A New Tool to Improve Enterprise Modelling Utilisation and Development

In recent decades technological innovation has induced very significant change on the way that Manufacturing Enterprises (MEs) operate and compete. In general MEs are very complex entities: designed, managed and changed by people, by deploying people and technological resources in systematic, timely and innovative ways that generate competitive behaviors. Prerequisites to respond such change and deal with complexity are firm understandings of; the processes that are the focus of improvement, and effects of change decisions. However, implementing change and dealing with associated effects can prove difficult when such an understanding is not intrinsic i.e. domains lacking structure and documentation. This paper introduces a new approach to support enterprise decision making using Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open Systems Architecture (CIMOSA) modeling principles and constructs and enhanced stencils created in MS Visio® and MS Visual Basic®. Current approaches offer little benefit above and beyond paper based solutions and merely serve to provide a visual representation of processes. Such models require that the end user have an understanding of the modeling methodology deployed in creating the diagrams, leaving models prone to misinterpretation. From a model developers perspective, current approaches do not provide support for the capture of modeling decisions or background information, implying that robust understandings can not be had by those not directly involved with the modeling efforts. The added functionality exhibited by the newly developed approach offers great extensions over those currently in use, in terms of; efficient model development, increased data and application integration, and enhanced end user interactivity.