- Email: [email protected]
The advanced information technology innovation roadmap
Computers in Industry 40 Ž1999. 185–195 www.elsevier.nlrlocatercompind
The advanced information technology innovation roadmap G. Segarra
)
Renault DOII, 34, quai du point du jour, F-92109 Boulongne-Billancourt Cedex, France
Abstract The AIT ŽAdvanced Information Technology for the European Manufacturing Industry. initiative is focusing on IT innovations and their integration in the users enterprise. This is achieved through the deployment of the AIT Innovation Cycle starting with the AIT strategic planning Ždevelopment of a common master plan. and finishing with the business integration of complete IT innovative solutions. The IT integration includes two major action streams supported by various R & D projects belonging to the ESPRIT and Brite Euram research programmes, which are: Ø The technological integration which is achieved in strong cooperation with IT vendors through the development of integration platforms based on emerging standards such as STEP, CORBA, JAVA, etc. In this integration context, the CIMOSA framework has been used to build the AIT IT Reference Model ŽITRM.. Ø The IT innovations integration into the users’ enterprise which consider the usage of all the CIMOSA views Žfunction view, information view, organisation view, resources view including Human, Financial and IT resources. as well as their aggregation in order to support the development of generic networked enterprise Žre.engineering methodologies, processes and associated IT supporting tools. This paper is focusing on the second integration stream by describing the progress achieved to date in the AIT-IMPLANT project. The aim of this ESPRIT project is to develop a generic enterprise change management methodology and associated IT tools to support the integration of IT Innovations into the networked manufacturing enterprises. q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: AIT; Brite Euram; Esprit; Integration platform; IT reference model; CIMOSA
1. Manufacturing business and industrial context The manufacturing context in which the Aerospace and Automotive industries are evolving can be characterised by the following three major challenges. 1.1. Harsh competition Nowadays, the European manufacturing industry is facing a rather harsh competition in terms of costs, quality, delivery times, customer value added services and innovations. In the aerospace sector, com-
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E-mail: [email protected]
petition is intensifying as the US industry attempts to extend its already dominant position. Similar in the automotive industry where mergers, take-overs and partnerships increase market power and thereby competition. In such a context, the aircraft manufacturers as well as the car manufacturers have to improve their performances keeping pace with the leaders. Otherwise they will be absorbed or worse disappearing from the market. 1.2. Fast changing enÕironment On top of this harsh competition, many market drivers Žsee Fig. 1. lead the European manufacturing industry to evolve quickly to at least maintain its
0166-3615r99r$ - see front matter q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 6 - 3 6 1 5 Ž 9 9 . 0 0 0 2 3 - 8
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Fig. 1. Drivers for enterprise change.
market share and to face larger-sized companies such as their American or Asian competitors. Among these drivers, the research results generate potential innovation as well for the products as for the business processes of the manufacturing enterprises. This is particularly true for the IT research which is a quickly evolving technological domain being at the origin of many innovation in both the product and business process technology. At the business process level some of the emerging technologies enabling a competitive advantage for manufacturing enterprises are: Ø Product Data and Workflow Management, Ø Computer Supported Collaborative Working and Groupware associated to remote Digital Mock-Up and CAE, Ø Virtual Manufacturing and its Supply Chain management, Ø Knowledge-Based Engineering. 1.3. Economy globalisation The harsh world wide competition leads to a saturation of the European markets Žthis is particularly true for the automotive sector.. This situation leads the European manufacturing industry to heav-
ily invest in new and emerging markets. This is a risky business with lots of constraints such as the obligation for a car manufacturer to manufacture locally. Consequently, in order to be able to build and sell their products world wide, the manufacturers have to develop a world wide network of suppliers, dealers and industrial facilities. The economical heterogeneity of foreign markets requires a customisation of world wide products taking advantage of low cost manpower, but taking also into consideration the limited purchasing capabilities of the customers Ža car targeted for third world countries must not be sold at the same price as those to be sold in the western world countries or in Japan.. Nevertheless markets will expand. E.g., prediction in the aerospace sector suggest that the market will continue to extend at an average rate of 5% per annum until 2015. The challenge for the future is for European aerospace industry to remain in a position to exploit this expending market and increase its market share in the face of aggressive international competition. In this situation, European companies have to form large cooperating enterprises to operate together more effectively and in a more efficient manner.
G. Segarrar Computers in Industry 40 (1999) 185–195
The globalisation of the economy drives the application of the networked Žextended, enlarged, virtual, etc.. enterprise concepts. Developing, manufacturing and selling products at any location in the world, means that all decisions must be based on very strong and selected business criteria. This means that the European manufacturing industry must develop its agility to face simultaneously the harsh competition, the dynamics of change and the economy globalisation.
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that the IT will contribute significantly to meet the networked enterprise business objectives identified here before. Consequently, the IT users of the European aerospace and automotive industries have decided to join their effort to master the IT innovations and share a part of its cost. For this purpose they have built the AIT Initiative which is described below.
2. The AIT initiative [1] 1.3.1. Business objectiÕes Being given the industrial context in which both the aerospace and automotive industry are evolving, the following business objectives can be easily deduced for the automotive industry. Ø Reduce the product development lead time in order to deliver always the right products satisfying changing customers requirements. This satisfaction of customer demands must be accompanied by lower development cost Žentry ticket. and maintaining a high quality level of the product. Currently, the target is to reach a product development time of less than 24 months. Ø Reduce the commercial product delivery time for products which have to be more and more customised. Ø Increase the agility of the enterprise, that is to say its capability to introduce quickly product and process innovations to respond to all types of evolution required by the environment Žmarket, regulations, enterprise strategies, technological evolutions, etc... Ø Increase the innovation at the customers services level in order to compensate for the revenue reduction due to the cost reduction forced by the competition at the car product level Žcars will cost less and less.. 1.3.2. The key role of information technology Information technology is everywhere and of course it constitutes an important part of the car value Žtoday, the embedded electronic and information systems represent about 15% of the car value.. The information technology is also a key resource for the support of the business processes of the networked enterprise during the whole life cycle of its products, processes and services. It is expected
2.1. History The AIT ŽAdvanced Information Technology for the European Manufacturing Industry. Initiative has been launched by Daimler Benz in 1993. At this time this users driven initiative was composed of an users core team of 17 partners representing the European Aerospace and Automotive manufacturers and some of their suppliers. Today, after the merging and re-organisation of some companies, the AIT Core team is composed of the following 12 Members: ŽF., Alenia Aerospatiale ´ ´ ŽI., Bae ŽUK., BMW ŽD. Žincluding ROVER., CASA ŽE., Daimler-Benz ŽD. Žincluding Mercedes, DASA, Temic., Dassault Aviation ŽF., Fiat ŽI. Žincluding Magneti Marelli., PSA ŽD., Renault ŽF., SAAB ŽS., Volkswagen ŽD.. After a pilot phase of two years, the IT users expressed their requirements and identified those which represented a consensus between them. Then priorities were given and R & D project proposals were submitted to the European Commission responding to the call for proposals issued during the forth R & D framework programme. In total, 22 R & D projects were launched since 1995. These projects were regrouped into 4 clusters according to their domains: Ø Digital Mock-Up ŽDMU. cluster, Ø Manufacturing cluster, Ø Integration cluster, Ø Methodology cluster. The projects in the first two clusters are focusing on the development of Business Support Applications while the last two clusters are dedicated to the IT infrastructure standardisation and to the Enterprise Integration methodologies and Žre.engineering tools.
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2.2. Current organisation Currently, some of the AIT R & D projects are finished and a new European Commission R & D framework Ž5th Framework. is starting. Therefore, the AIT Core Team developed a new strategy and a lean organisation with the objective to: Ø Develop a consistent and clear R & D Master Plan expressing the AIT requirements and their respective priorities, Ø Build R & D projects to develop innovative IT solutions satisfying the aerospace and automotive industries requirements, Ø Exploit, plan and deploy the resulting IT innovative solutions. In this organisation which is represented in Fig. 2: Ø The Steering and Control Board ŽSCB. comprises the 12 Core Team members. Ø The Executive Management Committee comprises 6 Core Team members and 6 external representatives of the IT industry Ž3 including one SME representative., Research Laboratories and SME users. Ø The AIT Secretariat is supporting the administration of the Initiative and is insuring some other important activities such as the Communication. Ø The Technical Management Group ŽTMG. is composed of 5 Thematic Working Groups ŽTWG.
grouping experts of the various technological and process domains constituting the manufacturing enterprise. These TWGs are: Ø TWG1: Product Development, Ø TWG2: Process Development, Ø TWG3: Customer Support, Ø TWG4: IT Infrastructure System Integration, Ø WG5: Networked Enterprise Engineering and Deployment ŽNEED.. The TMG itself is composed of the TWGs leaders supplemented by some experts and a chairman. This group has the mission to develop an integrated consistent master plan taking into consideration all the viewpoints expressed in TWGs. 3. The IT innovation cycle The AIT IT Innovation Cycle is based on the TQM PDCA ŽPlan, Do, Check, Act. cycle taking into account all main processes which are leading to the integration of IT innovations into the business processes of AIT members’ enterprises. As represented in Fig. 3, the AIT Innovation Cycle contains the following main processes that are covered by the AIT initiative. Ø The strategic planning process, under the responsibility of the AIT SCB is developing the AIT vision, its strategy and policy.
Fig. 2. The AIT organisation.
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Fig. 3. AIT innovation cycle.
Ø The R & D process includes the concurrent operation of AIT R & D projects that are under the responsibility of their respective project consortia but have to follow the AIT reference framework being managed by the TMG. Ø The R & D projects results exploitation which includes the Productisation Žmaking commercial products from R & D prototypes. and the business integration processes Žinnovation planning and deployment processes. which is described in details in Chap. 4 of this article.
4. IT innovation planning and development 4.1. The AIT-IMPLANT project The AIT-IMPLANT project is belonging to the European ESPRIT R & D programme, its goal being the development of a Generic Enterprise Change Management Methodology ŽGENCMM. and its associated IT tool case. The objectives of the project are as follows. OBJECTIVE 1. Increase the business benefits through the development of an efficient integration strategy considering the innovative IT solution added
value and the critical process activitiesrusers populations which will be impacted. OBJECTIVE 2. Shorten the IT Innovation Cycle by acting at the level of the productisation and business integration processes. For this purpose, AIT-IMPLANT will optimise the building of decision support documents in order to speed up the decision process. OBJECTIVE 3. Reduce the risk of failure of IT integration into the considered enterprise business process. For this purpose, AIT-IMPLANT will identify the critical issues creating the biggest risk of failure and will develop accompanying measures to reduce this risk. This two years project started the first September 1997 and comprises two main phases. The first phase was the development of the GENCM Methodology, the specification of its associated IT tool case and the definition of industrial and generic assessment cases serving to validate the methodology. The second phase is the validation of the GENCMM and its associated IT tool set by the users of the consortium. This project includes the 6 following partners and focuses on the business integration of innovative IT solutions: Partners: Renault ŽCoordinating partner., Aerospatiale ŽAIRBUS division., CNRS ŽLAMIH and IFRESI Laboratories., FIAT CRF, HUSAT, Volkswagen supported by the University of Bremen.
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4.2. The generic enterprise change management methodology 4.2.1. Concepts The methodology is supported by a Generic Enterprise Change Management Process ŽGENCMP. which is described in Section 4.2.2. In a stand alone version, the navigation in this process allows the GENCMM user to access to the relevant information and supporting tools he needs Žaccording to its profile, its interest and motivation, the view and details level he wants, etc... The networked version of this methodology, will give the GENCMM user access to a world wide electronic service Žsee Fig. 4. including the access to the relevant information, supporting tools and knowledge Žthrough an on line support by a consultant.. The methodology supports the cooperation between members of a multidisciplinary team including end users of the targeted innovative IT solution, specialists and managers. Its focus is on critical change issues taking into account different competence domains ŽTechnological, Human Factors, Organisational, Process Oriented, Economical, Legal aspects, etc.. and viewpoints ŽManagers, End users, IT specialists, etc... The Generic Enterprise Change Management Process Žsee Fig. 5. can be split into 5 main activities each one being separated by a decision milestone ŽCPR.. This process is started on an event which
correspond to a decision to innovate. This event may be in relation to the availability of some R & D project results or resulting from any IT innovative market product availability. These five activities can be summarised as follows. 4.2.1.1. Context for change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Start a change project, form the multidisciplinary Change Project Team. Ø Check the availability of required information, identify the missing ones. Ø Identify and apply appropriate informationr know-how gathering techniques. Ø Identify and describes the context for change. Ø Identify and prioritise critical issues and associated critical change factors. Identify potential cross impact between the retained critical change issues. Ø Develop the As Is model focusing on the retained critical change issues and change factors. The results of this activity will be reviewed by the Change Project Team at the decision milestone Change Project Review 1 ŽCPR1.. 4.2.1.2. Assessment for change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Monitor the on going IT productisationrdevelopment, collect and analyse the required information
Fig. 4. GENCMM electronic service.
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Fig. 5. Generic enterprise change management process model.
focusing on the critical change issues and success factors. Ø Develop or update the vision of the future ŽTo Be model. once the considered IT innovation will be deployed. Ø Develop scenarios to consider possible alternatives and identify probable success factors and potential barriers. Ø Assess the magnitude of the change Žcomparing the focused as is model with the focused to be model., then assess the risks per critical change issue and globally. Ø Achieve a costrbenefits analysis taking into consideration the various possible deployment scenarios. The result of this activity will be reviewed by the change project team at the decision milestone Change Project Review 2 ŽCR2.. 4.2.1.3. Preparation for change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Monitor the on going IT productisationrdevelopment, collect and analysis provided information. Ø Develop a business process integration strategy and plan. Ø Select and specify in details any accompanying measures Že.g., communication plan, skills assessment guide, business process re engineering, etc.. which are necessary to reduce the risk and ensure a successful business integration of the considered IT innovation.
Ø Define a business process integration project for the deployment of the considered IT innovation identifying appropriate change performance indicators. Ø Constitute a business integration management team in charge of piloting the change achievement. The result of this activity will be reviewed by the change project team at the deployment decision ŽDD. milestone. 4.2.1.4. AchieÕing the change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Integrate the IT innovation into the enterprise business process using the accepted business integration strategy and plan. Ø Apply the decided accompanying measures. Ø Monitor the deployment process using the change performance indicators. Ø Review and take corrective action when necessary. The result of this activity will be monitored and reviewed by the business integration management team according to the accepted business process integration plan. 4.2.1.5. Auditing the change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Assess the actual achievement against the forecast. Ø Document improvementrchanges made due to the application of the GENCMM.
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Ø Identify activities which constitute best practice for dissemination internally and externally. The result of this activity will be assessed by the Change Project Team Žparticularly by the specialists. and the business integration management team. 4.2.2. GENCMM tool set The GENCMM associated tool set comprises the following functions. Ø Navigation: Allows the GENCMM user to navigate in the GENCMP providing him the right information access, knowledge and tool according to its profile, motivation, view and expected detail level. Ø Configuration: Allow to down load, configure and link the supporting tools which are necessary during the GENCMM navigation in the GENCMP. For example enterprise modelling, analysis, simulation tools Žnecessary for the As Is or To Be models. linked with economical prediction modules, human factors analysis modules, telecommunication system calibration modules, etc. Ø World wide information access and management: Allows to retrieve and manage relevant information Žguides, tutorials, benchmarks, case studies, etc.. necessary to take the right decisions during the GENCMP. This function may include sophisticated search engines Žintelligent agents. or some data mining mechanism. Ø Communication and Cooperation: Allow the multidisciplinary team to easily communicate and cooperate through some GroupWare and CSCW facilities. Supporting tools: Any specialised planning, modelling, analysis and simulation tools commercially available and supporting the GENCMM users during their activities.
5. CIMOSA and the AIT networked enterprise engineering and integration As clearly identified in the industrial and business context of the manufacturing industry, the aerospace and automotive industries are working as a world wide network of enterprises including the manufacturers, their suppliers, their customers and other important partners such as research institutes, public administrations and many other organisations and
industries ŽIT industry, insurance companies, banks, etc... These partners are of different sizes ranging from SMEs to large companies and represent various competence domains. This means that for the aerospace as for the automotive industries, enterprise integration means Networked Enterprise Integration. CIMOSA ŽCIM Open Systems Architecture. w2x provides a very good basis for the networked enterprise integration as well. Both parts of CIMOSA— the modelling framework and the integrating infrastructure—have been recognised in the AIT IMPLANT work. 5.1. Networked enterprise integration requirements Some of the main AIT requirements are as follows. Ø Integrate all the various elements constituting the Networked Enterprise, Žthat is to say to be based on the CIMOSA views.. Ø The functions, their organisation and flows Žmaterial, resources, information. constituting the business processes supporting the whole life cycle of the productsrservices Ždevelopment, production, sales and after sales.. Ø The resources Žhuman resources, buildings, machines tools, IT resources, financial resources, energy, etc.. which are necessary to insure the missions allocated to the functions Žprojects, operations, services, etc... Ø The information Žrelative to the missions, functions, products, services, resources, etc.. necessary to control and monitor the whole networked enterprise. Ø The organisations which organise together all the three previous elements. Ø Have a life cycle approach in order to be able to measure and predict the effect of any decision taken during one particular process on the others processes. For example: what will be the impact of a product innovation on the development process Žquality, cost, delay, weight, etc.. on the production Žmanufacturing cost and complexity, impact on the manufacturing process, logistics, etc.. and on the sales and after sales Žvalue added, maintenance impact, recycling, etc... Of course, this is true for all partners of the networked enterprise involved in the considered processes.
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Ø Obtain a mature information technology satisfying the networked enterprise Žre.engineering and operation requirements. Generally this technology must be open to allow the free information exchange between enterprises, be modular and scalable according to the specific needs and sizes of the involved enterprises. 5.2. Networked enterprise reference framework As developed in the AIT Innovation cycle and detailed in the GENCMM, a vision of the future has to be developed Žinitially it is a large vision during the strategic planning phase and must become a focused vision when considering some specific IT innovative solution in the business integration phase.. The vision includes at least the two following elements. Ø The business vision which provide some information on the evolution prospects of the networked enterprise business at a given horizon Že.g., up to 2010.. This business vision is expressed in terms of market shares, new partnerships, productsrservices strategies, evolution prospects of the world wide regulations, available products Žcharacteristics, prices, evolutions., new available services, etc.
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Ø The business process and technological vision which shall support the business vision, however, the business vision cannot be built without taking into account the tremendous evolution of the technology Žparticularly the IT. which will highly condition the development of the business vision. Considering these two possible visions, the networked enterprise reference framework, derived from CIMOSA, has been developed and is represented in Fig. 6 and comprises the following three levels. Ø The Networked Enterprise Business level which includes the business vision, business cases supporting the vision and business requirements. Ø The Networked Enterprise ŽRe.Engineering level which includes the design and Žre.engineering of the networked enterprise according to the business evolution forecasting given by the business vision. Ø The Networked Enterprise Operation level which is the final operation of the networked enterprise once the Žre.engineering activities are achieved. 5.3. Networked enterprise modelling and simulation The IT Innovation process needs modern IT tools to support the integration of innovative IT solutions into the business processes of the networked enter-
Fig. 6. Networked enterprise reference framework.
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prise. AIT has been exploiting the CIMOSA results since the beginning of the project and has been verifying that the CIMOSA concepts are relevant to the aerospace and automotive industries ŽAerospatiale, Fiat, PSA, Renault are members of the CIMOSA Association.. Today, the three dimensions of the CIMOSA modelling framework are well integrated in the AIT Reference Framework. Ø The three model levels of CIMOSA Žrequirements definition, design specification, implementation description. are included in the Networked Enterprise Reference Framework ŽSection 5.2. in the following manner: Ø The requirements definition is derived from the business vision and considered business cases. Ø The design specification is the main activity of the networked enterprise ŽRe.Engineering. Ø The implementation description is the result of the Networked Enterprise ŽRe.Engineering leading to its operation. Ø The three genericity levels of CIMOSA ŽGeneric, Partial, Particular. are relevant also for
AIT. AIT can be considered as working at the partial level that is to say considering only business cases and IT solutions common and proprietary for a majority of the AIT core team members. Each member having a particular application of the considered innovative IT solutions. Ø The Four CIMOSA views are the basis for the GENCMM and AIT Integration requirements Žsee the chapters 4 and 5.. However our viewpoint is as follows. We should be able to aggregate some views to form specific views focusing on a particular critical issue. Aggregation of the function view with the human resources view will allow to assess the workload and delays. Aggregation of the information view and the function view with the network resources view will allow to identify the information flows and to calibrate the IT systems and networking resources... The resource view must include different resource classes such as human, IT, machines, capital, energy, etc.
Fig. 7. Innovation road map navigator of the GENCMM electronic assistant.
G. Segarrar Computers in Industry 40 (1999) 185–195
An economical view could become necessary to be able to develop some economical models Žeconomic prediction models, cost-benefits analysis, etc... As a conclusion, the time compression and required agility which are common in our society today require the large use of modelling and simulation tools to support the decision process and reduce the physical prototyping which is very time consuming and expensive. The Networked Enterprise Environment requires open systems enabled by standards allowing the exchange of models and the sharing of simulation scenarios. This can be achieved only through a strong cooperation between the industries, research institutes and standardisation bodies. We feel that the AIT initiative is the right approach for such cooperations.
6. CIMOSA and the AIT-IMPLANT methodology The GENCMM ŽGeneric Enterprise Change Management Methodology. developed by the AIT-IMPLANT project is considering the analysis of change relatively to critical change issues covering the four CIMOSA views ŽFunction, Information, Resource, Organisation.. The GENCMM is in principle a generic methodology which will be applied partially for particular projects of the automotive and aerospace industries Žsee the validation cases of Aerospatiale, Fiat, Renault and VW.. The contribution from CIMOSA used mostly in AIT-IMPLANT, are the process decompositions at different levels of details Ždevelopment of the Generic Enterprise Change Management Process also called the Innovation Process.. It employs the constructs developed in the CEN TC 310 and issued as a European Pre Norm ŽENV 12204. w3x. This approach is the basis of the AIT-IMPLANT GENCMM Electronic Assistant which is the software tool used to navigate in the Innovation Road Map ŽInnovation Process. and access know-how Žfrom human expert resources., supporting tools ŽIT resources dedicated to modelling, analysis, simulation. and supporting information according to the current activity of this Innovation process Žsee Fig. 7.. The principle of the Innovation Road Map Navigator is to support the GENCMM users Žmembers of
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the multidisciplinary Change Project Team. according to their current activity in the Innovation Process. This support will facilitate their access to the right know-how Žby establishing a cooperation session with an enterprise internal or external consultant., the right information Žthrough intranet, extranet, internet. and the right supporting tools Ži.e., enterprise modelling, analysis, simulation tools.. Events Žthe Decision Milestones. will separate innovation process phases Žsub processes..
References w1x E.J. Waite, AIT—Advanced Information Technology for design and manufacture, in: K. Kosanke, J.G. Nell ŽEds.., Enterprise Engineering and Integration: Building International Consensus, Proceedings of the ICEIMT’97, Springer, ISBN 3-54063402-9, 1997, pp. 256–264. w2x ESPRIT Consortium AMICE ŽEds.., CIMOSA—Open Systems Architecture for CIM, 2nd, revised and extended edition, Research Report, ESPRIT Project 688r5288 Springer, ISBN 3-540-56256-7, 1993. w3x ENV 12204, Advanced Manufacturing Technology—Systems Architecture—Constructs for Enterprise Modelling, CEN TC 310rWG1, 1995.
Gerard Segarra obtained an Engineer ´ diploma from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in 1975 and ´ the DEA Žthird cycle. degree from the University of Paris 6 in 1976. He has been working 17 years with the Philips group successively being responsible for electronic subsystems test and quality insurance for Nuclear applications, involved in Minicomputer Development and Computing Distributed Systems around an High speed fibber optics LAN taking responsibility for the Minicomputer Telecommunication Products line. In 1984 Gerald Segarra joined Renault and has been ´ responsible of Telecommunication systems especially Local Area Networks for Manufacturing and Technical Sites. He is currently IT research Deputy in charge of coordinating the IT innovation process within the Renault DOII ŽOrganisation and IT Engineering Division. in strong liaison with the Research Division. He is participating in several European R&D projects and particularly in the European AIT ŽAdvanced Information Technology for the European Manufacturing Industry. initiative. Is a Renault and European Commission expert in Advanced IT applied to Automobile.
The advanced information technology innovation roadmap G. Segarra
)
Renault DOII, 34, quai du point du jour, F-92109 Boulongne-Billancourt Cedex, France
Abstract The AIT ŽAdvanced Information Technology for the European Manufacturing Industry. initiative is focusing on IT innovations and their integration in the users enterprise. This is achieved through the deployment of the AIT Innovation Cycle starting with the AIT strategic planning Ždevelopment of a common master plan. and finishing with the business integration of complete IT innovative solutions. The IT integration includes two major action streams supported by various R & D projects belonging to the ESPRIT and Brite Euram research programmes, which are: Ø The technological integration which is achieved in strong cooperation with IT vendors through the development of integration platforms based on emerging standards such as STEP, CORBA, JAVA, etc. In this integration context, the CIMOSA framework has been used to build the AIT IT Reference Model ŽITRM.. Ø The IT innovations integration into the users’ enterprise which consider the usage of all the CIMOSA views Žfunction view, information view, organisation view, resources view including Human, Financial and IT resources. as well as their aggregation in order to support the development of generic networked enterprise Žre.engineering methodologies, processes and associated IT supporting tools. This paper is focusing on the second integration stream by describing the progress achieved to date in the AIT-IMPLANT project. The aim of this ESPRIT project is to develop a generic enterprise change management methodology and associated IT tools to support the integration of IT Innovations into the networked manufacturing enterprises. q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: AIT; Brite Euram; Esprit; Integration platform; IT reference model; CIMOSA
1. Manufacturing business and industrial context The manufacturing context in which the Aerospace and Automotive industries are evolving can be characterised by the following three major challenges. 1.1. Harsh competition Nowadays, the European manufacturing industry is facing a rather harsh competition in terms of costs, quality, delivery times, customer value added services and innovations. In the aerospace sector, com-
)
E-mail: [email protected]
petition is intensifying as the US industry attempts to extend its already dominant position. Similar in the automotive industry where mergers, take-overs and partnerships increase market power and thereby competition. In such a context, the aircraft manufacturers as well as the car manufacturers have to improve their performances keeping pace with the leaders. Otherwise they will be absorbed or worse disappearing from the market. 1.2. Fast changing enÕironment On top of this harsh competition, many market drivers Žsee Fig. 1. lead the European manufacturing industry to evolve quickly to at least maintain its
0166-3615r99r$ - see front matter q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 6 - 3 6 1 5 Ž 9 9 . 0 0 0 2 3 - 8
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Fig. 1. Drivers for enterprise change.
market share and to face larger-sized companies such as their American or Asian competitors. Among these drivers, the research results generate potential innovation as well for the products as for the business processes of the manufacturing enterprises. This is particularly true for the IT research which is a quickly evolving technological domain being at the origin of many innovation in both the product and business process technology. At the business process level some of the emerging technologies enabling a competitive advantage for manufacturing enterprises are: Ø Product Data and Workflow Management, Ø Computer Supported Collaborative Working and Groupware associated to remote Digital Mock-Up and CAE, Ø Virtual Manufacturing and its Supply Chain management, Ø Knowledge-Based Engineering. 1.3. Economy globalisation The harsh world wide competition leads to a saturation of the European markets Žthis is particularly true for the automotive sector.. This situation leads the European manufacturing industry to heav-
ily invest in new and emerging markets. This is a risky business with lots of constraints such as the obligation for a car manufacturer to manufacture locally. Consequently, in order to be able to build and sell their products world wide, the manufacturers have to develop a world wide network of suppliers, dealers and industrial facilities. The economical heterogeneity of foreign markets requires a customisation of world wide products taking advantage of low cost manpower, but taking also into consideration the limited purchasing capabilities of the customers Ža car targeted for third world countries must not be sold at the same price as those to be sold in the western world countries or in Japan.. Nevertheless markets will expand. E.g., prediction in the aerospace sector suggest that the market will continue to extend at an average rate of 5% per annum until 2015. The challenge for the future is for European aerospace industry to remain in a position to exploit this expending market and increase its market share in the face of aggressive international competition. In this situation, European companies have to form large cooperating enterprises to operate together more effectively and in a more efficient manner.
G. Segarrar Computers in Industry 40 (1999) 185–195
The globalisation of the economy drives the application of the networked Žextended, enlarged, virtual, etc.. enterprise concepts. Developing, manufacturing and selling products at any location in the world, means that all decisions must be based on very strong and selected business criteria. This means that the European manufacturing industry must develop its agility to face simultaneously the harsh competition, the dynamics of change and the economy globalisation.
187
that the IT will contribute significantly to meet the networked enterprise business objectives identified here before. Consequently, the IT users of the European aerospace and automotive industries have decided to join their effort to master the IT innovations and share a part of its cost. For this purpose they have built the AIT Initiative which is described below.
2. The AIT initiative [1] 1.3.1. Business objectiÕes Being given the industrial context in which both the aerospace and automotive industry are evolving, the following business objectives can be easily deduced for the automotive industry. Ø Reduce the product development lead time in order to deliver always the right products satisfying changing customers requirements. This satisfaction of customer demands must be accompanied by lower development cost Žentry ticket. and maintaining a high quality level of the product. Currently, the target is to reach a product development time of less than 24 months. Ø Reduce the commercial product delivery time for products which have to be more and more customised. Ø Increase the agility of the enterprise, that is to say its capability to introduce quickly product and process innovations to respond to all types of evolution required by the environment Žmarket, regulations, enterprise strategies, technological evolutions, etc... Ø Increase the innovation at the customers services level in order to compensate for the revenue reduction due to the cost reduction forced by the competition at the car product level Žcars will cost less and less.. 1.3.2. The key role of information technology Information technology is everywhere and of course it constitutes an important part of the car value Žtoday, the embedded electronic and information systems represent about 15% of the car value.. The information technology is also a key resource for the support of the business processes of the networked enterprise during the whole life cycle of its products, processes and services. It is expected
2.1. History The AIT ŽAdvanced Information Technology for the European Manufacturing Industry. Initiative has been launched by Daimler Benz in 1993. At this time this users driven initiative was composed of an users core team of 17 partners representing the European Aerospace and Automotive manufacturers and some of their suppliers. Today, after the merging and re-organisation of some companies, the AIT Core team is composed of the following 12 Members: ŽF., Alenia Aerospatiale ´ ´ ŽI., Bae ŽUK., BMW ŽD. Žincluding ROVER., CASA ŽE., Daimler-Benz ŽD. Žincluding Mercedes, DASA, Temic., Dassault Aviation ŽF., Fiat ŽI. Žincluding Magneti Marelli., PSA ŽD., Renault ŽF., SAAB ŽS., Volkswagen ŽD.. After a pilot phase of two years, the IT users expressed their requirements and identified those which represented a consensus between them. Then priorities were given and R & D project proposals were submitted to the European Commission responding to the call for proposals issued during the forth R & D framework programme. In total, 22 R & D projects were launched since 1995. These projects were regrouped into 4 clusters according to their domains: Ø Digital Mock-Up ŽDMU. cluster, Ø Manufacturing cluster, Ø Integration cluster, Ø Methodology cluster. The projects in the first two clusters are focusing on the development of Business Support Applications while the last two clusters are dedicated to the IT infrastructure standardisation and to the Enterprise Integration methodologies and Žre.engineering tools.
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2.2. Current organisation Currently, some of the AIT R & D projects are finished and a new European Commission R & D framework Ž5th Framework. is starting. Therefore, the AIT Core Team developed a new strategy and a lean organisation with the objective to: Ø Develop a consistent and clear R & D Master Plan expressing the AIT requirements and their respective priorities, Ø Build R & D projects to develop innovative IT solutions satisfying the aerospace and automotive industries requirements, Ø Exploit, plan and deploy the resulting IT innovative solutions. In this organisation which is represented in Fig. 2: Ø The Steering and Control Board ŽSCB. comprises the 12 Core Team members. Ø The Executive Management Committee comprises 6 Core Team members and 6 external representatives of the IT industry Ž3 including one SME representative., Research Laboratories and SME users. Ø The AIT Secretariat is supporting the administration of the Initiative and is insuring some other important activities such as the Communication. Ø The Technical Management Group ŽTMG. is composed of 5 Thematic Working Groups ŽTWG.
grouping experts of the various technological and process domains constituting the manufacturing enterprise. These TWGs are: Ø TWG1: Product Development, Ø TWG2: Process Development, Ø TWG3: Customer Support, Ø TWG4: IT Infrastructure System Integration, Ø WG5: Networked Enterprise Engineering and Deployment ŽNEED.. The TMG itself is composed of the TWGs leaders supplemented by some experts and a chairman. This group has the mission to develop an integrated consistent master plan taking into consideration all the viewpoints expressed in TWGs. 3. The IT innovation cycle The AIT IT Innovation Cycle is based on the TQM PDCA ŽPlan, Do, Check, Act. cycle taking into account all main processes which are leading to the integration of IT innovations into the business processes of AIT members’ enterprises. As represented in Fig. 3, the AIT Innovation Cycle contains the following main processes that are covered by the AIT initiative. Ø The strategic planning process, under the responsibility of the AIT SCB is developing the AIT vision, its strategy and policy.
Fig. 2. The AIT organisation.
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Fig. 3. AIT innovation cycle.
Ø The R & D process includes the concurrent operation of AIT R & D projects that are under the responsibility of their respective project consortia but have to follow the AIT reference framework being managed by the TMG. Ø The R & D projects results exploitation which includes the Productisation Žmaking commercial products from R & D prototypes. and the business integration processes Žinnovation planning and deployment processes. which is described in details in Chap. 4 of this article.
4. IT innovation planning and development 4.1. The AIT-IMPLANT project The AIT-IMPLANT project is belonging to the European ESPRIT R & D programme, its goal being the development of a Generic Enterprise Change Management Methodology ŽGENCMM. and its associated IT tool case. The objectives of the project are as follows. OBJECTIVE 1. Increase the business benefits through the development of an efficient integration strategy considering the innovative IT solution added
value and the critical process activitiesrusers populations which will be impacted. OBJECTIVE 2. Shorten the IT Innovation Cycle by acting at the level of the productisation and business integration processes. For this purpose, AIT-IMPLANT will optimise the building of decision support documents in order to speed up the decision process. OBJECTIVE 3. Reduce the risk of failure of IT integration into the considered enterprise business process. For this purpose, AIT-IMPLANT will identify the critical issues creating the biggest risk of failure and will develop accompanying measures to reduce this risk. This two years project started the first September 1997 and comprises two main phases. The first phase was the development of the GENCM Methodology, the specification of its associated IT tool case and the definition of industrial and generic assessment cases serving to validate the methodology. The second phase is the validation of the GENCMM and its associated IT tool set by the users of the consortium. This project includes the 6 following partners and focuses on the business integration of innovative IT solutions: Partners: Renault ŽCoordinating partner., Aerospatiale ŽAIRBUS division., CNRS ŽLAMIH and IFRESI Laboratories., FIAT CRF, HUSAT, Volkswagen supported by the University of Bremen.
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4.2. The generic enterprise change management methodology 4.2.1. Concepts The methodology is supported by a Generic Enterprise Change Management Process ŽGENCMP. which is described in Section 4.2.2. In a stand alone version, the navigation in this process allows the GENCMM user to access to the relevant information and supporting tools he needs Žaccording to its profile, its interest and motivation, the view and details level he wants, etc... The networked version of this methodology, will give the GENCMM user access to a world wide electronic service Žsee Fig. 4. including the access to the relevant information, supporting tools and knowledge Žthrough an on line support by a consultant.. The methodology supports the cooperation between members of a multidisciplinary team including end users of the targeted innovative IT solution, specialists and managers. Its focus is on critical change issues taking into account different competence domains ŽTechnological, Human Factors, Organisational, Process Oriented, Economical, Legal aspects, etc.. and viewpoints ŽManagers, End users, IT specialists, etc... The Generic Enterprise Change Management Process Žsee Fig. 5. can be split into 5 main activities each one being separated by a decision milestone ŽCPR.. This process is started on an event which
correspond to a decision to innovate. This event may be in relation to the availability of some R & D project results or resulting from any IT innovative market product availability. These five activities can be summarised as follows. 4.2.1.1. Context for change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Start a change project, form the multidisciplinary Change Project Team. Ø Check the availability of required information, identify the missing ones. Ø Identify and apply appropriate informationr know-how gathering techniques. Ø Identify and describes the context for change. Ø Identify and prioritise critical issues and associated critical change factors. Identify potential cross impact between the retained critical change issues. Ø Develop the As Is model focusing on the retained critical change issues and change factors. The results of this activity will be reviewed by the Change Project Team at the decision milestone Change Project Review 1 ŽCPR1.. 4.2.1.2. Assessment for change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Monitor the on going IT productisationrdevelopment, collect and analyse the required information
Fig. 4. GENCMM electronic service.
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Fig. 5. Generic enterprise change management process model.
focusing on the critical change issues and success factors. Ø Develop or update the vision of the future ŽTo Be model. once the considered IT innovation will be deployed. Ø Develop scenarios to consider possible alternatives and identify probable success factors and potential barriers. Ø Assess the magnitude of the change Žcomparing the focused as is model with the focused to be model., then assess the risks per critical change issue and globally. Ø Achieve a costrbenefits analysis taking into consideration the various possible deployment scenarios. The result of this activity will be reviewed by the change project team at the decision milestone Change Project Review 2 ŽCR2.. 4.2.1.3. Preparation for change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Monitor the on going IT productisationrdevelopment, collect and analysis provided information. Ø Develop a business process integration strategy and plan. Ø Select and specify in details any accompanying measures Že.g., communication plan, skills assessment guide, business process re engineering, etc.. which are necessary to reduce the risk and ensure a successful business integration of the considered IT innovation.
Ø Define a business process integration project for the deployment of the considered IT innovation identifying appropriate change performance indicators. Ø Constitute a business integration management team in charge of piloting the change achievement. The result of this activity will be reviewed by the change project team at the deployment decision ŽDD. milestone. 4.2.1.4. AchieÕing the change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Integrate the IT innovation into the enterprise business process using the accepted business integration strategy and plan. Ø Apply the decided accompanying measures. Ø Monitor the deployment process using the change performance indicators. Ø Review and take corrective action when necessary. The result of this activity will be monitored and reviewed by the business integration management team according to the accepted business process integration plan. 4.2.1.5. Auditing the change. This activity consists of the following tasks: Ø Assess the actual achievement against the forecast. Ø Document improvementrchanges made due to the application of the GENCMM.
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Ø Identify activities which constitute best practice for dissemination internally and externally. The result of this activity will be assessed by the Change Project Team Žparticularly by the specialists. and the business integration management team. 4.2.2. GENCMM tool set The GENCMM associated tool set comprises the following functions. Ø Navigation: Allows the GENCMM user to navigate in the GENCMP providing him the right information access, knowledge and tool according to its profile, motivation, view and expected detail level. Ø Configuration: Allow to down load, configure and link the supporting tools which are necessary during the GENCMM navigation in the GENCMP. For example enterprise modelling, analysis, simulation tools Žnecessary for the As Is or To Be models. linked with economical prediction modules, human factors analysis modules, telecommunication system calibration modules, etc. Ø World wide information access and management: Allows to retrieve and manage relevant information Žguides, tutorials, benchmarks, case studies, etc.. necessary to take the right decisions during the GENCMP. This function may include sophisticated search engines Žintelligent agents. or some data mining mechanism. Ø Communication and Cooperation: Allow the multidisciplinary team to easily communicate and cooperate through some GroupWare and CSCW facilities. Supporting tools: Any specialised planning, modelling, analysis and simulation tools commercially available and supporting the GENCMM users during their activities.
5. CIMOSA and the AIT networked enterprise engineering and integration As clearly identified in the industrial and business context of the manufacturing industry, the aerospace and automotive industries are working as a world wide network of enterprises including the manufacturers, their suppliers, their customers and other important partners such as research institutes, public administrations and many other organisations and
industries ŽIT industry, insurance companies, banks, etc... These partners are of different sizes ranging from SMEs to large companies and represent various competence domains. This means that for the aerospace as for the automotive industries, enterprise integration means Networked Enterprise Integration. CIMOSA ŽCIM Open Systems Architecture. w2x provides a very good basis for the networked enterprise integration as well. Both parts of CIMOSA— the modelling framework and the integrating infrastructure—have been recognised in the AIT IMPLANT work. 5.1. Networked enterprise integration requirements Some of the main AIT requirements are as follows. Ø Integrate all the various elements constituting the Networked Enterprise, Žthat is to say to be based on the CIMOSA views.. Ø The functions, their organisation and flows Žmaterial, resources, information. constituting the business processes supporting the whole life cycle of the productsrservices Ždevelopment, production, sales and after sales.. Ø The resources Žhuman resources, buildings, machines tools, IT resources, financial resources, energy, etc.. which are necessary to insure the missions allocated to the functions Žprojects, operations, services, etc... Ø The information Žrelative to the missions, functions, products, services, resources, etc.. necessary to control and monitor the whole networked enterprise. Ø The organisations which organise together all the three previous elements. Ø Have a life cycle approach in order to be able to measure and predict the effect of any decision taken during one particular process on the others processes. For example: what will be the impact of a product innovation on the development process Žquality, cost, delay, weight, etc.. on the production Žmanufacturing cost and complexity, impact on the manufacturing process, logistics, etc.. and on the sales and after sales Žvalue added, maintenance impact, recycling, etc... Of course, this is true for all partners of the networked enterprise involved in the considered processes.
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Ø Obtain a mature information technology satisfying the networked enterprise Žre.engineering and operation requirements. Generally this technology must be open to allow the free information exchange between enterprises, be modular and scalable according to the specific needs and sizes of the involved enterprises. 5.2. Networked enterprise reference framework As developed in the AIT Innovation cycle and detailed in the GENCMM, a vision of the future has to be developed Žinitially it is a large vision during the strategic planning phase and must become a focused vision when considering some specific IT innovative solution in the business integration phase.. The vision includes at least the two following elements. Ø The business vision which provide some information on the evolution prospects of the networked enterprise business at a given horizon Že.g., up to 2010.. This business vision is expressed in terms of market shares, new partnerships, productsrservices strategies, evolution prospects of the world wide regulations, available products Žcharacteristics, prices, evolutions., new available services, etc.
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Ø The business process and technological vision which shall support the business vision, however, the business vision cannot be built without taking into account the tremendous evolution of the technology Žparticularly the IT. which will highly condition the development of the business vision. Considering these two possible visions, the networked enterprise reference framework, derived from CIMOSA, has been developed and is represented in Fig. 6 and comprises the following three levels. Ø The Networked Enterprise Business level which includes the business vision, business cases supporting the vision and business requirements. Ø The Networked Enterprise ŽRe.Engineering level which includes the design and Žre.engineering of the networked enterprise according to the business evolution forecasting given by the business vision. Ø The Networked Enterprise Operation level which is the final operation of the networked enterprise once the Žre.engineering activities are achieved. 5.3. Networked enterprise modelling and simulation The IT Innovation process needs modern IT tools to support the integration of innovative IT solutions into the business processes of the networked enter-
Fig. 6. Networked enterprise reference framework.
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prise. AIT has been exploiting the CIMOSA results since the beginning of the project and has been verifying that the CIMOSA concepts are relevant to the aerospace and automotive industries ŽAerospatiale, Fiat, PSA, Renault are members of the CIMOSA Association.. Today, the three dimensions of the CIMOSA modelling framework are well integrated in the AIT Reference Framework. Ø The three model levels of CIMOSA Žrequirements definition, design specification, implementation description. are included in the Networked Enterprise Reference Framework ŽSection 5.2. in the following manner: Ø The requirements definition is derived from the business vision and considered business cases. Ø The design specification is the main activity of the networked enterprise ŽRe.Engineering. Ø The implementation description is the result of the Networked Enterprise ŽRe.Engineering leading to its operation. Ø The three genericity levels of CIMOSA ŽGeneric, Partial, Particular. are relevant also for
AIT. AIT can be considered as working at the partial level that is to say considering only business cases and IT solutions common and proprietary for a majority of the AIT core team members. Each member having a particular application of the considered innovative IT solutions. Ø The Four CIMOSA views are the basis for the GENCMM and AIT Integration requirements Žsee the chapters 4 and 5.. However our viewpoint is as follows. We should be able to aggregate some views to form specific views focusing on a particular critical issue. Aggregation of the function view with the human resources view will allow to assess the workload and delays. Aggregation of the information view and the function view with the network resources view will allow to identify the information flows and to calibrate the IT systems and networking resources... The resource view must include different resource classes such as human, IT, machines, capital, energy, etc.
Fig. 7. Innovation road map navigator of the GENCMM electronic assistant.
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An economical view could become necessary to be able to develop some economical models Žeconomic prediction models, cost-benefits analysis, etc... As a conclusion, the time compression and required agility which are common in our society today require the large use of modelling and simulation tools to support the decision process and reduce the physical prototyping which is very time consuming and expensive. The Networked Enterprise Environment requires open systems enabled by standards allowing the exchange of models and the sharing of simulation scenarios. This can be achieved only through a strong cooperation between the industries, research institutes and standardisation bodies. We feel that the AIT initiative is the right approach for such cooperations.
6. CIMOSA and the AIT-IMPLANT methodology The GENCMM ŽGeneric Enterprise Change Management Methodology. developed by the AIT-IMPLANT project is considering the analysis of change relatively to critical change issues covering the four CIMOSA views ŽFunction, Information, Resource, Organisation.. The GENCMM is in principle a generic methodology which will be applied partially for particular projects of the automotive and aerospace industries Žsee the validation cases of Aerospatiale, Fiat, Renault and VW.. The contribution from CIMOSA used mostly in AIT-IMPLANT, are the process decompositions at different levels of details Ždevelopment of the Generic Enterprise Change Management Process also called the Innovation Process.. It employs the constructs developed in the CEN TC 310 and issued as a European Pre Norm ŽENV 12204. w3x. This approach is the basis of the AIT-IMPLANT GENCMM Electronic Assistant which is the software tool used to navigate in the Innovation Road Map ŽInnovation Process. and access know-how Žfrom human expert resources., supporting tools ŽIT resources dedicated to modelling, analysis, simulation. and supporting information according to the current activity of this Innovation process Žsee Fig. 7.. The principle of the Innovation Road Map Navigator is to support the GENCMM users Žmembers of
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the multidisciplinary Change Project Team. according to their current activity in the Innovation Process. This support will facilitate their access to the right know-how Žby establishing a cooperation session with an enterprise internal or external consultant., the right information Žthrough intranet, extranet, internet. and the right supporting tools Ži.e., enterprise modelling, analysis, simulation tools.. Events Žthe Decision Milestones. will separate innovation process phases Žsub processes..
References w1x E.J. Waite, AIT—Advanced Information Technology for design and manufacture, in: K. Kosanke, J.G. Nell ŽEds.., Enterprise Engineering and Integration: Building International Consensus, Proceedings of the ICEIMT’97, Springer, ISBN 3-54063402-9, 1997, pp. 256–264. w2x ESPRIT Consortium AMICE ŽEds.., CIMOSA—Open Systems Architecture for CIM, 2nd, revised and extended edition, Research Report, ESPRIT Project 688r5288 Springer, ISBN 3-540-56256-7, 1993. w3x ENV 12204, Advanced Manufacturing Technology—Systems Architecture—Constructs for Enterprise Modelling, CEN TC 310rWG1, 1995.
Gerard Segarra obtained an Engineer ´ diploma from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in 1975 and ´ the DEA Žthird cycle. degree from the University of Paris 6 in 1976. He has been working 17 years with the Philips group successively being responsible for electronic subsystems test and quality insurance for Nuclear applications, involved in Minicomputer Development and Computing Distributed Systems around an High speed fibber optics LAN taking responsibility for the Minicomputer Telecommunication Products line. In 1984 Gerald Segarra joined Renault and has been ´ responsible of Telecommunication systems especially Local Area Networks for Manufacturing and Technical Sites. He is currently IT research Deputy in charge of coordinating the IT innovation process within the Renault DOII ŽOrganisation and IT Engineering Division. in strong liaison with the Research Division. He is participating in several European R&D projects and particularly in the European AIT ŽAdvanced Information Technology for the European Manufacturing Industry. initiative. Is a Renault and European Commission expert in Advanced IT applied to Automobile.