligence, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Open Data Format (O-DF), an Open Group Internet of Things (IoT) Standard

Research paper thumbnail of Addressing information flow in lean production management and control in construction

Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been a challenging area, where the ad... more Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been a challenging area, where the ad-hoc production control methods foster uncertainty - one of the biggest enemies of efficiency and smooth production flow. Lean construction methods such as the Last Planner System have partially tackled this problem by addressing the flow aspect through means such as constraints analysis and commitment planning. However, such systems have relatively long planning cycles to respond to the dynamic production requirements of construction, where almost daily if not hourly control is needed. New solutions have been designed by researchers to improve this aspect such as VisiLean, but again these types of software systems require the proximity and availability of computer devices to workers. Given this observation, there is a need for a communication system between the field and site office that is highly interoperable and provides real-time task status information. A High-level communication f...

Research paper thumbnail of Communicating Material for Enhanced Product Lifecycle Management

In recent years, some scholars claimed the usage of intelligent products to make systems more eff... more In recent years, some scholars claimed the usage of intelligent products to make systems more efficient throughout the Product Life Cycle (PLC). Integrating intelligence and information into products themselves is possible with, among others, auto-ID technologies (barcode, RFID,…). In this paper, a new kind of intelligent product is introduced, referred to as "communicating material" paradigm. Through this paradigm, a product is i) capable of embedding information on all or parts of the material that it is made of, ii) capable of undergoing physical transformations without losing its communication ability and the data that is stored on it. This new material is used in our study to convey information between the different actors of the PLC, thus improving data interoperability, availability and sustainability. Although "communicating materials" provide new abilities compared to conventional products, they still have low memory capacities compared to product databa...

Research paper thumbnail of Product Specification in a Service-Oriented Holonic Manufacturing System Using Petri-Nets

11th IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, 2013, 2013

ABSTRACT

Research paper thumbnail of Opportunities for enhanced lean construction management using Internet of Things standards

Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains c... more Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been challenging, and still remains challenging. The ad-hoc production control methods that are usually used, most of which are informal, foster uncertainty that prevents smooth production flow. Lean construction methods such as the Last Planner System have partially tackled this problem by involving site teams into the decision making process and having them report back to the production management system. However, such systems have relatively long “lookahead” planning cycles to respond to the dynamic production requirements of construction, where daily, if not hourly control is needed. New solutions have been proposed such as VisiLean, KanBIM, etc., but again these types of construction management systems require the proximity and availability of computer devices to workers. Through this paper, the authors investigate how the communication framework underlying such construction management systems can be further improved so as to fully or partially automate various communication functions across the construction project lifecycle (e.g., to enable lean and close to real-time reporting of production control information). To this end, the present paper provides evidences of how the Internet of Things (IoT) and related standards can contribute to such an improvement. The paper then provides first insights – through various construction scenarios – into how the proposed communication framework can be beneficial for various actors and core business perspectives, from lean construction management to the management of the entire building lifecycle.

Research paper thumbnail of P2P Data Synchronization for Product Lifecycle Management

Intelligent products are an undeniable asset for efficient product lifecycle management (PLM), pr... more Intelligent products are an undeniable asset for efficient product lifecycle management (PLM), providing ways to capture events related to physical objects at various locations and times. Today and more than ever before, PLM tools and systems must be built upon standards for enhancing interoperability among all product stakeholders and developing tools independent of specific vendors, applications, and operating systems. Based on this observation, this paper develops strategies to improve « information sustainability » in PLM environments using standardized communication interfaces defined by a recent standard proposal named quantum lifecycle management (QLM) messaging standards. More concretely, data synchronization models based upon QLM standards are developed to enable the synchronization of product-related information among various systems, networks, and organizations involved throughout the product lifecycle. Our proposals are implemented and assessed based on two distinct platforms defined in the healthcare and home automation sectors.

Research paper thumbnail of A standardized approach to deal with firewall and mobility policies in the IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) is intended to provide a network where information flows could easily be... more Internet of Things (IoT) is intended to provide a network where information flows could easily be set up between any kinds of products, devices, users and information systems in general. This vision is getting closer to become real due to the continuous development of new information system concepts and technologies. Nonetheless, this new reality requires special attention on particular aspects of the IoT such as security and mobility. First, people and companies want to secure their assets/data using firewalls, which inevitably leads to a challenging conflict between data security and usability. Second, products are becoming increasingly mobile, operating in environments where it can be difficult to contact them directly using their IP address (e.g., due to the presence of NAT or to access restrictions). It might therefore be necessary in some IoT applications to enable two-way communications through any type of firewall, e.g. to enable real-time control and maintenance. Quantum Lifecycle Management (QLM) messaging standards have been designed to provide generic and standardized application-level interfaces for the IoT that make it possible, among other things, to achieve such two-way communication. This paper provides a high-level description of QLM messaging standards with a particular focus on this QLM feature, along with proofs-of-concept through real-life implementations in building and automotive domains.