Through the donation of a cornerstone technology that will help automotive companies improve collaboration and reduce costs by simplifying data communications between trading partners, QAD is contributing to the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) Inventory Visibility & Interoperability Initiative (IV&I). Automotive companies can now implement inventory visibility systems that comply with the new AIAG IV&I standard, more rapidly.
QAD collaborates with AIAG member companies on business process and technology standards to further enrich the basic communication profiles developed to support interoperability.
As interoperable solutions are adopted, the need for trading partners to maintain multiple proprietary software applications, in order to exchange inventory data with one another, will be eliminated. QAD developed the infrastructure (Web services profile) required to send and receive electronic inventory information over public networks using the IV&I standard, and is one of the first software providers to demonstrate the exchange of heterogeneous automotive inventory with data from QAD Supply Visualisation, which provides authorised suppliers with real-time visibility of inventory, scheduling, kanban and purchasing information over the Internet, using XML.
Companies worldwide can now access the AIAG Web site at www.aiag.org to freely download the IV&I source code to use as a technical roadmap for software developers and system integrators, enabling business applications to participate in IV&I messaging with their trading partners` systems more rapidly.
"QAD is an advocate for open standards across all industries," said Mervyn Griffiths, sales manager for QAD South Africa. "The benefits of interoperability in the automotive supply chain equate to more than a billion dollars annually. At QAD, we envision a reduction in supply chain response time from six weeks to six hours, and the AIAG`s initiative represents tremendous progress toward reducing cost and balancing supply with demand for lean operations."
"The IV&I proof of concept demonstrated the ability to provide a seamless flow of data between competitor applications to support a fundamental business process," said Pat Snack, GM Executive Loan to AIAG, "The first steps defined the methodology and infrastructure technology protocol for interoperability; the next phase will be to further enrich these standards and to use them to resolve other supply chain obstacles brought on by incompatibility of competing technologies. With its participation in the initiative and the donation, QAD is helping the industry make significant gains in the areas of performance and cost-containment."
By taking part in the AIAG IV&I initiative, QAD and IV&I work group members defined the business process for communicating inventory balance within minimum/maximum levels (MIN/MAX), determined business documents required for the business process, and defined a transport infrastructure.
QAD then developed an IV&I adaptor for its Supply Visualisation product and executed the standard in a rigorous proof-of-concept in the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) Interoperability test bed. "Establishing a Standard for Automotive Inventory Visibility & Interoperability: QAD`s Role in the AIAG Inventory Visibility & Interoperability Initiative" explains QAD`s approach and is available at www.qadauto.com.
This initial phase of the IV&I project yielded protocols in compliance with the Open Application Group, Inc (OAGI) Business Object Document (BOD) specifications for business processes related to inventory management.
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QAD is a leading provider of enterprise applications for global manufacturing companies. QAD applications provide critical functionality for managing manufacturing resources and operations within and beyond the enterprise, enabling global manufacturers to collaborate with their customers, suppliers and partners to make and deliver the right product, at the right cost and at the right time. Manufacturers of automotive, consumer products, electronics, food and beverage, industrial and medical products use QAD applications at approximately 5 300 licensed sites in more than 90 countries and in as many as 27 languages.
For more information about QAD, telephone +27 11 461 6900 or visit the QAD Web site at: www.qad.com.
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