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When
people from different countries speaking uncommon languages come
together, communication becomes a serious concern. Interpreters
are needed for communication though an ideal solution would be
a language that everyone understands. The problem with an ideal
solution is that it rarely exists and if it exists, implementing
it is next to impossible. Why are we talking about languages and
communication when the issue on hand is your supply chain?
A
company today possesses software applications for enterprise resource
planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply
chain management (SCM), warehouse management systems (WMS) and
a host of other tools. Internally, these applications need to
be integrated (EAI) and externally these applications need to
interact with those of other enterprises in B2B relationships.
Interaction and integration between disparate applications requires
a common language or middleware that is independent of the operating
platform (Windows or UNIX) and the vendor (Microsoft or Sun or
Oracle, etc.) and the programming language used to develop it.
Most middleware solutions are costly to implement. One solution
to this problem is presented by the concept of web services.
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Web
Services are the functionality exposed by software applications
through a standardized XML interface that can be accessed over
the Web. The standardized interface allows interoperability between disparate
applications by the use of XML format data and XML based standards
(SOAP, WSDL and UDDI).
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Web services in an enterprise |
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In a manufacturing enterprise,
sales data from the sales management system is used by forecasting
software to predict future demand. This forecasted demand is used
by its manufacturing resource planning software to calculate materials
and resource requirements. The resource requirements need to be
conveyed to the suppliers' order management system and the enterprise's
inventory management system. All this information should be accessible
through a spreadsheet on the manager's desktop. This is just a snapshot
of the interactions that take place between software applications
in an enterprise today. The exchange of data between these heterogeneous
applications built for different platforms by different vendors
gets cumbersome as data formats and applications themselves may
be incompatible. Web services play an important role in integrating
these heterogeneous applications by mapping their input and output
data into associated web services that are platform-independent.
The resulting standardized interfaces can be accessed by all other
applications making the task of integration simple.
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| Web
services in a supply chain |
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Beyond
the boundaries of the enterprise, information exchange between members
of a supply chain is critical. Sales data of the retailers is needed
by the distributors and manufacturers to plan inventory stocking
levels and production. Retailers need inventory information at distributor
warehouses to plan their sales promotions. Retailers and distributors
need status information about their pending orders. In case of Wal-Mart,
the inventory at stores is monitored by suppliers in vendor managed
inventory systems to plan replenishment. Access to all this information
in real-time can be made available by deploying web services that
query the inventory, sales and order databases and return real-time
and accurate information.
Further, information flow between supply chain members is being
streamlined to enhance the agility of the supply chain and to automate
business processes like sales and procurement. Currently, business
process automation and integration is supported by CORBA and BPMS
(Business process management systems). Comparatively, web services
provide standardized interfaces necessary for automation and integration
at lower costs and using ubiquitous standards.
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Conclusion
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Web
services possess immense potential to make supply chains more agile
and competitive through the quick and secure dissemination of information.
Their ease of implementation and the widespread support from technology
giants like Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, IBM, etc. makes them a viable
option for your supply chain. Some possible implementations for
your supply chain include:
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- A sales person sitting across a customer can access real-time
information about a product's inventory status, place an order
or check the status of an order using a Pocket PC connected to
the internet by invoking a web service.
- A logistics provider can estimate shipping lead times accurately
by using the MapPoint web service directly through an Excel spreadsheet.
- Information about potential suppliers for a product can be obtained
using a UDDI registry.
- A supplier can plan production based on accurate and current
information about inventory and demand at the customer's end using
web services.
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The possibilities for implementing web services
for your supply chain are endless and can play a major role in making
your supply chain more streamlined, responsive, and efficient.
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