Supply chain management

• US 7,761,319 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2001
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PTC Inc.
• Original Assignee: Click Acqusitions Incorporated
• Inventors: Gil, Reynaldo, Gangopadhyay, Dipayan, Zhou, Jay, Gordon, Simeon, Nayak, Sandeep
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Application Number:
  US10/028,542
• Publication Number:
  US 20020188486A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,135 Days
• Field of Search: 705 7- 8, 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/7.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and a method for managing a supply chain are provided. A request for a transaction involving an enterprise and at least one partner in a supply chain is received from an end-user or the partner. Real-time data relevant to the transaction is accessed from an existing partner system. A context for the transaction is generated using the real-time data. The request is processed in the context for the transaction.

Claims

1. A system for managing a transaction involving an enterprise and at least one partner in a supply chain, the system comprising:

an interface operable to receive a request for the transaction from an end-user or the partner;

a network execution component operable to administer the transaction involving the enterprise and the at least one partner in the supply chain;

a data access layer operable to provide the request for the transaction access to the real-time data relating to the transaction operable to communicate with a partner coordinator component integrated with an existing system of the partner;

a network domain gateway in communication with the data access layer to provide real-time data relevant to the transaction from the existing system of the partner to the network execution component;

a transport component operable with the network domain gateway to send or receive one or more messages related to the transaction with the real-time data facilitating active processing between the enterprise and the at least one partner in the supply chain for actively participating in at least one actual transaction; and

a processing facility in communication with the interface, the processing facility operable to access real-time data relevant to the transaction from an existing partner system, the processing facility operable to generate a context for the transaction using the real-time data with the end-user or the partner of said interface operable to receive the request and the existing partner system actively participating in at least one actual transaction, the processing facility operable to process the request in the context for the transaction.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the real-time data comprises transaction data specifying a status of the transaction.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the real-time data comprises reference data relating to the partner.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database operable to maintain the context for the transaction.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said database comprises a relational database.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the real-time data is accessed in extensible markup language (XML) format.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the processing facility is operable to send a response to the request to the end-user or the partner.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said processing facility is operable to convert real-time data into a format usable by the system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing facility is operable to initiate a workflow for the transaction at a network system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the workflow comprises a plurality of tasks to be performed by the enterprise or the partner in order to fulfill the transaction.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the processing facility is further operable to initiate at least one process manager routine for managing the workflow.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing facility is further operable to notify the partner of any tasks to be performed by the partner.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the workflow further comprises a routing workflow for routing the request to the enterprise or the partner for performance of the tasks.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein processing facility is operable to alert the partner or the enterprise.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing facility is operable to monitor a service level associated with the transaction.

16. A system for processing a transaction involving an enterprise and at least one partner in a supply chain, the system comprising:

a database operable to store real-time data relating to the transaction;

at least one process workflow executing on a processing facility, the process workflow operable to process the transaction;

a network execution component operable to administer the transaction involving the enterprise and the at least one partner in the supply chain;

a data access layer operable to provide the process workflow access to the real-time data relating to the transaction operable to communicate with a partner coordinator component integrated with an existing system of the partner;

a network domain gateway in communication with the data access layer to provide real-time data relevant to the transaction from the existing system of the partner to the network execution component; and

a transport component operable with the network domain gateway to send or receive one or more messages related to the transaction with the real-time data facilitating active processing between the enterprise and the at least one partner in the supply chain for actively participating in at least one actual transaction, thereby providing a context for the transaction during processing with the partner in the supply chain actively participating in at least one actual transaction.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one workflow comprises a plurality of tasks to be performed by the enterprise or the partner in order to fulfill the respective transaction.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising a business data manager component operable to manage the at least one process workflow.

19. A network system for managing a supply chain, the network system comprising:

a network execution component operable to administer a transaction involving an enterprise and at least one partner in the supply chain;

a network domain gateway in communication with the network execution component, the network domain gateway operable to communicate with a partner coordinator component integrated with an existing system of the partner to provide real-time data relevant to the transaction from the existing system of the partner to the network execution component; and

a transport component operable with the network domain gateway to send or receive one or more messages related to the transaction with the real-time data facilitating active processing between the enterprise and the at least one partner in the supply chain for actively participating in at least one actual transaction.

20. The network system of claim 19, wherein the network execution component executes at least one process workflow operable to transform the real-time data relevant to the transaction based on business rules for the supply chain.

21. The network system of claim 19, wherein the network domain gateway comprises a gateway router component operable to route one or more messages relating to the transaction between the existing system of a partner and an existing system of the enterprise.

22. The network system of claim 21, wherein the gateway router component is operable to perform context-based routing of messages related to the transaction.

23. The network system of claim 19, further comprising a messaging system operable to generate one or more messages for the real-time data and to route the messages within the network system.

24. The network system of claim 19, wherein the network execution component is operable to manage at least one process workflow for the transaction.

25. The network system of claim 19, further comprising a database operable to store the real-time data.

26. The network system of claim 25, wherein the database is operable to store a context for the transaction.

27. The network system of claim 25, wherein the database is operable to store one or more policy rules that govern the transaction.

28. A system for managing one or more transactions involving an enterprise and at least one partner in a supply chain, the system comprising:

a database operable to store real-time data relating to the one or more transactions, the database operable to maintain a respective context for each transaction;

an execution process engine operable to execute a respective workflow in the context for each transaction using the real-time data administering the transaction involving the enterprise and the at least one partner in the supply chain;

a data access layer operable to provide the workflow access to the real-time data relating to the transaction operable to communicate with a partner coordinator component integrated with an existing system of the partner;

a network domain gateway in communication with the data access layer to provide real-time data relevant to the transaction from the existing system of the partner to the execution process engine; and

a transport component operable with the network domain gateway to send or receive one or more messages related to the transaction with the real-time data facilitating active processing between the enterprise and the at least one partner in the supply chain for actively participating in at least one actual transaction; and

one or more process manager components operable to manage the workflow and actively participating in at least one respective transaction, each workflow comprising a plurality of tasks to be performed by the enterprise or the partner in order to fulfill the respective transaction with the enterprise or the partner actively participating in at least one actual transaction.

29. The system of claim 28, comprising a transport component operable to send or receive one or more messages related to the transaction, wherein the database comprises a relational database management system providing access responsive to at least one message concerning the transaction.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein at least one business object is generated for each workflow.

31. The system of claim 30, further comprising one or more business object managers operable to manage each business object.

32. The system of claim 28, wherein each workflow comprises a process for transforming the real-time data according to a business policy between the enterprise and the partner.

33. The system of claim 28, wherein the database is operable to maintain one or more business policies relating to the partner.

34. The system of claim 28, wherein execution process engine comprises initiating a workflow for the transaction at a network system.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the one or more process manager components comprises initiating at least one process manager routine for managing the workflow for the transaction at the network system.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein comprises a the one or more process manager components a transport component with a network domain gateway operable to send or receive one or more messages related to the transaction.