An ontology example in Configuration Management at Airbus

Abstract

Today data is increasingly available in our engineering domains but without an ontology to structure it, one might get drowned in the data lake. Configuration Management data being central to maintaining the configuration of the aircraft throughout its life cycle, need to be well described, understood and interpreted appropriately. This paper presents the effort performed at Airbus in the configuration management domain to structure the data through abstract ontology models of processes, tools and workflows. The ontology objects are then implemented and exposed as a data product to be used in digital transformation initiatives. This ontology based approach has encouraged harmonization of digital initiatives across different aircraft programs, and the associated graph style implementation ensures a more efficient exploration of Configuration Management data, leading to shorter lead time for development of data driven initiatives and knowledge ramp up.