Title: A web-based data extraction system for supply chain management-using SAP R/3

Authors: Ruey-Shun Chen, Hsien-Chih Wang, Chieh-Min Wang

Addresses: Institute of Information Management, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Institute of Information Management, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Institute of Information Management, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Abstract: Faced with increasing competition and shrinking margins, many companies are replacing legacy systems with a new IT architecture designed to maintain a constant flow of information to all facets of their international operations. But the new ERP system is not always optimal for supply chain management. Most companies in Taiwan that want to run their businesses more efficiently start with an SAP R/3 system. However, after implementing SAP R/3, they find some problems. Firstly, SAP SAPLPD content performance issues exist in the Multi-Bytes Character Print with SAPWIN and the SAP Layout Set is difficult for an inexperienced developer to develop. Secondly, some issues exist between the requirements of data transparency and data consistency, while SAP ALE and SAP EDI cannot meet the demand. This paper presents a prototype of logistics flow and information extraction system between customers and vendors by using the World Wide Web (WWW), XML with SAP R/3 programming technology (ABAP/4 Language). Three kinds of benefits result for most of the supply chain system: 1) To resolve the SAP SAPLPD performance issue existing in the Multi-Bytes Character Print with SAPWIN by developing a HTML Layout Set for the report printout. 2) To support business process improvement for customer services, logistics, planning and manufacturing through XML data interface embedded in the software solutions. 3) To provide a reliable and scalable information technology infrastructure which could fulfil the requirements of data transparency and data consistency. Through this running prototype, we demonstrate an open architecture of data extraction method. It can be used in data transparency and data consistency for a supply chain. Enterprise within multi database can improve the performance of information flows. It can solve data printing problem in many types of layout set to meet the demands of enterprise.

Keywords: extensible markup language (XML); supply chain management (SCM); enterprise resource planning (ERP); SAP R/3.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2003.002572

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2003 Vol.4 No.1, pp.66-78

Published online: 24 Jul 2003 *

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