Towards unification of product and enterprise system descriptions

Abstract

An argument is presented for the unification of descriptions of product systems and enterprise systems. Product systems are developed and produced by enterprises, thus forming an integral part of the enterprise's architecture. However, many products are utilised by enterprises and some product systems contain entire businesses, such as the operating and maintenance business of a power station. Thus, products are part of enterprises, but enterprises may also be part of product systems. To enable the design of systems that include the product, its user and all the enterprises that make the product available and possible, it is necessary to align the enterprise engineering and systems engineering views. This article presents a starting point that allows the two disciplines to more accurately refer to a specific element of the complete system-of-interest. The aim is that this will allow for improved communication between the practitioners of the different disciplines and perhaps the development of improved solutions.