Reference ontologies for manufacturing based ecosystems

There is a clear need for improved semantic communication to support information sharing across engineering groups and their systems in manufacturing industry. This work presents the progress towards the development of a reference ontology for a manufacturing eco-system, focusing particularly on the design and manufacture of aerospace parts. A case study will be presented which illustrates how knowledge, captured from a manufacturing engineer's perspective, can be shared back into the product design process through the use of reference ontologies and appropriate mapping mechanisms.