Platform Material Digital — Logistics Application Ontology (LOG)

The PMD Logistics Application Ontology (LOG) is a BFO- and IOF-conformant ontology for logistics and supply chain management. It extends the PMD Core Ontology (PMDCo) and is adopted from the IOF Supply Chain Module.

More information: https://w3id.org/pmd/log/

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Contents

• Scope
• Imports
• Key Classes
• Usage Patterns
• Versions
• Development
• Contact

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Scope

LOG covers the following domains:

• Organizations and roles — business organizations, suppliers, manufacturers, carriers, freight forwarders and their BFO-aligned roles; integrated with W3C ORG vocabulary for membership, posts, and sites
• Persons — modeled via FOAF (foaf:Person), linked to organizations through org:Membership and org:Post
• Physical premises and locations — LOG:LOG_1000146 (physical premises, BFO object aggregate) aligned to org:Site; geospatial sites (PMD:PMD_0040029, BFO:0000029) for spatial modeling; ship-from/ship-to locations with WGS84 coordinates
• Shipments and cargo — shipment, load, cargo, lot, traceable resource unit, bill of lading, purchase order
• Transport — transport process, seaway, airway, shipping route, multimodal chains via supply chain nodes
• Facilities — facility, storage facility, distribution center, warehouse; subclassing LOG:LOG_1000146 → org:Site
• Agreements and contracts — commercial service agreement, bill of lading, purchase order, framework contracts
• Processes — transport, receiving, warehousing, packaging, procurement, selling, manufacturing, supply chain processes
• Business functions — freight forwarding, transportation, logistics service, manufacturing service
• Plan specifications — shipment plan, warehousing plan, supply chain plan, packaging plan

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Imports

Import	Type	Source
pmdco	mirror	PMD Core Ontology 3.0.0
org	SLME	W3C Organization Ontology
foaf	custom	FOAF Vocabulary — with OWL DL violation fix removing schema:Person/contact:Person equivalencies

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Key Classes

IRI	Label	BFO alignment
LOG:LOG_1000047	business organization	BFO:0000027, org:FormalOrganization
LOG:LOG_1000050	organization	BFO:0000027, org:FormalOrganization
LOG:LOG_1000146	physical premises	BFO:0000027 ∩ ∃BFO:0000082.PMD_0040029, org:Site
LOG:LOG_1000032	facility	LOG_1000146
LOG:LOG_1000034	storage facility	LOG_1000032
LOG:LOG_1000051	shipment	BFO:0000027
LOG:LOG_1000029	material product	BFO:0000040
LOG:LOG_1000143	transport process	BFO:0000015
LOG:LOG_1000129	warehousing process	LOG_1000146 context
LOG:LOG_1000001	commercial service agreement	IAO:0000030 (information content entity)
LOG:LOG_1000002	bill of lading	IAO:0000030
LOG:LOG_1000088	ship from location	PMD:PMD_0040029
LOG:LOG_1000089	ship to location	PMD:PMD_0040029
LOG:LOG_1000090	supply chain node	PMD:PMD_0040029

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Usage Patterns

Patterns demonstrate how to model real-world logistics scenarios using this ontology. Each pattern provides:

• pattern.md — description, entities, and key properties
• shape.ttl — hand-written SHACL shapes for validation
• shape-data.ttl — real-world annotated example data (with coordinates, addresses, named organizations)

Patterns are validated with pyshacl. SHACL shapes can also be auto-generated from the ontology axioms using the autoshape pipeline.

Shipment by Sea

Models a steel coil shipment from Baosteel (Shanghai) to Volkswagen (Hamburg) via COSCO sea freight.

Entities: shipment, material product, ship-from/ship-to locations (with WGS84 coordinates), bill of lading, consignor/consignee organizations, transport process.

View pattern · Visualize data

Contract Negotiation

Models an annual steel supply framework agreement negotiated between Baosteel and Volkswagen AG, signed by named representatives holding formal organizational posts.

Entities: commercial service agreement, selling process, persons with titles, org:Post, buyer/supplier roles, HQ sites with coordinates.

View pattern · Visualize data

Warehouse Receiving

Models steel coils arriving at DB Schenker's Hamburg logistics centre, covering the receiving process and subsequent warehousing under a quarterly buffer stock plan.

Entities: storage facility (with address and coordinates), receiving process, warehousing process, warehousing plan specification, material product.

View pattern · Visualize data

Multimodal Transport

Models automotive parts shipped from Busan to Düsseldorf via Maersk sea freight (Busan → Rotterdam) followed by DB Schenker road freight (Rotterdam → Düsseldorf), with Rotterdam as the intermodal supply chain node.

Entities: two transport process legs, supply chain node, three geospatial sites (with coordinates), two carriers, shipment continuity across legs, temporal ordering.

View pattern · Visualize data

Autoshape Pipeline

SHACL shapes are auto-generated from the ontology axioms in three strictness profiles using owl2shacl:

Profile	File	Description
Open	patterns/autoshape/auto-shapes-open.ttl	Properties from other ontologies allowed
Semi-closed	patterns/autoshape/auto-shapes-semi-closed.ttl	Domain constraints validated
Closed	patterns/autoshape/auto-shapes-closed.ttl	Only declared properties allowed

Generate shapes:

cd src/ontology
sh utils/generate-auto-shapes.sh

Validate a pattern:

cd patterns
sh test.sh shipment-by-sea

Validate all patterns (make target):

cd src/ontology
make validate-patterns

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Versions

Stable release

Latest release always at: https://w3id.org/pmd/log.owl

Release artefacts

Artefact	Description
log.owl / log.ttl	Full ontology with all imports merged
log-full.owl / log-full.ttl	Full with inferred axioms (primary release)
log-base.owl / log-base.ttl	Base — no imports merged
log-simple.owl / log-simple.ttl	Simplified, classified, imports filtered

Editors' version

src/ontology/log-edit.owl

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Development

This repository uses the Ontology Development Kit (ODK).

Run quality checks:

cd src/ontology
docker run --rm -v $(pwd)/../../:/work -w /work/src/ontology obolibrary/odkfull:latest make IMP=false MIR=false

Refresh imports:

cd src/ontology
docker run --rm -v $(pwd)/../../:/work -w /work/src/ontology obolibrary/odkfull:latest make all_imports

Customizations to the build pipeline belong in src/ontology/log.Makefile — this file is never overwritten by ODK updates.

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Contact

Please use the Issue tracker to request new terms or report errors.

Acknowledgements

This ontology repository was created using the Ontology Development Kit (ODK). The autoshape pipeline uses owl2shacl rulesets derived from work by TopQuadrant, adapted from PMD Core Ontology.