A comprehensive approach for managing inter-model inconsistencies in automated production systems engineering

The systematic management of the various models in automated production systems engineering is a major challenge as, due to the multi-disciplinary nature, different stakeholders provide their potentially heterogeneous but partially overlapping descriptions of the system. This leads to the need of ensuring inter-model consistency by managing occurring inconsistencies. In previous work, existing approaches have been surveyed; however, none is providing a comprehensive approach for dealing with inconsistencies in multi-disciplinary systems engineering. Therefore, we propose in this paper a comprehensive but at the same time light-weight approach for specifying and managing inter-model consistency. In particular, inter-model consistency is explicitly modelled and, hence, allows to detect, represent, and manage inconsistencies. Concerning the latter, we provide an interactive and collaborative approach to automate the consistency maintenance during model evolution, which is especially needed in multi-disciplinary projects.