Integration of supply chain management and logistics: development of an electronic data interchange for SAP servers

Abstract

In the global chemical industry it is of crucial importance to keep an up-to-date knowledge map of customers and providers in order to minimize supply chain inefficiencies. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) involves coordinating and integrating applications both, within and among companies. In this way, there is a centralized database to manage all the corporate information (financial, production or inventory). This paper describes the architecture of the integrate application and the development of the EBI (Electronic Business Integrator) to connect the Elemica network and SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing) servers, market leader in this area. EBI is an integration tool of business applications (Enterprise Application Integration, EAI) based in the ESB technology (Enterprise Service Bus), oriented to the intra and inter company business processes. Elemica is a global network of industrial sectors, including worldwide chemical and pharmaceutical companies, created to expand ERP, which key advantages are connectivity, neutrality and security. SAP is an ERP platform software widely use to have an integrated overview of the business and help to take strategic decisions. The system performance was tested with different scenarios, all including logistic processes: integration of filial companies, relationships of different companies operating ant the same site and integration of pharmaceutical companies.