Supply chain management and distributed manufacturing in the automotive industry

There is a novel approach for realising distributed manufacturing systems based on an object-oriented database which entirely runs in the random access memories (RAM) of the involved distributed computers. This is a very advantageous way to reduce costs for the design, implementation, operation and maintenance of a Supply Chain Management system. The example of an automotive parts’ supplier shows the capability and benefits of the new concept especially if the manufacturing is performed by different companies in different countries. The object-oriented database fits seamlessly into the Internet/Intranet approach and provides chances to realise virtual enterprises with minimum efforts and expenditures. Hence, this system is not only interesting for big companies but also for small and medium.