Control of enterprise interfaces for supply chain enterprise modeling

There is a current trend for manufacturing enterprises in a supply chain of a particular industry to join forces in an attempt to promote efficiencies and improve competitive position. Such alliances occur in the context of specific legal and business agreements such that each enterprise retains a majority of its business and manufacturing information as private and shares other information with its trading partners. Shared information may include enterprise demand projections, capacities, finished goods inventories, and aggregate production schedules. Evidence of the trend toward information sharing includes the recent emphases on vendor-managed inventories, quick response, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards. The increased competition brought on by the global marketplace is driving industries to consider the advantages of trading partner agreements. Aggregate-level forecasts, supply-chain production smoothing, and aggregate-level inventory policies can reduce holding costs, record-keeping overhead, and lead time in product development. The goal of this research is to orchestrate information exchange among trading partners to allow for aggregate-level analysis to enhance supply chain efficiency. The notion of Enterprise Interface Control (EIC) is introduced as a means of accomplishing this end.