Open Manufacturing Capability Network Supported by Formal Ontologies

Access to accurate manufacturing capability information is necessary for efficient supplier discovery and agile supply chain formation. However, manufacturing capability data, particularly for small and medium-sized manufacturers, is often unavailable or, if accessible, lacks essential qualities such as correctness, completeness, interoperability, and openness. The objective of the research presented in this paper is to develop an open Manufacturing Capability Network (MCN) that represents various manufacturers’ capabilities as an interconnected and formal knowledge graph. This capability graph is part of a larger graph referred to as the Supply and Demand Open Knowledge Network (SUDOKN). The ontologies that provide the semantics of the knowledge graph comply with the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). A proof-of-concept knowledge graph, based on 1700 manufacturers, is presented in this work. The graph’s validity was assessed by submitting queries related to supplier discovery use cases. SUDOKN, once fully deployed, serves as a shared, canonical, and consensus-driven knowledge backbone, that supports supply chain analytics solutions with AI-ready data.