An Interactive Tool for Data Service Identification in Cyber-Physical Production Networks

Abstract

The rapid digital transformation of industrial ecosystems is turning manufacturing environments into interconnected Cyber-Physical Production Networks (CPPN), where coordination across multiple actors is driven by continuous data exchange. In this context, Service-Oriented Architectures provide an effective paradigm for exposing modular, reusable, and interoperable services that encapsulate data access, processing, and sharing capabilities across organizational boundaries. Despite their central role, identifying and structuring such services remains challenging in multi-actor CPPN due to data sovereignty constraints, heterogeneous systems, and distributed processes. This paper presents an interactive visual tool for data service identification in CPPN, which implements and extends the P2S (Process-to-Services) methodology to explicitly account for data dependencies and organizational boundaries of CPPN. Starting from Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) process descriptions, the tool combines hierarchical clustering with interactive visual representations to generate and explore multiple service aggregations, enabling designers to reason about tradeoffs between cohesion, coupling, and data governance constraints. By supporting the interactive exploration of alternative solutions, the tool instantiates a visual knowledge management paradigm that bridges implicit process knowledge embedded in BPMN models and explicit architectural decisions, enabling human-in-the-loop decision-making with reduced cognitive complexity.