The role of an ontology-based knowledge backbone in a circular factory

In a circular factory, new products are produced reusing parts from used products, as well as newly manufactured parts. The production system consists of disassembly, testing as well as assembly steps. Due to the unforeseeable conditions of the used parts, the complexity of such a circular factory is challenging. This paper contributes a concept of an ontology-based knowledge backbone to master the challenges of such a circular factory. The concept addresses the representation of knowledge especially taking into account uncertainty, how to design queries and means to detect similarities and analogies. Furthermore, the role of research data management with automatized workflows as a supplier for FAIR data is elaborated.