Software AG's technologies for service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) are supporting a project by the Hamburg University of Technology and the K"uhne School of Logistics and Management. The research project - SOA in Maritime Container Logistics - From Process Analysis to Implementation - is headed up by Professor Dr Thorsten Blecker of the Institute for Business Logistics and General Management. Researchers and software engineers working on the project are using solutions from Software AG's webMethods product suite to develop process models. The project objective: to implement research findings from academia in real-world applications, such as container logistics. The researchers recently presented initial project results in Hamburg.
The research project is based on real operational processes in maritime container logistics. Participating students received a meta-process at the beginning of the semester representing all the transhipment processes along an entire transport chain. They had to implement 14 detailed transhipment processes supplied with process descriptions using webMethods technologies from Software AG. The assigned processes first needed to be implemented, then optimised. In addition to the actual physical transhipment, each transhipment process also includes preliminary and subsequent IT processes, which were also represented with webMethods.
The current scenario will be extended to cover RFID (radio frequency identification) technology components in the months ahead. Placing RFID transponders on maritime containers presents a broad range of potential uses. For example, automated transponder reading identifies containers faster, thereby accelerating transhipment processes and making transhipment a more effective and efficient component of container logistics. Likewise, where the 11-digit number identifying the container is currently checked manually and then entered in the IT system, in the future this information could be saved on an RFID transponder and read automatically. The process step of manual identification is no longer necessary, and the container can be reloaded without delay in this case. A broad array of optimisation to existing business processes arise from the implementation of this technology. Software AG's webMethods solutions enable companies to make these modifications securely and efficiently.
“The webMethods suite enables students at Hamburg University of Technology to implement real logistics scenarios in a controlled environment and gain experience in implementing software with a real-world application,” comments Prof Blecker on the technological possibilities studied in the project.
J"urgen Powik, who heads up the university program at Software AG, adds: “This practical collaboration between business and science impressively demonstrates the advantages of service-oriented architecture in application development and process design.”
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