Ontological framework for enterprise-wide integrated decision-making at operational level

In the domain of chemical process engineering, there is an increased interest in the integration of the enterprise hierarchical levels for decision-making purposes. At the scheduling level, decisions on the allocation of tasks to resources, sequencing and timing of tasks must be managed. However, such decisions are directly related to other enterprise actions, such as control and planning, but they are difficult to coordinate because they are modeled at different time and space scales, and their goals are not the same. In order to achieve integrated decisions supported by high quality information, there is a need to improve and develop robust computational tools and consistent models. In general, scheduling optimization approaches for decision-making differ depending on problem features, such as physical layout or time representation. Therefore, this work focuses on providing a framework based on a semantic model that captures the diversity in scheduling problem representation. Such semantic model uses the master recipe concept from the ANSI/ISA-88 standard perspective and encapsulates the scheduling decision task features. As a result, by the use of a single representation approach, any scheduling problem can be modeled and solved by its adequate optimization tool. The potential of a general model representation is presented by means of several case studies related to the scheduling function. Such case studies shed light to the model capabilities to represent different kinds and particular scheduling problems, achieving integration at the different decision support levels. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.