How to connect design thinking and cyber-physical systems: the s*IoT conceptual modelling approach

Abstract

The alignment of enterprise models and information systems is a factor that influences the efficiency of enterprise practices. Considering the changing landscape in the age of the fourth industrial revolution, it is imperative that alignment methodologies are evolved with the progression of enterprise models and the transformation from information systems to cyber-physical systems (CPSs). This issue was dissected in three layers - scenario layer, modelling layer, and run-time environment. In this structure, design thinking and CPSs were extended from the scenario layer and the run-time environment to the modelling layer. Focusing on the modelling layer, progress was made towards composing "smart" models that innovate enterprise models according to novel influences from design thinking while abstracting from run-time environments that CPS provide. The hypothesis was to consider the automated transformation of knowledge as an axle around which artifacts on the modelling layer revolve. Based on this hypothesis, the modelling layer was structured in a modelling hierarchy, in which a metamodel was defined using a metamodelling platform. The metamodel is the direct model of modelling methods which were used to build "smart" models that connect design thinking and CPSs.