Supply Chain Event Management

Despite increasing networking and electronic data interchange for many companies future demand curves are unstable. Resulting from demand fluctuations and deviations from planned processes, high requirements exist for production planning and control. The necessary flexibility to respond to such variations can be created by supply chain event management (SCEM). Based on the example of an automotive supplier process chain SCEM is defined and then implemented in an Advanced Planning and Scheduling System.

This paper discusses ideas about and experiences with flexible simulation of real-time data streams generated by production networks when state-of-the-art automatic identification and localization technologies are applied. Flexibility here means the possibility to freely define the objects and their related types of events and statuses that are recorded in production and logistics processes. The data streams generated during simulation can be used to test and compare operational control strategies for processes in production networks in an offline or online mode.

Producing companies are increasingly facing external dynamics. To remain successful in the long run their management will have to keep up to this challenge. Thus it is important to choose and implement the right concepts and instruments to deal with dynamics. This article offers an overview on different approaches and a closer insight into the concept of Supply Chain Event Management.

Managing disruptions and unplanned events in large dynamic supply networks is a difficult task. Intelligent agents and mobile technologies can help to make essential information about the flow of goods available quickly and efficiently. Through mobile access to information, decision makers are enabled to act and react faster, while some problems may be solved by agents directly. This paper describes an approach for effective Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM) using agent and mobile technologies. A peer-to-peer architecture for agent communication and access to back-office systems by agents is outlined.

The article introduces the use of business rules technology for SCEM applications, outlining both the benefits and a possible architecture. Furthermore, a brief introduction to the business rules suite ILOG JRules and a description of its usage at the SCEM vendor Tilion Inc. is given.