digital transformation - conweaver€¦ · lenin, russian revolutionary a lie gets halfway around...

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONIntegration of Heterogeneous IT Landscapes

Results Paper (Extract) of the CONWEAVER GmbH Workshop on 22nd September 2017 in Darmstadt, Germany

More than 40 proven experts from the methodological and process environment examine the potential of networking data sources at an exclusive CONWEAVER event.

The phrase “data is the new oil”, often mentioned in the same breath as the digital transformation, allows our increased interest to move away from what we have already achieved as a goal to those traces that we leave behind. Not only the product as such, but also the condensed “knowledge” associated with it in the form of structured and unstructured data is of considerable value, according to the new reading in the Holocene of digitization, which is so significant that during the past Global Product Data Interopera-bility Summit in Phoenix, Arizona, the request “Connecting the Digital Thread: The Right Data to the Right Place at the Right Time” was addressed. The coming digitization requires us to consistently raise all (data) treasures, no matter how deep they are buried in any source systems, and may still have to be refined.

So, if you like, CONWEAVER has hit the mark with its Linked Data portfolio and at the same time under-stood how to give the user the necessary freedom to explore the added value of the technologies offered - certainly very sophisticated - for him or herself. And so, the format of this year’s workshop “Linked Data 2017” was in the tradition of last year’s workshop and an event from the year 2013: The participants’ own initiative was in the foreground, not the frontal presentation of a brilliant speaker.

ON THE THRESHOLD TO A NEW UNDERSTANDINGDr. Bernhard D. Valnion, d1g1tal AGENDA

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

WORKSHOP LINKED DATA 2017

www.conweaver.com © CONWEAVER 2017

As an aperitif to the following rounds of discussions, Michael Edig presented Daimler’s mega-project “PDM 2020” and the role of the vision “Digital Twin”.

With the Digital Twin, Edig emphasized, there is the possibility of formulating a target image in such a way that it can even be considered by the board of directors, a chance which the term “PLM” has long since lost. The motive for this is known: “Software Flashing over the Air”, which can only work if the con-figuration of each delivered vehicle is known in detail.

What Tesla has long since demonstrated is now what all automotive OEMs want to make pos-sible with their processes. The manager said: “PDM 2020 as a vision of modern product data management is a component to implement the Digital Twin at Daimler”. This requires the com-prehensive indexing of truly all data sources via a new, yet to be implemented data layer, recognizing the signs of the times: in the selec-tion process for the Data Layer, Daimler did not opt for a standard requirement specification approach, because this would take far too long, but for a hack marathon (“hackathon”), in which several software providers enter the ring at once and do their best.

After the keynote speech, the go-ahead was given for the discussion rounds at the four thematic tables:

1. Technology vis-à-vis

2. Linked Data Management

3. Single Source of Truth

4. Knowledge vs. Information.

The vivid conversations bridged the gap between the proven and the established on the one hand and questions and possible answers on the other, about which changes are necessary for a consequent digiti-zation of the lived methods and processes.

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The Workshop ConceptIn four World Café rounds, the participants continued to develop the theme tables under the sponsorship of the experts. Thus, it was possible for all participants to bring in experiences, ideas and opinions on each topic. Always questioning its context, the effects on its (potential) users, which resultant strategies or processes emerge or are essential for its realization.

The summary of the respective tables was subsequently prepared by the sponsor and their corresponding part-ners of CONWEAVER. In order to preserve the spirit and creativity of the discussions, we have left the summaries largely as they were, and have decided against a uniform structure. The different font colors in the mind maps and on the table papers reflect the different groups throughout the day.

Figure: The World Café tables with their sponsors

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In the course of the Linked Data Workshop (LiDa 2017), this table focused on questions around the topic of archi-tecture. Under the theme “Technologies vis-à-vis”, ques-tions about the right technology for digital transformation were discussed.

The basis for this discussion was the depicted, simplified representation of a future IT architecture in companies that has been built up along business processes over the years and that is increasingly ex-posed to competition to a constantly changing IT landscape. This leads to a recurrent discussion of the conflicting, often contradictory philosophies of data transformation. To sum up the discussions of the day, the most relevant differences can be con-densed as follows:

• Openness vs. security

• Monolith vs. pluralism

• Dynamic vs. resistance (plannability)

• In-house vs. cloud.

Round 1The first round began with the question of whether information networking is generally necessary, since the data source already contains all information. Many systems would have overlaps that could be reused in one tool. This was countered...


TECHNOLOGIES VIS-Á-VIS

What is the right Technology for my Digital Transformation?Does it even exist?• Which architectural approaches are there? Advantages? Disadvantages?• What does it require? What should be left out?

Markus Zoier, Virtual Vehicle Research CenterMarkus Schmitter, CONWEAVER GmbH

Figure: Simplified representation of the future IT architecture in companies

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Monolith does not work!Andreas Schuchardt, Wintershall Holding GmbH







LINKED DATA MANAGEMENT

Does the Linked Data Layer (LDL) offer Read-Only Access?• Where are concrete areas of application that go beyond transparency?• What does the practice need?

Sylke Rosenplänter, Opel Automobile GmbHFrank Pospischil, CONWEAVER GmbH

At first, it was unclear whether “access” meant access to the Linked Data Layer or access to the source systems. The read access is undoubtedly related to the LDL. Nevertheless, there was a lot of discussion at the beginning with focus on writing access to the source systems. Only in the course of the discussions it became clear that a writing access to the Linked Data Layer is also a valid approach.

In the following paragraphs, the original contributions of the participants, as recorded in the Word Café on the desktop wallpaper, were summarized thematically. Subsequent comments of the table hosts can be found in italics.

1 Fundamental ConsiderationsIn addition to the effort to identify concrete examples of applications that would require writing access, funda-mental considerations were also addressed. The partic-ipants discussed the requirements as well as problem areas. The keywords mentioned can be assigned to the following topics:

1.1 Linked Data GovernanceLinked Data Governance combines all notes dealing with the organizational aspects of a data layer:

• Which data exists? (In the sense of a directory)• Hard links vs. soft links (semantic)

(Distinction of key-based connections from semantic relationships)• Defining standards• Data ownership• Metadata vs. user data (data vs. context)• Performance• Traceability

...

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Numerous departments and engineers work simultaneously on the development and improvement of their products. Co-operations, joint ventures and supply relationships between companies create a mul-titude of data on a component, an assembly or a product. An increasing variety of variants exponentiates the generated mass of data. This makes it all the more important to retrieve reliable information where it is needed. But can I rely on them? Who guarantees their topicality or correctness? This World Café there-fore dealt with the question of the „single truth“.

The following three theses were presented by Josef Kriegmair at the beginning of each of the four group phases as an introduction, and then from the second group onwards additionally a summary of the previ-ous discussions was given:

1 Single Source of Truth = Single Source of Untruth

2 There are Several Truths

SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH

Where does the “New” Single Source of Truth emerge from?• How is data passed through processes?• How do we deal with the question of unambiguity?• How do you deal with redundancies in networking?

Josef Kriegmair, MTU Aero Engines AGMichael Graf, CONWEAVER GmbH

What is necessary to achieve truth?

A lie told often enough becomes the truth. Lenin, Russian revolutionary

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a change to get its pants on.Winston Churchill, British statesman

If there were only one truth, you couldn’t paint a hundred canvases on the same theme. Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, graphic artist and sculptor

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The discussion at the World Café table “Knowledge vs. Information” was based on the knowledge ladder according to North. Starting from characters, together with a syntax (i.e. combination rules for the char-acters), data is created. Data plus meaning (i.e. semantics) create information. People are interested in relevant information, can contribute, evaluate and act on experience and process knowledge. After all, from an organizational point of view, core competencies are decisive for a company’s competitiveness and adaptability.

ChallengesIn the conversations at the table it became repeated-ly clear that knowledge is fundamentally of different nature than information and therefore knowledge cannot (yet) be stored in automated, computer-aided form. When an employee leaves a compa-ny, the company loses his or her knowledge.

Stored information, on the other hand, ...

KNOWLEDGE VS. INFORMATION


Knowledge takes place in the User‘s Head and, unlike Information, cannot be stored easily• How does meaningful/valuable information occur?• In which ways do you prepare information so that knowledge can be derived from it?

Walter Koch, Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KGJoachim Caspar, CONWEAVER GmbH

1 Figure modified and expanded (Source: Fig. 2 „The Knowledge Ladder according to NORTH“ from Kaiser et. al. Information and knowledge management in sustainable land management: Conceptual foundations for implementation-oriented research. Technical Report, Jan. 2012)

Figure: Knowledge Ladder according to North completed with discussed topics1

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digital transformation - conweaver€¦ · lenin, russian revolutionary a lie gets halfway around...

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