A semantic web service environment for B2B and B2C auction applications within extended and virtual enterprises

Existing web services specifications lack an appropriate semantic framework for the creation and operation of emerging manufacturing systems such as the supply chains and extended/virtual enterprises (EE/VE) in order to execute business processes over internet. Semantic web services (SWS) technology aims to add sufficient semantics to the specifications and implementations of web services to make possible the (automatic) integration of distributed autonomous systems, with independently designed data and behaviour models. Defining data, behaviour and system components in a machine understandable way using ontologies provides the basis for reducing the need for humans to be in the loop for routine system integration processes. In this paper we present the design and implementation of a unique bid auction application for procurement automation within supply chains embedded in extended and virtual enterprises. We show how emerging semantic web services technologies such as the web services execution environment (WSMX) facilitate the creation of such applications, and we discuss the advantages of such applications.