The paper deals with the problem of modeling and implementation of distributed automation systems for manufacturing applications. In particular, a novel approach has been conceived. A suitable meta-model of the production system has been derived, compliant with the state-of-the-art industrial standards. After the compilation and validation stages, an ontology is derived containing all the necessary definitions of modeling entities and constraints, to be used directly and explicitly in the execution of the control code. This entitles the control application to be defined as "model-driven" or better " ontology-driven". The results are obtained within the running EUproject PABADIS'PROMISE (P2).