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A maturity model for Industry 4.0 (I4.0 MM) with influencing factors is designed to address maturity issues in adopting Industry 4.0. Standardisation in I4.0 supports manufacturing industry transformation, forming reference architecture models (RAMs). This paper aligns key factors and maturity levels in I4.0 MMs with reputable I4.0 RAMs to enhance strategy for I4.0 transformation and implementation.

Three steps of alignment consist of the systematic literature review (SLR) method to study the current published high-quality I4.0 MMs, the taxonomy development of I4.0 influencing factors by adapting and implementing the categorisation of system theories and aligning I4.0 MMs with RAMs.

The study discovered that different I4.0 MMs lead to varied organisational interpretations. Challenges and insights arise when aligning I4.0 MMs with RAMs. Aligning MM levels with RAM stages is a crucial milestone in the journey toward I4.0 transformation. Evidence indicates that I4.0 MMs and RAMs often overlook the cultural domain.

Findings contribute to the literature on aligning capabilities with implementation strategies while employing I4.0 MMs and RAMs. We use five RAMs (RAMI4.0, NIST-SME, IMSA, IVRA and IIRA), and as a common limitation in SLR, there could be a subjective bias in reading and selecting literature.

To fully leverage the capabilities of RAMs as part of the I4.0 implementation strategy, companies should initiate the process by undertaking a thorough needs assessment using I4.0 MMs.

The novelty of this paper lies in being the first to examine the alignment of I4.0 MMs with established RAMs. It offers valuable insights for improving I4.0 implementation strategies, especially for companies using both MMs and RAMs in their transformation efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the problems associated with the development of e‐government in Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries and propose a novel framework for adopting service orientation. This framework includes a new approach and architecture for implementing service orientation called SBA‐eGOV (Service Based Architecture for E‐Government).

A comprehensive literature review was carried out to study various service oriented architecture (SOA) adoption strategies and implementation methods. The most appropriate adoption strategy and implementation method were selected. Web service adoption and implementation/development methodologies were designed separately, and then integrated to form one single framework. Web services best practices were studied to identify the specificities of web services for e‐government projects in SADC countries. A service orientation framework, which includes a service orientation development/implementation method, was developed for e‐government projects. Data from the UN report on e‐government readiness for year 2004‐2010 were analysed.

The trend showed that the e‐government index of SADC countries has been stagnating (even degrading) since 2005. One of the main reasons is the lack of software application integration. The main area of weakness is the lack of a complete framework for adopting and implementing web services. A framework for adopting service orientation, developing web services and deploying e‐services is required to enable application software integration.

By applying the proposed framework, e‐services can be deployed more rapidly to citizens, businesses and government departments.

SBA‐eGOV can be adopted by countries where e‐government projects have completed the “Internalisation” and “Interaction” stages and use to deliver e‐services to citizens.

This work comprises development of a new framework, SBA‐eGOV, which consists of a service‐orientation adoption methodology, a service‐orientation implementation methodology and a service‐based architecture for government. SBA‐eGOV is a novel and complete framework which addresses service‐orientation adoption, development and implementation. To date, no such research work has been undertaken to analyse and solve the problems surrounding e‐government projects in SADC.

Today, most organisations are using packaged software for their key business processes. Enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and electronic commerce systems enable organisations to improve their focus of using information systems to support their operational and financial goals. This article argues that the need to integrate these packaged software applications with each other as well as with existing or legacy business applications drives the need for a standardised integration architecture to more flexibly implement new business processes across different organisations and applications. To illustrate the components of such an architecture, a case study undertaken at the Robert Bosch Group provided necessary empirical evidence. The Robert Bosch Group has evaluated different enterprise application integration (EAI) systems to achieve a standardised integration architecture. The article describes a reference architecture and criteria for the classification of EAI systems which are derived from different integration approaches.

Changes in workflow relevant data of business processes at run-time can hinder their completion or impact their profitability as they have been instantiated under different circumstances. The purpose of this paper is to propose a context engine to enhance a business process management (BPM) system’s context-awareness. The generic architecture provides the flexibility to configure processes during initialization as well as to adapt running instances at decision gates or during execution due to significant context change.

The paper discusses context-awareness as the conceptual background. The technological capabilities of business rules and complex event processing (CEP) are outlined in an architecture design. A reference process is proposed and discussed in an exemplary application.

The results provide an improvement over the current situation of static variable instantiation of business processes with local information. The proposed architecture extends the well-known combination of business rules and BPM systems with a context engine based on CEP.

The resulting architecture for a BPM system using a context engine is generic in nature and, hence, requires to be contextualized for situated implementations. Implementation success is dependent on the availability of context information and process compensation options.

Practitioners receive advice on a reference architecture and technology choices for implementing systems, which can provide and monitor context information for business processes as well as intervene and adapt the execution.

Currently, there is no multi-purpose non-proprietary context engine based on CEP or any other technology available for BPM, which facilitates the adaptation of processes at run-time due to changes in context variables. This paper will stimulate a debate between research and practice on suitable design and technology.

This paper describes a research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Twenty case‐study companies operating across a range of industrial sectors participated in the project. Sectors chosen for the development of these architectures were those where the use of the traditional manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) model is not the optimum operating solution. In particular, the paper describes the process mapping and analysis approach applied to the study of a sector‐based group of apparel manufacturing companies who collaborated in the research. The planning issues that confront the companies, the control solutions they employ in response to their present commercial environment as they seek to address the changing demands being made of the industry are outlined. A generic planning and control reference architecture developed from the study for the apparel sector is presented.

Rather than organize as traditional firms, many of today’s companies organize as platforms that sit at the nexus of multiple exchange and production relationships. This chapter considers a most basic question of organization in platform contexts: the choice of boundaries. Herein, I investigate how classical economic theories of firm boundaries apply to platform-based organization and empirically study how executives made boundary choices in response to changing market and technical challenges in the early mobile computing industry (the predecessor to today’s smartphones). Rather than a strict or unavoidable tradeoff between “openness-versus-control,” most successful platform owners chose their boundaries in a way to simultaneously open-up to outside developers while maintaining coordination across the entire system.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a guide through which the Zachman Framework can be used to address challenges and for successful implementation of enterprise architecture (EA) in an organisation that deploys it.

Qualitative research methods were followed, within which the case study approach was applied. The interpretive method was used in the analysis of the qualitative data.

Based on the findings, a method is proposed through which EA can be implemented in an organisation by using the Zachman Framework.

This is an original research work. Also, the paper has not been submitted to other journal for review and possible publication.

AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) is lacking a RM (Reference Model) to serve as an abstraction of the domain. Therefore, to help implement new architectures established on the prior experiences of the designer’s expertise and former competences, in this paper, we propose a novel approach of an AAL RM. Our objective is to handle the resolution of conflicts that appear between the developers, and give an overview of the basis for implementing concrete software architectures for different families of AAL applications. Our proposed RM is a standardized clarification for developers to apply in the process of the design and implementation. We illuminate the AAL domain fundamental dimensions and we established a formal RM with an infrastructure that could survive the domain’s progression. To achieve integrated system-of-systems composed of systems, subsystems and components, our RM describes a standard and regulated structure to be established. High-level elements, essential properties and characteristics that must appear in the application’s design are described and illustrated in this work.

The paper aims to introduce a trade-off method for selecting a mission concept for an asteroid mining mission. In particular, the method is applied to the KaNaRiA mission concept selection. After introducing the KaNaRiA project, the KaNaRiA mission concept selection and reference scenario are described in detail.

The paper introduces past relevant asteroid missions in general and the previous studies on asteroid mining in particular. Based on the review of past mission concepts to minor planets, the paper discusses the operational phases of a potential industrial and commercial space mining mission. The methodology for selecting a mission reference scenario is explained and the selected KaNaRiA mission scenario is described.

The key technology driver for a space mining mission is the autonomous on-board capability related to navigation, guidance and handling of hardware/software anomalies or unexpected events. With the methodology presented here, it is possible to derive a mission concept which provides an adequate test-bed for the validation and verification of algorithms for enhanced spacecraft autonomy. This is the primary scientific and engineering goal of the KaNaRiA project.

The mission concept selection method presented here can be used as a generalized approach for mining missions targeting asteroids in the solar system.

The availability and usage of space resources is seen as a possible solution for the imminent problem of diminishing terrestrial materials in the foreseen future. This paper explains a methodology to select mission concepts for asteroid mining missions.

Multinational business deliver value via multiple sites with similar operational capacities. The age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) delivers significant opportunities for the deployment of digital tools for business optimization. Therefore, this study aims to study the Industry 4.0 implementation for multinationals.

The key objective of this research is multi-site systems integration using a reproducible, modular and standardized “Cyber Physical System (CPS) as-a-Service”.

A best practice reference architecture is adopted to guide the design and delivery of a pioneering CPS multi-site deployment. The CPS deployed is a cloud-based platform adopted to enable all manufacturing areas within a multinational energy and petrochemical company. A methodology is developed to quantify the system environmental and sustainability benefits focusing on reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and energy consumption. These results demonstrate the benefits of standardization, replication and digital enablement for multinational businesses.

The research illustrates the ability to design a single system, reproducible for multiple sites. This research also illustrates the beneficial impact of system reuse due to reduced environmental impact from lower CO₂ emissions and energy consumption. The paper assists organizations in deploying complex systems while addressing multinational systems implementation constraints and standardization.