Using Semantic Model Comparison to Support Evaluation of Environmental Impact on Big Production Setups

Abstract

Context: Working with process modeling is widely spread in production systems engineering and software development. Thus models have essential part in representing, visualizing and analyzing data in the field of car’s production for Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) purposes. Objectives: This thesis aims to develop a software tool for comparison and version controlling of models by combining VSM and LCA for analyzing environmental impact. From the software engineering perspective the thesis solves the problem of model versioning and semantic comparison of models. Method: The research method used in the thesis is case study of a production set-up at one of Volvo Construction Equipment plants. The qualitative semi-structured interviews, literature review, one field visit to Volvo plant and validation meetings with primary users of thesis outcome were the methods for data collection. Results: The result of this thesis is an algorithm for semantic model comparison and its prototype implementation in Microsoft Visio. Conclusions: It is concluded that models can be compared both syntactically and semantically using simple algorithms assuming that the problem of model comparison can be simplified to a limited number of comparison parameters. In our case the semantics behind model items is defined by one main parameter - carbon dioxide emissions.