This thread and the concept of "Global universal goodness" remind me of
Tennyson's line: "Man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven
for."
As a member of the automotive community, both as supplier and OEM, for the
last 20+ years, I think both Steve and Bob make some very good points.
Best regards,
Sally
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Bollinger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2000 10:09 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Is the Internet/XML Going to Kill EDI?
Bob Haugen wrote:
>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.
This is a good example of my point. Dell and Walmart are very successful
and competitive *because* they did something different and forced their
supply chain to comply with their better business model. If a vendor has
Dell or Walmart as its only customer, then there is no issue for that
vendor. Competition created a single great model here to follow
(standardization).
More likely a Dell vendor also supplies dozens of other manufacturers and is
therefore following multiple business models outside the Dell model. Some
using a common model, others maybe no. Maybe some of these also have their
own business model that they are expecting to give them an advantage. Thus
competition forcing multiple models (diversification).
Truthfully I think there is a constant ebb and flow of diversity vs.
unification in standards. Consider the many multiple diskette formats early
on until we standardized on the 1.44. (Is there still an 2.88?) Then a new
peripheral comes along like the 20 Meg. diskettes, Jazz, Zip and other
removable storage and we go though this ebb and flow all over again. Then:
serial vs. parallel. Now: USB vs. firewire. Does it ever really stop?
Business processes are similar. Competition eventually evolves some common
standards. Except then someone (like Dell or WalMart) is always coming in
with a new better idea (or different) and we go through diversity all over
again. Perhaps in the much bigger picture, this ebb and flow is an
inextricable part of life driven by the ebb and flow of the "great cosmic
dance" described in the Vedas. In this case, there is no end. :)
"The great thing about computer standards is that there are so many to
choose from".
> Global universal goodness? Not likely...
Maybe we need to be like dell or Walmart and enforce an XML standard for
that!
<Global>
<Universal status="goodness" />
</Global>
;-)
Steve
PS. I did my APICS CPIM certification years ago. It is a great study!
Steve Bollinger 408-853-8478
Cisco Systems B2B Service Logistics Pjt
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