With warehouse management systems in many distribution centers providing real-timeinformation, and more transportation carriers able to provide constant information about whereshipments are currently located (and in some cases revised estimated arrival times), logisticsmanagers recognized that they could construct systems to provide essentially real-time visibility of what is going on in the supply chain. Packaged systems to provide just this kind of visibilityare available today. Note, however, that in general these systems provide visibility of thenonmanufacturing supply chain, i.e., of transportation, inventory, and orders, but not ofmanufacturing events that may delay or accelerate production.

With this visibility comes the obvious question: If an exception occurs that disrupts ourproduct flow plan, can we do something about it immediately before it cascades into broaderproblems requiring more reaction? Are there near-real-time decisions we can make that nip theproblem in the bud? If an inbound material shipment for production is going to be late, can we movea different product not requiring that material into that production time slot, or can we conserveexisting stocks of that material by not making a product just now that is not critical, or perhapsfind some of the material that we can borrow nearby?

Making these kinds of near-real-time decisions is usually called event management. Several ofthe software systems that provide visibility also claim decision-making capabilities, althoughthese capabilities vary considerably. Usually there are parameters as to what adjustments to letthe system make on its own, versus which decisions require human approval or overrides. Some of thedecisions that...