Graph Databases for Group Decision Making in Industry: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Virtual manufacturing, simulation, and optimization provide a wealth of knowledge about the possibilities of future production systems so as to support decision makers. However, this knowledge usually remains with a handful of domain experts, is not captured and is hard to share even within the same team. At the same time, simulations can benefit from the incorporation of linked data from real factories once a process is running. Graph databases provide a possible approach to storing and managing this form of interrelated heterogeneous data, with powerful querying capabilities that can identify important or interesting patterns that might otherwise remain hidden. Current research focuses on one or two aspects of this problem but does not address all at once, despite the potential benefits of the combination. This paper provides a broad literature review of the current directions within research with a special focus on how graphs can support finding knowledge within Virtual Factories, used by larger teams for industrial planning and optimization.