2017 International Conference on Biometrics and Kansei Engineering

An approach for supporting system of international

logistics based on ontological engineering

1st Klairung Ponanan 2nd Hidetsugu Suto 3rd Shinya Watanabe

Department of Information and Department of Information and Department of Information and
Electronic Engineering Electronic Engineering Electronic Engineering
Muroran Institute of Technology Muroran Institute of Technology Muroran Institute of Technology
Hokkaido, Japan Hokkaido, Japan Hokkaido, Japan
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— Cross-bordering trade is considered as a

significant driver in economic developments to promotions of II. BACKGROUND AND PREVIOUS STUDIES
regional stability and cooperations. With the current system,
crossing borders must take much costs because there are many A. Ontological engineering
weak points in the processes, e.g., redundant clearance processes, When we need to share information, common conceptual
and multiple documents requirements in different formats and framework is required. Ontology is a philosophical scheme in
different data elements. Thus, cross-bordering supporting which all of the concepts constructing our world are defined.
system, which absorbs the differences between countries is
As a results, we can get the common conceptual framework of
required. In this paper, some classes of cross-bordering
the world. Ontological engineering aims to use the idea for
transportation ontology are proposed in order to develop such
supporting system. In addition, flamework of the supporting sharing information about high level technologies [5][6]. In
system is shown. many cases, ontological engineering has been used in area that
related to information management [7]. In ontological
Keywords— Ontological engineering, Cross-bordering engineering, concepts such as things, events, and relations, are
transportation ontology, Cross-Bordering process, Information defined strictly, and usually, these concepts are represented by
Logistics using classes, relations, individuals [8]:
• Classes represent concepts, classes in an ontology are
I. INTRODUCTION usually organized in taxonomies through which
The ministry of transportation of Thailand has launched a Inheritance mechanisms can be applied.
project of “The use of transportation traffic systems as a • Relations represent a type of association between
driving force for the economic strength and the status of concepts of the domain. They are formally defined as
transport and traffic hub in the region” in order to enhance any subset of a product of n sets, that is: R ⊂ C1 x C2 x
transportation abilities of the target region [1]. ... x Cn. Ontologies usually contain binary relations.
Some land transportation routes which connect Bangkok, The first argument is known as the domain of the
Thailand and Guangxi, China, have been selected, and some relation, and the second argument is the range. For
fieldworks have been conducted on some routes in the project. instance, the binary relation subclass-of is used for
In accordance with the results of the project, infrastructures building the class taxonomy. The is-a relations are used
such as transport routes, are expanding rapidly. However, in this paper, that is-a links between classes form a
many weak links still remain at border crossings in the hierarchy (or in some cases, a lattice) of classes, a
economic corridors [2]. backbone of an ontology.
As a result of the fieldworks, it became clear that passing • Individuals represent instances of concepts or classes
border is one of the bottlenecks in international transportations and the values of their roles (properties).
processes because of differences of laws, regulations and
languages among the countries [3]. B. Previous studies
To solve the problem, a seamless support mechanism for Introducing Ontological technology into logistic field is just
international transportation system is expected. In this paper, a beginning, but some interesting result have reported. One of
framework of supporting system for cross-bordering the main goals of logistics ontologies is supporting optimized
transportations is proposed. The system is designed based on information utilization, e.g. time managements, truck location
techniques of ontological engineering [4]. In addition, a set of controls, quality controls, etc.
classes, which constitute a cross-bordering transportation Andreas and Julia [9] have proposed logistics ontologies to
ontology, is defined. annotate logistics services semantically. Their ontologies are
modularly organized and covers the overall concepts of the

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logistics domain. The logistics ontologies include the elements Fig. 2 shows the basic idea of optimizing document flow.
for describing both declarative and procedural aspects. The There are three processes in this optimizing documents flow
ontologies model consists of three layers, (1) a logistics shown below:
semantic layer, (2) a logistics service description layer, and (3)
a logistics process description layer. With the ontologies, terms • (1) Document flows are translated into information
in logistics service are defined clearly. flows.

Ontological technique has been also applied in food • (2) Information flows are optimized by using network
industry. MEat Supply Chain Ontology (MESCO) , which is science techniques.
an ontology model for traceability in meat supply chains, has • (3) From optimized information flows, new document
been proposed by Pizzuti et al. [10]. Important concepts of flow process is generated.
meat supply chains are defined in MESCO, such as activity,
food product, service product, lot and process. The main
features of MESCO are providing definitions of keyword of all
Document flow layer
activities which is using for tracing from the farmer to the final
consumer. The MESCO allows users to illustrate all
knowledge and information, which related to the meat
traceability domain with unified notification. Moreover, the
MESCO enables interoperability among different systems and Presentation layer
allows for integrating heterogeneous databases used by each Documents
Database
actor involved in the supply chains. The main advantages in
using MESCO is providing platform for obtaining essential
data, fundamental in case of occurring sudden diseases of
foods. Information flow layer
Seedah et al. [11] proposed a standardized knowledge
representation method of freight data sources using ontological
technology. The method makes knowledge understandable Cross-bordering
knowledge
from both of computer systems and humans. The ontology was database
developed by using the role based classification schema Document flow layer
(RBCS) that organizes and classifies data elements. The freight Cross-bordering
data ontology was developed to resolve users’ ontology
misunderstanding among different freight databases and
support the users to identify a proper data. By using their
ontologies, we can use multiple freight data seamless because Fig. 1. Framework of the proposed supporting system for cross-bordering
the semantic gaps are eliminated. Besides, it can identify transportations
similar data elements across different data sources, which is
Current system Optimization system
same principle with data mining.

III. SUPPORTING SYSTEM OF CROSS-BORDERING Information

(2) Optimize

TRANSPORTATION flow layer

Fig. 1 shows an image of the proposed framework of

supporting system. This system consists of three layers shown
(1) Translate (3) Generate
below:
• Document flow layer: On this layer, document flows
of cross-bordering transportation are described. Document
flow layer

• Information flow layer: On this layer, information

flows of cross-bordering transportation are described.
• Presentation layer or interface layer: Users can
access to the knowledge easily through the layer Fig. 2. Basic idea of optimizing document flows
because cross-bordering knowledge is translated into
local languages on this layer.
IV. CROSS-BORDERING TRANSPORTATION ONTOLOGY
Usually, cross-bordering transportations require complex
document flow process because it does not designed Fig. 2 shows classes which constitute the cross-bordering
sophisticate ways, but constructed ad hoc ways. By using our transportation ontology. These classes have been defined in
proposed framework, such document flows can be optimized. accordance with the results of analyzing cross-bordering
processes in Thailand. The classes are divided into two types,
actor class family and document class family. Classes in the

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actor class family stand for persons who work in cross- Each class family has a hierarchical structure. For example,
bordering transportation processes. For example, exporters, class of invoice of a product is expressed as “Document::
importers, truck drivers and custom headers are classified into Invoice:: Product.”
this class. Classes in the document class family stand for
documents used in cross-bordering transportation processes. These classes can be used for describing flows of
For example, customs declaration, invoice, packing list, and documents and information during cross-bordering process.
other relevant are classified into this class.

Fig. 3. Classes model of cross-bordering ontology

Fig. 4 shows a diagram of typical document flow of cross- classes as shown in Fig. 5. This type of knowledge is described
bordering transportation procedure. These document flows can on the information flow layer shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.
be abstracted as information flows by using the proposed

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Fig. 4. Documents flow of cross-bordering process

As we can see in Fig. 4, each document has relationship class, the following classification information were developed,
with actors. For example: for example:
(a) Exporter is-a the actor and invoice of product is-a • Document:: Invoice ::Product
prepared by exporter (Actor:: Exporter has to prepare There are information as following: Invoice No. and
Document:: Invoice:: Product and Document::Packing list. date, Exporter name and address, Tax ID No.,
Consignee or importer name and address, Total value
(b) Customs header is-a actor and export declaration,
and currency and etc.
invoice of product, and packing list are required by customs
header (Actor:: CustomsHeader require Document:: • Document:: PackingList
CustomsDeclaration:: Export, Document:: Invoice:: Product, There are information as following: Packing list No.,
Document::Packing list from Actor::Exporter or Actor:: Packing date, Company of packing name and address,
CustomsBroker). Country of origin, Number of boxes and etc.
We can describe the information flow of the cross- • Document:: CustomsDeclaration:: Export
bordering process as shown in Fig. 5. It is expected that by There are information both detail of Document::
using the flow information, we can optimize the actual flow Invoice:: Product and Document:: Packing list. For
document process. Because document and information are example, Exporter’s name and address, Tax ID No.,
investigated by information flow model of cross-bordering Consignee or importer name and address, Country of
process. Each of these documents can be further divided into origin, Country of destination, Total value and
information. Therefore, from the actor class and document currency, Packing date, payment term, Total quantity of
items and etc. are defined in CustomDecration:: Export.

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Fig. 5. Information flow of cross-bordering process

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 V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, two families of classes used for describing
information flows of international transportation have been
defined, and a framework of supporting system of international
transportation has been proposed. This system has been
designed aiming to realize a seamless international
transportation system. The authors plan to improve the system
design and implement is as an actual system. In addition, we
have to find the way to evaluate the proposed system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This works was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific
Research from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
(no.26330376 and 26350013)

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