TABLE OF CONTENTS Previous chapters in Part II have covered the IT-related components that enable POM processes. These technology components are the building blocks from which solutions for business processes such as POM can be created. Several software vendors have used building blocks to create POM solutions. Although these software solutions for POM processes are relatively new, they have begun to mature in the last 2 years.
Chapter 7 will discuss a few of the products that are available in the marketplace. This discussion is not intended to include all of the tools that are available, therefore only a representative sample of the software that is available will be given. Guidelines for software selection are also presented. Because the intent of this chapter is to present only a few of the tools that are available for POM and the functionality they provide, it will not focus on the merits of each tool.
Supply networks that are agile and that respond quickly to changes in demand have been given the name demand-driven supply networks (DDSN) by AMR Research (O Marah 2004). All DDSN processes are initiated by events occurring in the demand realm. DDSN promotes a customer-centric model as opposed to a factory-centric model. DDSN supports demand-driven replenishment in order to align manufacturing and distribution with demand. Depending on the type of demand, different types of replenishment signals are propagated upstream. The common replenishment...
