CIMOSA was developed for ESPRIT (European Strategic Program for Research and Development in Information Technology) by AMICE (a consortiumof 30 major European vendors and users of CIM systems (e.g. IBM, HP, DEC, Siemens, Fiat, and Daimler-Benz). Original funding was provided by the European Common Market (EEC) through it's ESPRIT project.

CIMOSA defines a model-based enterprise engineering method which categorizes manufacturing operations into Generic and Specific (Partial and Particular) functions. These may then be combined to create a model which can be used for process simulation and analysis. The same model can also be used on line in the manufacturing enterprise for scheduling, dispatching, monitoring and providing process information.

Generic functions are performed in every enterprise independent of its size, organisation and business area. Examples include: Control of work flow, administration of information, integration of resources and management of communications. Generic functions should be performed by Generic system services.

Specific functions are dependant upon the individual enterprise. Examples include design of products and production processes, generation of production plans, scheduling of production, shipment of products, maintenance of equipment, processing of orders, accounting etc. Specific functions may be performed by machines, humans, and computers.

CIMOSA separates functions using two interrelated concepts.

• The CIMOSA Modelling Framework in which specific and Generic functions are clearly separated.
• The CIMOSA Integrating Infrastructure supporting execution of Generic functions and linking specific functions. It is effectively the communication system which interconnects all of the functions in the CIM system.

CIMOSA defines four Modelling Views of the Enterprise Functions:

• The Function View describes work flows
• The Information View describes the Inputs and Outputs of Functions
• The Resource View describes the structure of resources (Humans, machines, and control and information systems)
• The Organisation View defines authorities and responsibilities

These Views are reflected in the Services of the CIMOSA Integrating Infrastructure (IIS):

• Business Services define an Interpreter for the Function View. This allows control of work flow as defined in the Function Model.
• The Information Services define a set of Generic functions for the handling of the information defined in the Information View.
• The Dialogue Services define an Interpreter for dialogue control programs. These make the link between the Function Model, executing in the Business Services and the heterogeneous set of resources defined in the Resource View.
• The System Management Services provide Generic functions to allow system managers to intervene as defined in the Organisation View, e.g. to change, release, activate, start, stop etc. models, both off-line and on-line.
• The Common Services are used for communication handling providing the location transparency required for the interactions between the IIS Services.

The Generation and Execution of CIMOSA Models

The CIMOSA Modelling Framework (Fig) provides the user with architectural constructs and guidelines for the structured description of business requirements and their translation into CIM system design and implementation.

The Derivation Process guides the user through the three modelling levels: from the definition of enterprise business requirements (Requirements Definition) through the optimisation and specification of the requirements (Design Specification) to implementation (Implementation Description). On each modelling level the enterprise is analysed from different viewpoints (Modelling Views).

To reduce modelling effort CIMOSA defines three levels of genericity from purely generic to the highly particular.

The first "Generic" Level is a reference catalogue of basic CIMOSA architectural constructs (building blocks) for components, constraints, rules, terms, service function and protocols.

The second Partial Level contains a set of partial models applicable to a specific category of manufacturing enterprises.

The third "Particular" Level is related to one particular enterprise and is defined in the Instantiation Process by the modeller using already prepared building blocks from the Generic and Partial Level and developing new particular enterprise specific components.

After the modelling process is finished, the CIM-OSA model of an enterprise can be released (Integration Process) for the execution in the IIS environment.

It is not currently possible to generate cost models with CIMOSA. The Institut for Applied Informatics is developing an Economic View, which will facilitate economic evaluation of alternative models.