A semantic enrichment approach based on the vector space model supporting collaboration in the manufacturing domain

Knowledge is a word that can have multiple definitions, one can think of it as information, understanding or skill that you get from previous experiences or education. In the business world, independently of the size of the companies, knowledge is without any doubt power. If in one hand the access to internal knowledge is crucial to support better decision and management strategies, on the other, when knowledge is shared by means of collaboration between partnered companies it could be the negotiations empowering base. This work presents a knowledge gathering, enrichment and sharing approach based on concepts such as Information Retrieval, Knowledge Management and Semantic technologies, that envisions to help Manufacturing Industry companies, engaged in collaborative e-procurement tasks, to share and gain easy and fast access to crucial knowledge. The presented work was created and validated in Building and Construction domain and will be integrated in Horizon 2020 C2NET project in the Manufacturing domain. Namely, the relevant achievements pursued by this work are the following: (i) conceptualization of a model that enables the semantic enrichment of knowledge sources supported by domain experts; and (ii) implementation of a proof-of-concept focusing on the Manufacturing Industry context.