Standardized product ontology register and transfer by spreadsheets - Part 5: Interface for activity description
1 Scope
This document specifies a method for representing activities and relations among the activities by a tabular ontology representation, called “parcellized activity model” or PAM for short, which is a specialized use of a generic tabular ontology data model, known as the parcellized ontology model (POM) defined in Part 1 of the IEC 62656 series. The activities that can be described by this document include part or whole of an enterprise, an organization or a collection of services, a set of events or processes which interact with each other by exchanging physical or non-physical entities. This document also defines a method for uniquely identifying activities, or their homologues happenings in a certain sequence. In addition, this document identifies flows of information, objects or materials exchanged among activities, where each of the activities is represented by a class and each flow by a relation.
This document enables characterization, classification, and identification of a set of activities as part of a normalized ontology. And this enables registering of a pattern of activities as a set of metadata and uploading it onto the IEC Common Data Dictionary (CDD), maintained as an online database of the electrotechnical concepts.
Additionally, this document provides a method to integrate ontologies of products and activities including services, in a single model. This means a product can be analyzed in its operational context for service. Such an integrated view will help people of different technical backgrounds to see and share knowledge about the extent of an enterprise that requires the products and services as indispensable resources. Such a data representation will also help analyse the key functionalities of an enterprise and its available resources, with clear definitions, limitations and interactions among them, when people are required to respond or react to a new external condition or situation in a short time frame, in particular, at an emergency or natural hazard.
This document does not intend to provide a detailed algorithmic description of a flow of information, timing chart of processes, or sequential ordering of events that will be necessary in a software design or programming phase of an information system that handles activities or events. These detailed specifications of the algorithms and associated construction of the data structures are left to the realm of software engineering methodology and tools where there are so many schools and styles already, such as UML (Unified Modelling Language), BPMN, SysML, DFD, IDEF, and other CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering) tools.
This document neither intends to standardize nor introduce a new method of graphic description for activities or processes. Ideally, an ontology of activities modelled by this document must be expressible by a number of existing graphical presentation tools and process description languages for activities.
Nevertheless, some graphical presentations in the style of such tools or languages are helpful for making the people understand the content of the PAM, and therefore, they are used in this document. In most of the cases, IDEF-0 is preferred for the purpose, because it describes both activities and flows of things among the activities, but any other choices of tools or languages can be made, wherever they are appropriate and relevant.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 13584-24 Industrial automation systems and integration - Parts library - Part 24: Logical resource: Logical model of supplier library
Note: GB/T 17645.24-2003, Industrial automation systems and integration - Parts library - Part 24: Logical resources:Logical model of supplier library (ISO 13584-24:2002, IDT)
ISO 13584-42 Industrial automation systems and integration - Parts library - Part 42: Description methodology: Methodology for structuring part families
Note: GB/T 17645.42-2013, Industrial automation systems and integration - Parts library - Part 42: Description methodology:Methodology for structuring parts families (ISO 13584-42:2010, IDT)
IEC 61360-2 Standard data element types with associated classification scheme for electric components - Part 2: EXPRESS dictionary schema
IEC 61360-4 Standard data element types with associated classification scheme for electric components - Part 4: IEC reference collection of standard data element types and component classes
IEC 62264-3 Enterprise control system integration - Part 3: Activity models of manufacturing operations management
IEC 62656-1 Standardized product ontology register and transfer by spreadsheets - Part 1: Logical structure for data parcels
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Terms and definitions
For the purpose of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 13584-24 and IEC 62656-1 , as well as the following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.ISO.org/obp
3.1.1
activity
organizational, logical or conceptual unit for performing a set of specific actions or functionalities
Note 1: An activity can be just for performing one action or functionality, and in an extreme case, for zero action or functionality, meaning the activity is just an endpoint for terminating activities.
Note 2: An activity is not necessarily a process in time sequence in the PAM. Two or more activities may concurrently work and interact with each other.
3.1.2
arrow
mapping from one category of things to another, yielding an information flow, a movement of physical items, a change of states from one state to another, or a directional correspondence from one collection of things to another, which is embodied as a functional relation
Note 1 to entry: Arrow as an information construct in this part of IEC 62656 embodies an mathematical entity named “arrow” originating in the category theory of mathematics, which is synonymous with function, but maps elements of one collection specified as “domain” to another collection specified as ”codomain”, with a strong sense of direction.
Note 2: Arrows can also be used in a formula, such as in :
.
3.1.3
arrow overloading
specialization of an arrow by narrowing or detailing either one of or both of the domain and codomain of the arrow, being considered as a function
Note: Overloading of an arrow typically takes place on the frame boundary of a diagram in a lower node of an activity.
3.1.4
aspect
way things appear, are looked at or expressed as an association among properties, classes, or ontological elements in general, by the use of a relation
Note: A property may belong to one or several aspects.
3.1.5
branching point
forking point
point from which an arrow forks out into two or more arrows
3.1.6
connection point
point at which arrows or lines fork out, or at which several arrows or lines meet each other
Note: Both branching point and junction points are included in the connection points.
3.1.7
Integration Definition for Function Modelling; IDEF0
graphical language to model decisions, actions, and activities of an organization or system, defined in the IDEF series of data modelling methods
Note: IDEF0 was once adopted as Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 183 by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). However, it was withdrawn from FIPS in 2012, for it is no longer necessary to designate only one method among many as the graphical language for modelling activities.
3.1.8
ontology
shared and formal modelling of knowledge about a domain
3.1.9
parcellized ontology model; POM
formal specification of being of things as a concept, including state of things and configuration of things, by their properties and relations, formed in a set of relational tables each of which represents a category of the ontological entities
Note 1: Parcellized ontology model is formally specified in IEC 62656-1 .
Note 2: Examples of the categories of the ontological entities are class, property, relation, datatype, unit of measurement, etc., which are essential constructs for the description of being.
