MODELING AN ENTERPRISE SERVICES ENABLED PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT PROCESS FOR MILITARY VEHICLES

摘要

The evolution of Enterprise Services is changing the approach for enabling Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). Enabling systems are migrating to process- and service-oriented solutions, requiring new approaches for architecting composite applications. This paper uses examples from our work to present the state-of-the art in architecting end-to-end solutions for delivering PLM and SCM capabilities from an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to the customer. The paper also demonstrates how emerging methodologies, methods, and tools are used to support the implementation of composite applications, as well as the limitations of working in a mixed legacy/modern environment during the lengthy transition period to the new service-oriented computing paradigm. The hypothesis of this paper is that design and supply chain integration is achievable through composite application design, development, and deployment. This paper discusses the design, development, and deployment of a composite application to address the product improvement process for military vehicles, and it lays the foundation for testing the hypothesis. Based on these initial analyses we conclude that the composite approach to PLM is not only feasible, but may provide the only practical solution (given current technologies) to a very complex supply chain information sharing problem.