An ontology-based framework for virtual enterprise integration and interoperability

Virtual enterprise integration and interoperability between its different information systems are the first systemic paradigms to achieve a successful collaborative product development. In such a context, the information flow has a centric place. Therefore, our aim in this paper is to propose a new ontology-based framework, exploiting the expressiveness of ontologies to ensure collaboration and semantic interoperability between partners and using, at the same time, ontologies inference capacities to support the decision making processes. An industrial application will be developed in the context of the simultaneous design of products and their optimized supply chains.