Title: A meta-model based environment to assist integrating one-off production in B&C

Authors: Ricardo Jardim-Goncalves, Adolfo Steiger-Garcao, Fatima Farinha

Addresses: Departamento de Eng. Electrotecnica da Fac. de Ciencias e Tecnologia da Univ. Nova de Lisboa, UNINOVA-CRI Campus da FCT/UNL, P2829-516 Caparica, Portugal. Departamento de Eng. Electrotecnica da Fac. de Ciencias e Tecnologia da Univ. Nova de Lisboa, UNINOVA-CRI Campus da FCT/UNL, P2829-516 Caparica, Portugal. Area Departamental de Engenharia Civil da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Universidade do Algarve, ICIST Campus da Penha, P8005-139 Faro, Portugal

Abstract: The building and construction (B&C) industry is a one-off industry that has adopted a traditional and conservative attitude, resisting technical and organisational innovations. Nevertheless, it has been recognised that the lack of interoperability between the actors acting in its production processes is a major problem for the modernisation of this industry. A key factor in solving this problem is the adoption and implementation of standard models towards a global integrated environment. However, the implementation of standards has been identified as being costly and requiring a large amount of manpower. In order to stimulate the adoption and implementation of such standards, specific tools must be developed acting at a standard meta-model level. This paper begins describing the major problems that have been identified in the B&C industry in the scope of interoperability of software and applications, proposing a meta-model based environment to assist in solving the integration problem at metadata level. The paper concludes by proposing a methodology to assist in the validation and to assure the reliability of the integrated environment.

Keywords: concurrent engineering; standardisation; interoperability; IFC model; meta-model, XMI.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIEM.2003.003603

International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management, 2003 Vol.1 No.2, pp.167 - 184

Published online: 23 Sep 2003 *

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