Pierre - While I do not claim to be an expert in Manufacturing, I'm helping customize Ofbiz for a Food Sevices Industry in a Franchise Model where Ofbiz Manufacturing be the food kitchen; Additionally the following modules, being used - MyPortal : Dashboard - Order Manager: Purchase , Sales Orders, Transfer Orders - Party Manager : Suppliers, Users & Customers - SFA : Sales Forecast - Facility : Inventory & Shipping -Manufacturing: MRP in Manufacturing, very handy for automating Requirements management
As far as ESB integration goes, Ofbiz being based on Service based Architecture, should come very handy; I'm guessing you will have some work to do to be able to make individual modules, loosely coupled using ESB Goodluck with your efforts! - Regards Sakthi On 4/10/12, Pierre Smits <pierre.sm...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear all, > > Currently I am participating in the collaboration project "IMAGINE - > Innovative End-to-End Management of Dynamic Manufacturing Networks", that > resides under the theme "Virtual Factories and Enterprises" as part of the > FP7 Programme of the EU. > > The goal of this project is to enable SME Manufacturing Enterprises in the > EU market space to shorten the time-to-market of their product by assisting > manufacturing customers in forming partnerships with suppliers and a better > exchange of information and data throughout the lifecycle of the > partnership. > > During methodology studies it is envisioned that exchange of information > and data entails 4 interlocking areas, namely: > > 1. Partner blueprints - All static information (and data) re > organization and human entities, including connection mechanisms > (addresses > and such) of the participating organization > 2. Manufacture blueprints - All static information (and data) re > products (e.g. pricing, QoS re delivery, mBOM's, eBOM's and such) > 3. End-2-End blueprints - All dynamic information (and data) re inputs > and output of the process segments, in customer to supplier end-2-end > processes while manufacturing the goods (but also including process > definitions in BPEL, BPMN and xPDL) > 4. QA blueprints - All information (and data) relating to maintaining > the QoS requirements of the organization and establishing/enhancing trust > between (potential) partners (encompassing org. certification, e.g. ISO > 9000, but also product certification, and more) > > All to be facilitated through established Open Standards and Technolgies. > > In the methodology studies it was also envisioned that, while initial > profiling should start by registering company and lead contact persons and > their mechanisms in a portal solution (currently intended OS product: > Liferay, part of the envisioned IMAGINE platform), as soon as the > connection mechanisms regarding service adapters are setup and verified > systems like CRM, Manufacturing, ProjectMgt and Warehousing connect through > the IMAGINE platform (mainly OS ESB like Servicemix - while providing > dashboard functionalities in the portal for participants that are not (yet) > at the highest level of maturity regarding partnering - e.g. uploading data > through spreadsheets and info via PDF and such). > > As this project still has a lifespan of approx 2 years left and system > integration has no started yet, it is my belief that OFBiz could be in the > front runner position and create a name in the EU market space regarding > Open Source ERP in general and Manufacturing in particular combined with > info and data exchange through ESBs. Which is a huge opportunity for us. > > Thinking of the possibilites I foresee following use-cases (amongst others) > to be applicable: > > - When the initial registration of the company has been realized and the > connection mechanism regarding the ESB connectivity has been setup and > verified the information relating the Partner blueprint is provided by > means of the data available/maintained in the Party component > - When potential suppliers are identified through the search > capabilities in the portal the data contained there (Party data et all) > is > pulled/delivered into the SCM (through the ESB) > - When potential customers are identified through the seach capabilities > in the portal the data contained thee is pulled/delivered into the CRM > (through the ESB) > - When potential suppliers are initially contacted and a connection is > being negotiated more data is pullled from and/or delivered to Product > Catalog and Manufacturing (through the ESB) > - When an agreement is concluded this is also pulled/delivered in the > system of the participant(s) > - When proces segments are started, executed and concluded information > (date) thereabout are pulled/delivered into the ERP system of the > customer > (also through the ESB) and send to the portal for dashboarding purpopes. > > Unfortunately I am not that well experienced in Manufacturing, establishing > ESB integration for OFBiz and delivering data from one system (like OFBiz) > through a third party ESB to another system (like OFBiz) and thus I am > wondering about possible difficulties regarding this. > > What do you think possible technical issues are given current state of > OFBiz? > > I appreciate and value your thoughts/input on this. > > Regards, > > Pierre > -- Sent from my mobile device