KR101417395B1 - System for scouting supplier and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method for finding a supplier based on an ontology that reflects the requirements of a demanding enterprise is disclosed. The system for finding a supplier company is composed of an ontology management unit that collects demanded enterprise requirement information by collecting requirements of a demanding enterprise and generates an ontology based on the domain knowledge information which is collected and analyzed information about the industry to which the supplying enterprise belongs , The selection condition of the supplier, and the core competency of the supplier, generates an instance file based on the ontology, receives the search information requesting the search for the supplier, converts the information into a selection condition for the supplier And a result processing unit for searching for a supply company matched with the selection condition for the converted supply company, using an instance file. Therefore, demand companies can systematically provide information on manufacturing capabilities and R & D capabilities, which are core competencies of supply companies, and search for suppliers that meet various requirements of demand companies.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system and method for finding a supplier,

More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for finding a supplier based on an ontology that reflects requirements of a demanding enterprise.

In order to find suppliers, traders have traditionally used the traditional media such as telephone directories and advertisements to obtain company information through direct contact with suppliers through exhibitions. However, this offline-based approach is useful for locating suppliers physically close together, but it is inefficient in today's global manufacturing environment where the scope of collaboration is widening.

In order to solve the limitation of the conventional search method, the conventional online-based supplier search method is a simple data-providing type supplier search method and an e-marketplace type supply company search method.

Simple data providing company search method is a method used in various associations or association sites, and provides website address information, product catalog information, and contact information of a supplier registered in association or association in the form of a simple directory list.

The e-marketplace type supplier search method provides information of the demanding company and the supply company separately, and retrieves information such as registered product information, business information, and production capacity through the keyword search function. In other words, when the e-marketplace type supplier search method registers the information about the product that the demanded company wants to receive, the supplier compares the information of the product with its capacity and judges whether the product can be produced, Form a supply chain in a way that communicates. When searching for suppliers, e-marketplace-based supplier search methods perform keyword-based searches. Generally, demand companies and supply companies use different words and sentences, so demand companies can not easily find suppliers with this method.

Also, according to the e-marketplace-based supplier discovery method, the demanding enterprise has to passively wait for the supply enterprise to produce the product that it wants to receive. And because the supplier itself assesses its capabilities, the credibility of the competency evaluation falls, and the demand side needs to reevaluate the capability of the supplier itself.

On the other hand, the simple data-providing supplier search method allows a demanding company to actively search for a supply company to search for a desired supply company, but since it does not support search, In order for a company to understand the capabilities of its suppliers, it is necessary to find and analyze information from various companies.

An object of the present invention to solve the above problems is to provide a system in which a demand company can find a supply company based on an ontology that reflects requirements of a demand company and core competencies of a supply company.

Another object of the present invention to solve the above problems is to provide a method by which a demand company can find a supply company based on an ontology that reflects requirements of a demand company and core competencies of a supply company.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for identifying a supply company, which collects requirements of a demand enterprise and collects and analyzes structured demand company demand information and information on an industry to which the supply company belongs An ontology management unit for generating an ontology based on the domain knowledge information; an input unit for generating an instance file based on the ontology by receiving information on a selection condition of the supplier and a core competency of the supplier, A search request processing unit for receiving the search information and converting the search information into a selection condition for a supply company and a result processing unit for searching the supply company matching the selection condition for the converted supply company using the instance file.

Here, the ontology management unit may include a demand enterprise requirement information generation unit that generates demand enterprise requirement information classified into a demand condition for the product and a demand condition for the enterprise by classifying the demand condition of the demand company by item.

Here, the ontology management unit includes a reasoning rule generation unit that defines ontology reasoning rules and constraints necessary for reasoning using functional attributes provided by OWL (Web Ontology Language) based on domain knowledge information, And an ontology generator for modeling the ontology as a domain ontology and a task ontology based on the domain knowledge information.

Here, the ontology generator may generate an ontology schema based on the domain ontology and the task ontology, and reflect the ontology schema, the ontology inference rules, and the constraints necessary for inference in the domain ontology and the task ontology.

Here, the ontology management unit may further include an ontology structuring unit structuring the domain ontology and the task ontology based on the data type of the ontology schema.

Here, the search request processing unit may include an instance generation unit for generating an instance file by converting the information about the selection condition of the supply company and the core competency of the supply company into a Resource Description Framework (RDF) triple form.

Here, the result processing unit may include an instance matching unit for searching for a supply company matched with the selection condition for the converted supply company based on the ontology reasoning rule, using an instance file, And a result providing unit for providing the result.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for identifying a supply company, comprising collecting and analyzing demanded enterprise requirement information and information on an industry to which the supply company belongs, Generating and managing an ontology based on the domain knowledge information; generating an instance file based on the ontology by receiving information on a selection condition of the supplier and a core competency of the supplier; And processing the search request by converting the search information into a selection condition for a supply company, and searching for a supply company matched with the selection condition of the converted supply company, using an instance file.

The step of generating and managing the ontology may include the steps of generating demand enterprise requirement information classified into a demand condition for a product and a demand condition for a company by classifying the demand condition of the customer according to the item, Domain knowledge information by collecting and analyzing information on an industry; defining ontology reasoning rules and constraints necessary for inference using functional attributes provided by OWL (Web Ontology Language) based on domain knowledge information; Modeling the domain ontology and the task ontology based on the demand enterprise requirement information and the domain knowledge information, generating the ontology schema based on the domain ontology and the task ontology, generating the domain ontology and the task ontology based on the data type of the ontology schema, RTI ID = 0.0 > of: < / RTI >

The step of modeling the domain ontology and the task ontology may generate the ontology schema based on the domain ontology and the task ontology to reflect the ontology schema, the ontology inference rules, and the constraints necessary for the inference on the domain ontology and the task ontology .

Herein, the processing of the search request, inputting information on the selection conditions of the supplier and the core competencies of the supplier, information on the selection conditions of the supplier and information on the core competencies of the supplier, Resource description framework) triple to generate an instance file; and receiving search information requesting a search for a supplier to convert the search information into selection conditions for a supply company.

Here, the step of searching for the supply company using the instance file may include searching for a supply company matched with the selection condition for the converted supply company based on the ontology reasoning rule using the instance file, And visualizing and providing information about the supplied supplier.

When a system and method for discovering a supply company according to the embodiment of the present invention as described above is used, the demand enterprise is systematically provided with information on manufacturing capability and R & D capability, which are core competencies of a supply company, It is possible to search suppliers that meet the conditions, and supply companies can easily grasp demand of demand companies and secure market competitiveness.

In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to promote exchanges of information for collaborations among SMEs as well as collaborations with large enterprises of supply companies.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the types of ontologies.
3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention in more detail.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

The terms first, second, A, B, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as a first component. And / or < / RTI > includes any combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, . On the other hand, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that there are no other elements in between.

The terminology used in this application is used only to describe a specific embodiment and is not intended to limit the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, the terms "comprises" or "having" and the like are used to specify that there is a feature, a number, a step, an operation, an element, a component or a combination thereof described in the specification, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the contextual meaning of the related art and are to be interpreted as either ideal or overly formal in the sense of the present application Do not.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a system for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating types of an ontology.

Referring to FIG. 1, a system for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an ontology management unit 100, a search request processing unit 200, and a result processing unit 300.

The ontology management unit 100 can collect demanded enterprise requirement information and generate structured demanded enterprise requirement information. That is, the ontology management unit 100 can collect the conditions required by the demanding company for the supplying company (or the manufacturing company), classify them, and structure them. Here, the demanding enterprise requirements may include implicit requirements such as the explicit requirements such as the sales amount of the supplying enterprise, the number of employees, the establishment year, and the manufacturing capability of the supplying enterprise, business preferences, and the like.

The ontology management unit 100 may generate domain knowledge information by collecting and analyzing information on an industry to which the supplying company belongs. That is, the ontology management unit 100 can generate domain knowledge information by collecting and analyzing knowledge on a specific field (or an industrial field).

As a result, the ontology management unit 100 can generate and manage an ontology based on demand enterprise requirement information and domain knowledge information.

An ontology is a data model that expresses a specific domain and can be defined as a set of formal vocabularies describing the relationship between concepts belonging to a specific domain and concepts. In addition, a variety of things such as catalogs, thesauri, taxonomy, and axioms can be categorized as ontologies.

Referring to FIG. 2, the ontology may include an upper ontology 10, a domain ontology 20, a task ontology 30, and an application ontology 40 (task ontology) ). ≪ / RTI >

The parent ontology (10) can lay the foundation for knowledge sharing and formatting and clarification that machines can understand.

The domain ontology 20 is inherited from the upper ontology 10 and can be used to handle various specific domains such as medical, electronic, electric, or molds by ontology that describes and extends the knowledge of a specific domain.

The task ontology 30 can describe general activities inherited from the parent ontology 10, such as the domain ontology 20, in accordance with the purpose of the specific problem or the ontology.

In other words, the domain ontology (20) is knowledge of the physical entity, relationship, phenomenon, and current state that represent the corresponding domain as a constituent of the ontology-based knowledge system. Knowledge about the problem to be solved by the ontology is stored in the task ontology 30). ≪ / RTI >

The application ontology 40 can also deal with a problem of a defined domain by merging the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30. [

The search request processing unit 200 may receive the information on the selection conditions for the supply company and the core capabilities of the supply company, and may generate an instance file based on the ontology. In addition, the search request processing unit 200 may receive search information requesting a search for a supply company from a demand company, and convert the search information into a selection condition for the supply company.

The result processing unit 300 can search for a supply company that matches the selection condition for the converted supply company by utilizing the instance file and can visually provide information about the searched supply company.

Accordingly, the system for searching for a supply company according to the embodiment of the present invention enables a demand company to easily find a desired supplier through searching using an ontology including information on the supplier.

3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention in more detail.

3, the ontology managing unit 100 includes a demand enterprise requirement information generating unit 110, a domain knowledge analyzing unit 120, a reasoning rule generating unit 130, an ontology generating unit 140, and an ontology structuring unit 150 The search request processing unit 200 includes a data input unit 210, a search acceptance unit 220 and an instance generation unit 230. The result processing unit 300 includes an instance matching unit 310, (Not shown).

The ontology management unit 100 will be described in detail as follows.

The demand enterprise requirement information generation unit 110 can generate demand enterprise requirement information classified into requirements for the product and requirements for the enterprise by classifying the requirements of the collected demand enterprise by items.

For example, if the mold industry implements a supply company discovery system, it will survey the literature of various standards and research papers, the interviews of the mold industry experts, and the actual industry data of the major companies to determine the sales, the number of employees, And the implicit requirements of the supplier's manufacturing capabilities, business preferences, and so on.

The requirements of the collected demand companies are subdivided into seven categories of general information, quality, equipment, information system technology, reputation, trust, and attitude toward the transaction, and classified them into requirements for the product and requirements for the company .

The requirements for the product can be related to the type and use of the mold used by the demanding company in manufacturing the product to be produced, and the requirements for the enterprise are related to the preferences of the demanding company in selecting an excellent supplier .

Demand that is used in the real industry Collect the requirements of the enterprise and structure the collected requirements into four entities by classifying them into requirements for the product and requirements for the enterprise.

In addition, the analyzed requirements can be structured through four kinds of objects: focus concept, primary object, secondary object, and explanation object.

Here, the concept of focus is an abstract concept that represents the purpose of the ontology to be achieved. For example, the purpose of an ontology for solving the problem of finding a supplier is that the requirements of the demanding company and the core competence of the supplying company are expressed through the ontology. Thus, two focus concepts can be defined: the requirements of demanding firms and the core competencies of suppliers.

The primary object is an adjacent object from the focus concept and can express the relationship between the secondary object and the focus concept. Also, prior to the determination of the primary object, all terms of the layered reality to be collected can be input to the secondary object. The description object can create a new concept or attribute if the secondary object can not be expressed through the existing parent ontology (10).

The domain knowledge analysis unit 120 can collect and analyze knowledge about specific domains such as physical entity, relation, phenomenon, and current state.

For example, in order to implement a supplier enterprise search system in the mold industry, the domain knowledge analysis unit 120 analyzes the types of injection molds required for the ontology technology, the classification system, the industries associated with the corresponding molds, You can analyze and organize knowledge of various patents and certificates related to the mold industry.

The inference rule generation unit 130 may define ontology reasoning rules and constraints necessary for inference by using the functional attributes provided by OWL (Web Ontology Language) based on the domain knowledge information.

The ontology generation unit 140 may model the ontology as the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 based on the demand enterprise requirement information and the domain knowledge information.

For example, the ontology generation unit 140 may model the domain ontology 20 by expanding knowledge about a specific domain based on domain knowledge information and demand enterprise requirement information.

In addition, the task ontology 30 can be modeled by gathering knowledge on problems to be solved by using an ontology such as a reliability verification method and a R & D capability measurement method.

It is possible to model the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 based on the demand enterprise requirement information and the domain knowledge information, and generate an ontology schema file based on the model.

That is, the ontology schema file that forms the relationships among the classes, the attributes of the data, and the instances and supports the semantic expression power can be generated based on the class diagrams calculated based on the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30.

Accordingly, the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 reflecting the ontology reasoning rules can be implemented.

The ontology structuring unit 150 can structure the domain ontology and the task ontology based on the data type of the ontology schema. That is, the ontology structuring unit 150 structures the subject, the predicate, and the object relation included in each unit data based on the data type such as the class, attribute, letter, and number of the ontology schema generated by the ontology generating unit 140 It can be expressed in triple form.

The search request processing unit 200 and the result processing unit 300 will now be described in detail.

The data input unit 210 may receive information on the selection conditions for the supply company and information on the core capabilities of the supply company. That is, the demanding company can input the selection condition for the supplying company through the data input unit 210, and the supplying company can input the information about the core capability of the supplying company through the data input unit 210.

The search accepting unit 220 may receive search information requesting a search for a supplier. That is, the demanding company can input search information requesting the search for the supplying company through the search accepting unit 220.

The instance generation unit 230 can generate an instance file by converting the information on the selection conditions for the supply company based on the ontology and the core competency of the supplier into a Resource Description Framework (RDF) triple form.

The instance matching unit 310 can search for a supply company matching the selection condition for the converted supplier based on the ontology reasoning rule, using the instance file.

The result providing unit 320 can visualize and provide information about the found supplier.

Although the ontology management unit 100, the search request processing unit 200 and the result processing unit 300 in the present invention are independently disclosed, the ontology management unit 100, the search request processing unit 200, and the result processing unit 300 It can be implemented in one single form, one physical device. In addition, the ontology management unit 100, the search request processing unit 200, and the result processing unit 300 may be implemented as a plurality of physical devices or groups, respectively, instead of one physical device or group.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, a method for discovering a supply company according to an embodiment of the present invention includes steps (S400 to S440) of generating and managing an ontology, processing a search request (S450 to S470) (S480 to S490) of exploring using an instance file.

The steps to create and manage an ontology are described below.

The ontology can be created and managed based on the domain knowledge information, which collects and analyzes the requirements of the demanding enterprise and collects and analyzes the information on the structured demanding enterprise requirement information and the industry to which the supplying company belongs.

And the demanded enterprise requirement information classified into the requirements for the product and the requirements for the enterprise can be generated by classifying the collected requirements of the consumer according to the items (S400).

The domain knowledge information may be generated by collecting and analyzing information on an industry to which the supplying company belongs (S410).

Based on the domain knowledge information, constraints necessary for ontology reasoning rules and reasoning can be defined using function attributes provided in OWL (Web Ontology Language) (S420).

The domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 may be modeled based on the demanded enterprise requirement information and the domain knowledge information in operation S430. The ontology schema based on the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 can be generated to reflect the ontology schema, the ontology inference rules and the constraint conditions required for inference to the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 .

An ontology schema based on the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 can be generated and the domain ontology 20 and the task ontology 30 can be structured based on the data type of the ontology schema in operation S440.

The steps of processing the search request and exploring the supplier using the instance file will be described as follows.

And the information about the core competency of the supply company, generates an instance file based on the ontology, receives search information for requesting a search for the supply company, Condition to process the search request.

The selection condition for the supplier and the core competency of the supplier can be input (S450).

The instance file can be generated by converting the information about the selection condition of the supplier and the core competency of the supplier into a Resource Description Framework (RDF) triple format (S460).

The search information requesting the search for the supply company may be input and converted into the selection condition for the supply company (S470).

Also, the supply company matching the selection condition for the converted supply company can be searched using the instance file.

The supplier company matching the selection condition of the converted supplier based on the ontology reasoning rule can be searched using the instance file (S480).

Information on the searched supplier can be visualized and provided (S490).

The method for locating the supply company according to the embodiment of the present invention can be performed using the system for locating the supply company described above. Therefore, a detailed description of the method for finding a supplier can be understood by referring to the description of the system for finding the supply company described above.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims It can be understood that

100: ontology management unit 110: demand enterprise requirement information generation unit
120: domain knowledge analysis unit 130: reasoning rule generation unit
140: an ontology generating unit 150: an ontology structuring unit
200: search request processing unit 210: data input unit
220: search reception unit 230:
300: Result processing unit 310: Instance matching unit
320: Results

Claims (12)

In a system where a demanding company finds a supplier,
An ontology management unit for collecting demanded enterprise requirement information by collecting and structuring requirements of the demanded enterprise and an ontology based on domain knowledge information obtained by collecting and analyzing information about the industry to which the supplying enterprise belongs;
The information about the selection condition for the supply company and the information about the core competency of the supply company, generates an instance file based on the ontology, receives search information for requesting a search for the supply company, A search request processing unit for converting the search request into a selection condition; And
And a result processor for searching the supply company matching the selection condition with respect to the converted supply company using the instance file,
The ontology management unit,
And an ontology generator for modeling the ontology as a domain ontology and a task ontology,
Wherein the domain ontology is generated through knowledge extension on a domain based on the domain knowledge information and the demand enterprise requirement information,
Wherein the task ontology is generated by summarizing knowledge about a problem to be solved using the ontology including a reliability verification method and a R & D capability measurement method. The ontology management system according to claim 1,
And a demand enterprise requirement information generator for generating demand enterprise requirement information classified into requirements for the product and requirements for the enterprise by classifying the requirements of the demand enterprise by items. The ontology management system according to claim 1,
Further comprising a reasoning rule generation unit for defining ontology reasoning rules and constraint conditions necessary for reasoning by using functional attributes provided by OWL (Web Ontology Language) based on the domain knowledge information. 4. The ontology generating system according to claim 3,
And generates an ontology schema based on the domain ontology and the task ontology to reflect the ontology schema, the ontology inference rules, and the constraint conditions required for inference in the domain ontology and the task ontology. 5. The ontology management system according to claim 4,
And an ontology structuring unit structuring the domain ontology and the task ontology based on a data type of the ontology schema. 4. The apparatus of claim 1,
And an instance generation unit for generating the instance file by converting the information about the selection conditions for the supply company and the information about the core competency of the supply company into a resource description framework (RDF) triple form. The apparatus according to claim 3,
An instance matching unit for searching the supply company matching the selection condition for the converted supplier based on the ontology reasoning rule using the instance file; And
And a result provider for visualizing and providing information on the searched supplier company. In a method performed by a system that provides an interface for a demanding enterprise to locate a supplier,
Generating and managing an ontology based on the domain knowledge information obtained by collecting and analyzing demanded enterprise requirement information by collecting and structuring requirements of the demanding enterprise and information about the industry to which the supplying enterprise belongs;
The information about the selection condition for the supply company and the information about the core competency of the supply company, generates an instance file based on the ontology, receives search information for requesting a search for the supply company, Converting the search condition into a selection condition and processing a search request; And
Searching the supply company matching the selection condition for the converted supply company using the instance file,
The step of creating and managing the ontology comprises:
Modeling the ontology as a domain ontology and a task ontology,
Wherein the domain ontology is generated through knowledge extension on a domain based on the domain knowledge information and the demand enterprise requirement information,
Wherein the task ontology is generated by summarizing knowledge about a problem to be solved using the ontology including a reliability verification method and a R & D capability measurement method. The method of claim 8, wherein generating and managing the ontology comprises:
Generating demand enterprise requirement information classified into a demand condition for the product and a demand condition for the enterprise by classifying the demand condition of the demand company by item;
Generating domain knowledge information by collecting and analyzing information on an industry to which the supplying company belongs;
Defining ontology reasoning rules and constraints necessary for inference using a functional attribute provided by OWL (Web Ontology Language) based on the domain knowledge information;
Modeling the ontology with the domain ontology and the task ontology based on the demanded enterprise requirement information and the domain knowledge information; And
Generating an ontology schema based on the domain ontology and the task ontology and structuring the domain ontology and the task ontology based on the data type of the ontology schema. The method of claim 9, wherein modeling the domain ontology and the task ontology comprises:
And generating an ontology schema based on the domain ontology and the task ontology to reflect the ontology schema, the ontology inference rules, and constraint conditions required for inference on the domain ontology and the task ontology. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein processing the search request comprises:
Receiving information on a selection condition for the supply company and information on a core competency of the supply company;
Converting the information about the selection conditions of the supply company and the core competency of the supply company into a Resource Description Framework (RDF) triple form to generate the instance file; And
And receiving search information requesting a search for the supply company and converting the search information into a selection condition for the supply company. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of searching for the supplying company using the instance file comprises:
Searching the supply company matching the selection condition with respect to the converted supplier based on the ontology reasoning rule using the instance file; And
And visualizing and providing information about the searched supplier company.

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