Real-Time Sales & Operations Planning with Corba: Linking Demand Management with Production Planning

Several existing mechanisms for order processing, such as Available-to-Promise (ATP), Materials Requirements Planning (MRP), or Capable-to-Promise (CTP), do not really include simultaneous capacity and profitability considerations. One of the major issues in the incorporation of profitability analysis into the order management system is the determination of relevant costs in the order cycle, and the real-time access to production parameters (i.e., target quantities based on current cycle time) to be included in the computation of planning and profitability. Our study attempts to provide insights into this novel area by developing a Decision Support System (DSS) for demand management that integrates real-time information generated by process control and monitoring systems into an optimization system for profitability analysis in a distributed environment via CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). The model can be incorporated into current enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and dynamic use of real-time data from various functional support technologies.