Using ontologies for the integration of information systems dedicated to product (CFAO, PLM...) and those of systems monitoring (ERP, MES..)

Nowadays, the optimization of the product and its production process has become a primordial issue. The software dedicated to product engineering (CFAO, PLM...) and those dedicated to production control (ERP, MES...) allow to achieve this objective. The development process of new products is a key factor for the success of the manufacturing companies. PLM allows us to optimize this process. It shares the product data within the different levels of the CIM Pyramid. For this reason, the current PLM software include intelligent agents which automate the development of the product. However, the management of product knowledge and the access to the information dispersed at different levels of the production's information system is difficult. Several approaches have been proposed to ensure these functions. In this paper, we propose a new approach, based on the ontology, the Semantic Web and the concept of agent, to automate the development of a new product. To validate this approach, a case study for the implementation of a PLM module within the informatic system dedicated to the control of a flexible cell machining is presented in the last part of this paper.