supply chain

Automotive manufacturers and their suppliers need a high degree of process flexibility to respond quickly and efficiently to the market demand. Picture, however, production, purchasing and supply processes not interacting optimally, causing delays which inevitably pushes costs higher. The search for weak points in the supply chain is a major challenge, because common analysis tools cannot holistically capture the already complex processes. The new process mining technology, however, allows for the analysis and visualization of the entire process chain, a task which classic analysis tools fail to accomplish.

A sustainable constitution of our way of living is more and more subject to the discussion in society and politics. The transportation sector, causing a considerable percentage of the worldwide CO2 emissions, resides right in the middle of the debate. As a result companies find themselves in an area of conflict between economical and ecological objectives, which cannot always be reconciled. Approaches to solve this dilemma are discussed under the general term „Green Logistics“. The implementation of an intelligent cargo system can contribute to bring these approaches to practice.

Companies of the capital goods industry are more and more confronted with an increasing global competition. Furthermore the demand for a faster customisation of customers’ goods is accompanied by a decreasing product lifecycle. This circumstances lead to an uniting of companies to a value added chain which can more resist the increasing requirements of the industry. Sensitive data is consequently changed beyond the enterprise limits and the threat of product piracy is increasing to a higher level. Due to the increasing problem of product piracy this article describes the different comprehension of product piracy and explains a procedure strategy for providing of central knowledge. This described approach is not only limited to the enterprise limits. It can be used for the entire value added chain.

Global supply chains source raw material around the world, make use of local cost advantages for production and utilise the expertise of excellent partners. They aim at the creation of a sustainable competitive network. In order to benefit from the locally obtained advantages the processes of the partners have to be synchronised. This is a classic task of advanced planning systems. However operational planning and control is quite often conducted in a decentralised, function and department oriented way. This paper presents a framework for an integrated scheduling of production and transportation systems along a global supply chain on the operational level. The framework enhances the synchronisation of material flows and increases the competitiveness of the supply chain.

The following short market survey presents interfaces between services in industry and logistic of five different providers. Main topics in the survey were the use of IT-Systems, connection with cooperation partners, challenges in the Supply Chain and trends concerning the future of industrial services.

Eroding margins for primary products have redirected many firms’ attention to the highly profitable After Sales Service (ASS), because of its high revenue and profit contribution. Trying to tap the high potential, companies are faced with numerous problems. This paper presents a strategy- and lifecycle-oriented approach for ASS to meet these challenges.

Interoperability between ICT systems is becoming an increasingly important success factor in the cooperation of enterprises. Organisations have to exchange business information and must have the same understanding of the meaning of the exchanged information. Only then can they rely on both the transaction of the information and the validity of its contents. This paper reports on the European INTEROP Network of Excellence concerned with interoperability research for networked enterprises applications and software, its goals, rationale and early results. In addition, an application of interoperability in a supply chain network of SMEs is presented and discussed.

An approach to the creation of interoperability in dynamically changing supply chains is presented applying the example of transnational hazardous waste logistics. By an integral consideration of business models the integration and adaptation of the IT infrastructure is advanced.