Information flow in the DAMA project beyond database managers: information flow managers

To meet the demands of commercial data traffic on the information highway, a new look at managing data is necessary. One projected activity, sharing of point of sale information, is being considered in the Demand Activated Manufacturing Project (DAMA) of the American Textile Partnership (AMTEX) project. A scenario is examined in which 100 000 retail outlets communicate over a period of days. They provide the latest estimate of demand for sewn products across a chain of 26 000 suppliers through the use of bill of materials explosions at four levels of detail. Enabling this communication requires an approach that shares common features with both workflows and database management. A new paradigm, the information flow manager, is developed to handle this situation, including the case where members of the supply chain fail to communicate and go out of business. Techniques for approximation are introduced so as to keep estimates of demand as current as possible.