AMICE Consortium

AMICE Consortium was a European organization formed in 1985 to advance computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) through collaborative industrial research and the development of open, transferable standards. It brought together major manufacturing users, information-technology suppliers, consulting organizations, and academic participants. Companies associated with the consortium included IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment Corporation, Siemens, Fiat, and Daimler-Benz. The consortium operated through the European Strategic Programme on Research in Information Technology, commonly known as ESPRIT. Its central objective was to address the fragmentation of manufacturing systems by defining a common architecture, vocabulary, modeling approach, and technical basis for integrating machines, software, information, and people. Rather than producing a single commercial application, AMICE worked on a reference framework intended to support the description, design, implementation, and operation of complex manufacturing enterprises. Its principal result was CIMOSA, short for Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open System Architecture. CIMOSA combined an enterprise-modeling framework, a modeling language and methodology, and an integrating infrastructure intended to be independent of particular vendors and portable across implementation environments. The approach treated an enterprise as an integrated system and examined it through functional, information, resource, and organizational perspectives. It also used an event-driven and process-oriented model intended to support activities such as simulation, analysis, scheduling, dispatching, monitoring, and operational information management. AMICE’s work was documented through research reports, architecture descriptions, books, and technical papers published during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The consortium’s CIMOSA work influenced subsequent enterprise-engineering and enterprise-integration research, including the development of broader reference methodologies such as GERAM and later standardization efforts. At the beginning of the 1990s, AMICE established the CIMOSA Association as a nonprofit body to retain ownership of the CIMOSA specification, promote the framework, and support its further development. The association later broadened its interest to enterprise engineering and integration, including extended, virtual, and agile enterprises, knowledge use across organizational boundaries, and improved decision support and operational monitoring. AMICE itself was dissolved in 1995. The associated CIMOSA Association subsequently closed in 2010, reportedly because declining membership was linked to the retirement of participants. The consortium is therefore a historical industrial-research initiative rather than an active commercial brand.

AMICE Consortium emerged in 1985 within the European Strategic Programme on Research in Information Technology, or ESPRIT. Its purpose was to create a coordinated European research effort around computer-integrated manufacturing, an area in which industrial operations increasingly depended on the interaction of production equipment, computer systems, organizational processes, and human responsibilities. The consortium brought together industrial users, technology vendors, consultants, and academic contributors rather than representing a single manufacturer or software publisher. The consortium sought to reduce the incompatibility of manufacturing information systems by defining an open system architecture for CIM. Its work addressed the need for common concepts and rules that could be used when specifying, designing, implementing, and operating integrated manufacturing systems. This approach was intended to make systems less dependent on individual suppliers and to allow information to move efficiently among functions and resources within an enterprise. AMICE’s major technical achievement was CIMOSA, an acronym for Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open System Architecture. CIMOSA presented an enterprise-modeling framework covering the life cycle of a CIM system, from requirements definition and design specification through implementation and day-to-day operation. It also provided a modeling language, a methodology, and an integrating infrastructure for executing models. The framework represented enterprises through functional, information, resource, and organizational views. Its process-based and event-driven orientation was designed to support modeling, simulation, analysis, scheduling, dispatching, monitoring, and the provision of operational information. The consortium’s work was released through a sequence of technical documents and publications. These included an ESPRIT research report on open system architecture for CIM in 1989, CIMOSA architecture descriptions issued in the early 1990s, and the book CIMOSA: Open System Architecture for CIM, published by Springer in 1993. Through these outputs, AMICE helped establish a shared vocabulary and conceptual foundation for enterprise integration. CIMOSA was later associated with wider enterprise-engineering research and influenced standards and reference architectures, including GERAM and the framework described by ISO 19439. To maintain the specification and encourage its continued use, AMICE founded the CIMOSA Association as a nonprofit organization at the start of the 1990s. The association promoted enterprise engineering and integration based on CIMOSA and later considered the requirements of extended, virtual, and agile enterprises, including cross-organizational knowledge, decision support, monitoring, and control. AMICE Consortium itself was dissolved in 1995. The CIMOSA Association remained active for a longer period but closed in 2010 after a loss of membership associated with participant retirements. AMICE is consequently best understood as a historical European research consortium whose principal legacy is the CIMOSA architecture and its contribution to enterprise integration.

• 2010

  CIMOSA Association closed

  [1]CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org

  The nonprofit successor organization closed after a loss of membership attributed to participant retirements.

• 1995

  Consortium dissolved

  [1]CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org

  AMICE Consortium ended its organizational activity after completing its principal CIMOSA research and standardization work.

• 1993

  CIMOSA: Open System Architecture for CIM published

  [1]CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org

  A Springer publication presented the consortium’s open architecture and helped disseminate CIMOSA’s enterprise-integration approach.

• 1992

  CIMOSA architecture work advanced

  [1]CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org

  The consortium documented a further architecture description under ESPRIT Project 5288 and continued defining CIMOSA’s modeling and integration concepts.

• 1991

  CIMOSA Architecture Description AD 1.0 issued

  [1]CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org

  AMICE published an early formal architecture description for CIMOSA.

• 1989

  Open System Architecture for CIM research report published

  [1]CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org

  An ESPRIT Project 688 research report documented the consortium’s work toward an open architecture for computer-integrated manufacturing.

• 1985

  AMICE Consortium initiated

  [1]CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org

  AMICE was established as a European ESPRIT-related collaboration among manufacturing companies, technology suppliers, consultants, and academic participants to advance computer-integrated manufacturing.

A collaborative European industrial-research consortium focused on vendor-independent enterprise modeling and the integration of manufacturing systems.

• Enterprise integration architecture · 1992

  CIMOSA

  CIMOSA was AMICE’s principal technical result: an open system architecture for computer-integrated manufacturing. It combined an enterprise-modeling framework, a modeling language and methodology, and an integrating infrastructure. The framework was designed to describe an enterprise throughout the life cycle of a CIM system, from requirements and design through implementation and operational execution. Its models addressed functional, information, resource, and organizational aspects and could support analysis, simulation, scheduling, dispatching, monitoring, and process information exchange.

• Enterprise modeling methodology · 1992

  CIMOSA Modeling Framework

  The modeling framework provided concepts and structures for representing the functions, information, resources, controls, and organizational responsibilities of an integrated manufacturing enterprise. It was intended to support multiple phases of system development and operation, while separating generic enterprise functions from specific or partial functions associated with particular organizations.

• Manufacturing systems infrastructure · 1992

  CIMOSA Integrating Infrastructure

  The integrating infrastructure was the technical basis associated with CIMOSA model execution. It was intended to provide information-technology services for implementing particular enterprise models in a vendor-independent and portable manner, thereby supporting communication and coordination among manufacturing functions, resources, and information systems.

• 1995

  Conclude the AMICE ConsortiumOther

  Background

  AMICE had completed its central collaborative work on open architectures and enterprise modeling for computer-integrated manufacturing.

  Action taken

  The consortium was dissolved.

  Aftermath

  CIMOSA-related promotion and maintenance continued through the CIMOSA Association rather than through AMICE itself.

  Source

• 1990

  Create a nonprofit body to preserve and promote CIMOSAStrategy

  Background

  The consortium needed a continuing organization to retain ownership of the CIMOSA specification and support its promotion after the initial research program.

  Action taken

  AMICE established the CIMOSA Association as a nonprofit organization focused on enterprise engineering and integration based on CIMOSA.

  Aftermath

  The association continued CIMOSA-related promotion and broadened its interests to emerging enterprise forms and integration requirements before closing in 2010.

  Source

1. 1CIMOSAen.wikipedia.org