Enterprise integration and interoperability in manufacturing systems: Trends and issues

Recent advances in information and communication technologies have allowed manufacturing enterprise to move from highly data-driven environments to a more cooperative information/knowledge-driven environment. Enterprise knowledge sharing (know-how), common best practices use, and open source/web based applications are enabling to achieve the concept of integrated enterprise and hence the implementation and interoperability of networked enterprises. Enterprise integration and interoperability in manufacturing systems is a key concept to face the challenges of these new environments. This paper describes challenges, trends and issues that must be addressed in order to support the generation of new technological solutions.