The growth in the use of the Internet brings with it an increase in the number of interconnections among information systems supporting the manufacturing supply chain as well as other businesses. Each of these interconnections must be carefully prescribed to ensure interoperability. However, the sheer number of interconnections and the resulting complexity threaten to overwhelm the ability of the standards community or industry to provide the necessary specifications—a way out of this impasse must be found. This paper outlines the elements of an approach and the technology to move toward self-integrating systems, wherein the systems negotiate meaningful interfaces as needed in a dynamic environment.

Issue Section:
Technical Notes
Keywords:
Internet, standards, information systems, information technology, semantic networks
Topics:
Ambiguity, Computers, Internet, Manufacturing, Negotiation, Ontologies, Supply chains, Tradeoffs, Machinery, Computer software, Testing
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Towards Self-Integrating Software Applications for Supply Chain Management
,”
Information System Frontiers
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3
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4
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403
–
412
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Copyright © 2002
 by ASME
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