Supply chains are what type of information systems

A responsive supply chain may require a more sophisticated sales configurator. Agilesupply chains require flexibility in both front-office and back-office systems. They demand flexible ERP in the back-office and sophisticated configurator and customer communications systems in the front-office. Tight integration is required between front-office and back-office and with systems of both suppliers and customers.

This section focuses on the requirements for information systems in agile supply chains. Therefore, it applies the concept of mass customisation to information systems. In agile supply chains, it must be possible to easily set-up, connect and disconnect information systems needed to achieve a specific value proposition. It must be possible to design and instantiate new or adjusted supply chain configurations rapidly and at low costs. The main challenge in achieving this is to combine flexible customization with efficient standardization in the design and implementation of the logistics information systems introduced above.

Mass customization is broadly advocated as a core approach to balance these seemingly contradictory notions Davis ; Pine et al. It is a modular strategy that is intended to accomplish efficiency by reusing standardized components, while achieving distinctiveness through customer-specific assembly of modules Lampel and Mintzberg, , Duray et al. Mass-customisation builds on four operational capabilities: i common building blocks that can be reused maximally, ii unified architecture providing a structure of the defined components that constrain possible variants, iii a technical platform for seamless integration of the building blocks, and iv configuration tools that support the elicitation of customer requirements while considering the possible options Pine et al.

ICT mass customisation combines the seemingly contradictory notions of efficient standard software and flexible customised software Verdouw et al. It enables customer-specific assembly of information systems from a repository of standard components. As such, mass-customisable ICT can be positioned in the middle of a continuum of standard packaged software and customised software.

Software developers pre-design and realise modules based on forecasted functionality. Customers get their own ICT configuration, but constrained by the range of available components, as defined in reference models for the configuration of systems. These components could be supplied by different software vendors, which allows for using best-of-breed solutions in selecting and designing systems.

Following the identified requirements for mass customisation systems, the requirements for mass-customisable information systems are Verdouw et al. Generic information model: like product architectures in a mass customisation approach, information models should be set up as generic models, which define the class of architectures that can be assembled.

Additional complexity of generic information models is that they comprise different interrelated model types including business process models, product models, semantic data models and ontologies, and information integration standards, e. Modular software: modules in an ICT mass customisation approach must be application-independent services, in which policy, input and output data, and interfaces are well defined product modularity.

They should not impose technical constraints on development of other modules process modularity. Furthermore, it should be easy to replace a software module of provider A by a module of provider B, and it must be possible to combine modules of different vendors network modularity. Information integration platform: a software platform is required that the modules can easily be plugged into, that can enact the execution of modules upon the occurrence of external or internal events, and that enables the exchange of information between the modules.

Contrary to mass-customisable products, this platform has a virtual nature. It is not tied to one place. Especially internet-based techniques enable integration of modules that are located all over the world.

Configuration support: configuration of ICT elicits the required functionality of specific instantiations of information systems building upon a generic information model. Since information systems are composed of many interacting components, ICT configuration must be done for different levels of abstraction and different types of subsystems.

Consequently, configuring information systems includes many partial configuration tasks that occur at different moments by different people. The dependencies between these different tasks must be well coordinated.

Component availability: the availability of software modules that, together, provide the desired functionality, including a specification of the interfaces. A specific characteristic of ICT components is again the virtual nature.

This implies that components can be duplicated very quickly and at a negligible cost. On the other hand, availability is dependent on service providers, because users have access to the modules via an often complex information infrastructure. This section identifies three basic strategies for the implementation of agile information systems.

An Enterprise Resource Planning ERP system is a standardized software package that combines functionality of multiple business functions into one integrated system. It is based on a single database and contains functionality to support the main business processes including production, distribution, warehouse management, sales, purchase and finance.

The major advantage of ERP is that it provides a stable backbone for the registration and communication of information among business functions, and consequently ensures the timely and accurate availability for integrated business process management. As such, it helps to overcome fragmentation betweenorganizational units functional silos and systems island automation.

ERP has emerged in the early s as a logical extension of the material requirements planning MRP systems of the s and of the manufacturing resource planning MRP II systems of the s Akkermans et al. It has been advocated as essential means for implementation of Business Process Redesign in order to improve efficiency and customer service Davenport, , Hammer and Champy, Nowadays, ERP has become a de facto standard in many industries.

Consequently, they failed to meet the demands in current dynamic supply chains. Akkermans et al. The ERP industry has embraced this new philosophy and started to modularize their systems architectures, in particular by incorporating Service Oriented Architecture SOA platforms, e. However, the monolithic nature is deeply embedded in ERP systems. It takes much time to unravel the big jumble of software code into a consistent and coherent set of components.

Consequently, the componentizing of ERP is still in progress. This implies that, although valuable advances are accomplished, the basic limitations of ERP systems still exist. ERP systems perfectly cover thedemands of efficient supply chains that are characterized by stable business processes and lowdemand uncertainty.

However, in supply chains with uncertain demand and high vulnerability ofproduction and logistics processes, current ERP is experienced as an obstacle in achieving therequired flexibility Akkermans et al.

The development towards modularized and service-oriented ERP is essential for the implementation of mass-customizable information systems. Such ERP systems ensure the availability of the software modules that, together, provide the desired functionality, including a specification of the interfaces.

As such modularized ERP can provide a repository of building blocks that form the heart of mass customizable information systems. Configurators have emerged from the development of rule-based product design in the field of Artificial Intelligence. A product configurator is a tool that guides users interactively through specification of customer-specific products Sabin and Weigel, , Forza and Salvador, Configurators generate specific product variants by combining sets of predefined components and specifying features according to permitted values.

Next, they check the completeness and consistency of configured products based on rules that define the interdependencies between components or features. Product configurators are based on generic product models, which define the class of objects that can be configured Hegge and Wortmann, Currently, configurators play an important role in responsive supply chains, which are characterised by high demand uncertainty and low supply uncertainty Lee, They are widely used for product configuration to enable rapid response to customer demands.

Along with the product specification, current configurators can produce commercial offers and draft contracts, and schedules and contracts for support and maintenance of the product. The software can be designed for use either by a sales representative of the supplier, or by a customer, e.

In both cases the configuration process results in a quick and effective order specification that can directly be entered into the production planning and scheduling systems. Configurators can also be used to manage high uncertainties at the supply-side by supporting the rapid configuration of processes Verdouw et al. This concept of process configuration is introduced by Schierholt , who applied the principles of product configuration to support process planning.

Process configuration supports a rapid and consistent specification of the workflow that is needed to fulfil specific customer orders.

For example, local deliveries from stock follow a different workflow than exports that are produced to order. Moreover, it supports reconfiguration of the workflow in case of unexpected supply events, e. Configurators can provide the configuration support as required in mass-customisable information systems. It helps to elicit the required functionality of specific instantiations of information systems building upon a generic information model.

Service-Oriented Architecture SOA is a software architecture where functionality is grouped around business processes and packaged as interoperable services. The aim is a loose coupling of services with operating systems, programming languages and other technologies, which underlie applications Newcomer and Lomow, SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services Bell, , which are made accessible over a network to be combined and reused in the production of business applications Erl, These services communicate with each other by passing data from one service to another, or by coordinating an activity between two or more services.

Service providers publish web services in a service directory, service requestors search in this directory to find suitable services, bind to that service and use it, based on information from the directory and standardized procedures Leymann, ; Erl, So, SOA provides the technology that enables timely and flexible sharing of information demands Wolfert et al. It is component-based by nature and widely acknowledged as the de facto standard for information integration.

SOA enables the definition of components with standardized interfaces, a central repository of published web services and standardized procedures for selection and implementation of components.

A technical architecture based on SOA consists of three layers Erl, :. A business process management layer, coordinating the execution of business services: this is a functional integration layer that groups services from the underlying business service layer into business processes. Following the workflow specifications, the enactment engines invoke services in the next layer.

Services in the process layer can be rapidly configured or reconfigured using business process management BPM tools. A business services layer, delivering information services to the business processes. The business services implement the information processing functions of the actual business processes. Business services may be either straightforward data registration or reporting services, or complex services based on extensive business logic. They may implement these functions directly, for instance applying the Business Rules Approach, or use application services that connect the business services to legacy information processing application systems.

A business application layer, executing the application logic and data storage. Applications are wrapped in application services, offering a standard web service interface to the business services, thus enabling enterprise application integration EAI. The advances towards Service-Oriented Architecture SOA has been very important to enable mass-customisation of information systems.

It can provide a software platformthat the web services can easily be plugged into, that can enact the execution of web services upon the occurrence of external or internal events, and that enables the exchange of information between the modules. Consequently, it can support to meet, in particular, the requirements concerning software modularity and information integration platform Verdouw et al.

As such, SOA can help to overcome the limitations of traditional ERP systems and achieve the required backend flexibility in agile supply chains. However, SOA does not include the knowledge required to specify services and to configure business processes as a sequence of services.

Furthermore, the required software components must be available packaged as application-independent web services. So, even if a company applies SOA, important remaining challenges include the development of: i generic information models that specify families of business processes and services, ii tools that support configuration of specific business process and service architectures, iii repository of software components software that are packaged as application-independent web services Verdouw et al.

ERP can ensure the availability of the software modules in a repository of building blocks that form the heart of mass customizable information systems. However, the development towards modularized and service-oriented ERP is a crucial prerequisite to achieve this.

Furthermore, configurators can provide the configuration support as required in mass-customisable information systems. Last, Service-Oriented Architecture SOA can help to meet, in particular, the requirements concerning software modularity and it provides an information integration platform. Ming-Lang, T. Prajogo, D. Davenport, T. Patterson, K. Iguider, Y.

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