The Supply Chain Action Network™ enables planners to collaborate with their trading partners using the Internet as a multi-company communications network.

Think of a supply chain as a stream of events that crosses multiple enterprises, usually involving small parts of each enterprise along its banks. Now, imagine a network of planners from different companies who share responsibility for a product family's supply chain working together over the Internet. Here's one scenario:

The planner at an important customer whose business system is connected to SCAN™ transmits a short lead-time order to the manufacturer. She really needs the product, and quick. She knows that within minutes the production planner will see the demand. If the order cannot be fulfilled, she will be alerted automatically by SCAN™.

Moments later, the production planner hears an event alert sound on his PC. When he clicks on the alert, a window appears informing him of the urgent, unsatisfied demand for the customer.

He quickly checks his production schedule. He sees that a run of that same family of product is scheduled for the next day. He can just add the product to the run, without a costly additional setup - if he can get the materials in time. He selects the Plan Supply action from the demand window - and the production schedule is updated. He knows that within minutes the supplier will be alerted to the new demand.

Moments later the planner at the materials supplier hears an event alert sound. She clicks the alert and a window appears informing her of the urgent, next-day requirement from the manufacturer. She checks her inventory - the material is in stock. She selects the Allocate Inventory action from the demand window. A truck going to that area is getting loaded now. She calls down to the warehouse, adds the item to the manifest - and the material is on its way.

With a traditional ERP planning system, this series of events would take days instead of the minutes. Gone are the days of overnight generations of DRP, MPS and MRP causing bloated inventories, shortages, slipping due dates and inefficient production.

Simple. Powerful. Fast.
· Unprecedented compression of order fulfillment lead-times
· Significant increases in business-to-business order fulfillment rates
· Dramatically reduced inventories - no more 'just-in-case' planning
· Better production schedules resulting in higher productivity
· Vastly improved supplier performance

Welcome to planning in the 21st century. Welcome to the Supply Chain Action Network™.