A framework for modelling business processes in demand-driven supply chains

Abstract

Demand-driven supply chains are highly dynamic networks of different participants with different allocations of business processes and different modes of control and coordination. Companies must be able to take part in multiple supply chain configurations concurrently and to switch rapidly to new or adjusted configurations. This imposes stringent demands on information systems and requires a modelling approach that (1) combines high-level models for supply chain design with detailed models for engineering the accompanying information systems and (2) enables rapid instantiation of specific supply chain configurations from a repository of standard building blocks. This article designs a process modelling framework that enhances such an approach. Building on the terminology and process definitions provided by the Supply Chain Operations Reference model, it models supply chain configurations as specific sets of transformations, control systems and coordination mechanisms. The designed modelling framework is applied in a case study in the Dutch flower industry.