Steve Bollinger wrote:
>In response to my statement: " If we really can pull off standardized "business
>processes" and get ERPs, DRPs etc. to comply, then we can finally get beyond
>the X12/EDIFACT vs. XML discussion which doesn't fix the real problems in
>exchanging business transactions electronically, anyway."
>Antony wrote: "This is exactly what won't happen. No business will stick to a
>standard as they have to differentiate themselves from competition. Only way they
>can differentiate is to offer services that the competition does not offer. "
I don't see where standardization of processes of collaboration
between businesses gets in the way of differentiating services.
Once upon a time there was actually something of standard
for manufacturing systems in the US: MRP, and then MRPII,
the predecessor to ERP, which was somewhat less successful
(in standardization).
APICS (American Production and Inventory Control Society)
developed and maintained the standard and held classes and
certified people (CPM, which I still see after people's names,
even fairly young people). I could and did work on several
MRP systems and instantly know what was going on down
to the code level.
MRP didn't go far enough, there were flaws in the model, but
lots of the underlying ideas would still be valid in the Internet
era if modernized for multi-company supply chains.
Which gets me to my last point: competition is actually
between supply chains, not just individual companies.
Dell and Walmart are killers because of their supply
chains, which of course required business genius
and better business models to organize. They also
enforce a lot of uniformity of process at least in
their tier 1 suppliers, as do auto companies.
(In fact, I heard Cisco did some of this, too...)
So I think process standardization will happen
(is happening) within supply chains. Global universal
goodness? Not likely...
Have fun,
Bob Haugen
http://www.supplychainlinks.com/
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