Requirements for information systems in agile supply chains

This section focuses on the requirements for information systems in agile supply chains. Therefore, it applies the concept of mass customisation to information systems.

In agile supply chains, it must be possible to easily set-up, connect and disconnect information systems needed to achieve a specific value proposition. It must be possible to design and instantiate new or adjusted supply chain configurations rapidly and at low costs. The main challenge in achieving this is to combine flexible customization with efficient standardization in the design and implementation of the logistics information systems introduced above. Mass customization is broadly advocated as a core approach to balance these seemingly contradictory notions. It is a modular strategy that is intended to accomplish efficiency by reusing standardized components, while achieving distinctiveness through customer-specific assembly of modules. Mass-customisation builds on four operational capabilities: i) common building blocks that can be reused maximally, ii) unified architecture providing a structure of the defined components that constrain possible variants, iii) a technical platform for seamless integration of the building blocks, and iv) configuration tools that support the elicitation of customer requirements while considering the possible options.

ICT mass customisation combines the seemingly contradictory notions of efficient standard software and flexible customised software. It enables customer-specific assembly of information systems from a repository of standard components. As such, mass-customisable ICT can be positioned in the middle of a continuum of standard packaged software and customised software. Software developers pre-design and realise modules based on forecasted functionality. Customers get their own ICT configuration, but constrained by the range of available components, as defined in reference models for the configuration of systems. These components could be supplied by different software vendors, which allows for using best-of-breed solutions in selecting and designing systems.

Following the identified requirements for mass customisation systems, the requirements for mass-customisable information systems are :

Generic information model: like product architectures in a mass customisation approach, information models should be set up as generic models, which define the class of architectures that can be assembled. Additional complexity of generic information models is that they comprise different interrelated model types including business process models, product models, semantic data models and ontologies, and information integration standards, e.g. eBusiness messages, web service standards, RFID protocols, and coding standards.

Modular software: modules in an ICT mass customisation approach must be application-independent services, in which policy, input and output data, and interfaces are well defined (product modularity). They should not impose technical constraints on development of other modules (process modularity). Furthermore, it should be easy to replace a software module of provider A by a module of provider B, and it must be possible to combine modules of different vendors (network modularity).

Information integration platform: a software platform is required that the modules can easily be plugged into, that can enact the execution of modules upon the occurrence of external or internal events, and that enables the exchange of information between the modules. Contrary to mass-customisable products, this platform has a virtual nature. It is not tied to one place. Especially internet-based techniques enable integration of modules that are located all over the world.

Configuration support: configuration of ICT elicits the required functionality of specific instantiations of information systems building upon a generic information model. Since information systems are composed of many interacting components, ICT configuration must be done for different levels of abstraction and different types of subsystems. Consequently, configuring information systems includes many partial configuration tasks that occur at different moments by different people. The dependencies between these different tasks must be well coordinated.

Component availability: the availability of software modules that, together, provide the desired functionality, including a specification of the interfaces. A specific characteristic of ICT components is again the virtual nature. This implies that components can be duplicated very quickly and at a negligible cost. On the other hand, availability is dependent on service providers, because users have access to the modules via an often complex information infrastructure.