Supply Chain Integration

Supply Chain Integration

En model for samarbejde

i forsyningskæden

Agenda

1. Anders: • Problem and hypothesis• REA exchanges and types

2. Ali• Enterprise Integration

3. Stine• Demo

Supply Chain Complexity

• Problems:– Lack of visibility between tiers. No responsiveness.– Tiers have different conceptual schemes and systems

that are difficult to integrate.– Trust, security etc…

Solution: REA?

• The Resource-Event-Agent model (McCarthy)• Idea: Manage the complexity of the supply chain domain

by repeated use of a simple template.• Hypothesis: REA can serve as a model for VMI, CPFR

and supply chain integration in general.• The 3 REA exchanges

Transfer

• Introduced by McCarthy 1982• Concerned with the transfer of rights such as

ownership, custody, insurance issues etc..• Independent of perspective so both companies are

equally part of the model. (Bidirectionality)

Transformation

• Introduced by McCarthy & Geerts 2000• Concerned with the transformation of features.• Problem: Ownership and custody can not be ignored in

transformations due to the ontological nature of a conversion.

Transport

• Introduced by us 2005 ;)• Concerned with the flow of resources through different

tiers in the supply chain. Also concerned with custody of resources.

• Requires an extension of REA: Location

Classification scheme for events

• We have introduced a classification scheme to describe the different types of REA-events and –commitments based on the properties that they alter.

Owner Custody Location Existence Direction

Transfer Yes No No No Bi

Consume Yes Yes Yes Yes Out

Produce Yes Yes Yes Yes In

Load No Yes Yes No Out

Unload No Yes Yes No In

Our REA metamodel

• New entity: Location• New relations: Capacity, consists, contains, request• Relations between entities are generally many-to-many

Further REA issues

• Goods in transit? Can a location always be determined for a ressource?

• New event types? (”weak” transfer, maintenance etc….)

• Business rules as type images (policies) or logical rules?

• Alternative SCM models?(SCOR, ebXML, RosettaNet, proprietary models)

Architecture

Overview

• Problems:

- Supply Chain interoperability

- Converging the conceptual understanding- Providing a common standard to adhere to- Semantic integreation vs. Syntactic integration

Conceptual architecture I

• Problems- ”Integration spaghetti”- Small companies are left out- High transactionspecific costs- Non-flexible supply-chain- No ”competitive edge”- ”Island of information”

Conceptual architecture II

• Solution- Hub’n’spoke architecture- No maintenance overhead as before- Using the REA-model as the hub- Provide a common and easy to understand concept by focusing on economic primitives- Achive competitive edge

Information requirementsData requirements for salesorder

(Agreement & Commitment)

17 elements

XML representation of an salesorder from Navision

200+ elements

Standardization

• Need for a explicit schema definition• Mismatch between need for a common standard

and interest for tight coupling• Non-proprietary standard • Standardization comitees jointly agreeing on a

common standard• ebXML and CPFR?

Further integration issues?

• Testing integration between different ERP-systems

• Providing a framework for EAI tools to achive semantic integration

• Alternatives?