Industry 4.0 (I4.0) reference architectures aim to facilitate the development of cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) by providing uniform conceptual structures and terminologies. However, their use in CPPS development has not been examined to date. The goal of this paper is to analyze existing approaches that integrate I4.0 reference architectures as part of the development process. The literature is categorized in three types that are distinguished by the ways in which they make use of a reference architecture. Observations and conclusions focus on the specific reference architectures used and their architectural layers.

This paper presents initial results of the industry-led research project "SICHTEN 4.0" that aims to develop a method for viewpoint-oriented engineering of CPS for production (Industry 4.0). The approach allows different stakeholders to model their own views of the CPS application and establish alignment with the views of other stakeholders. Specifically, a multi-level method for modelling CPS is proposed that includes the creation of viewpoints and views according to the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011 standard for system architecture. They are defined using the Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0 and Semantic Web standards. The paper describes and illustrates the foundations of this approach.

Process modeling allows for analysis and improvement of processes that coordinate multiple people and tools working together to carry out a task. Process modeling typically focuses on the normative process, that is, how the collaboration transpires when everything goes as desired. Unfortunately, real-world processes rarely proceed that smoothly. A more complete analysis of a process requires that the process model also include details about what to do when exceptional situations arise. We have found that, in many cases, there are abstract patterns that capture the relationship between exception handling tasks and the normative process. Just as object-oriented design patterns facilitate the development, documentation, and maintenance of object-oriented programs, we believe that process patterns can facilitate the development, documentation, and maintenance of process models. In this paper, we focus on the exception handling patterns that we have observed over many years of process modeling. We describe these patterns using three process modeling notations: UML 2.0 Activity Diagrams, BPMN, and Little-JIL. We present both the abstract structure of the pattern as well as examples of the pattern in use. We also provide some preliminary statistical survey data to support the claim that these patterns are found commonly in actual use and discuss the relative merits of the three notations with respect to their ability to represent these patterns.

Our research group at NICTA was approached by LIXI, a standardization body of the Australian lending (e.g., mortgage) industry to help improve their business processes. We have been working on developing better approaches for business process modeling and on inventing new techniques for business process interoperation on a very large (industry-wide) scale. We studied a number of modern modeling languages and tools, as well as implementation technologies (e.g., SOAP and RESTful Web services). Then, we defined reference business process models and developed reference architectures and implementations for interoperable cross-organizational lending business processes. Our solutions have been adopted in practice. Insights and results from this project are transferable to other vertical domains.