Opportunities for Further Work

As previously discussed, the ArchiMetal organization used for this Case Study is simpler than typical real-life scenarios. The most important simplifications concern the organizational structure, and the focus on sales, production, and distribution instead of the entire supply chain.

In the scenario described here, ArchiMetal only has one PC. For a company large enough to require integrated ERP and MES capabilities, multiple PCs are more likely. For example, if multiple PCs were making the same products, then enterprise-level production planning would require some way of forecasting aggregate capacity. This would have an impact on ArchiMetal’s ability to promise product delivery to customers. This dimension could be taken into account in future versions of the Case Study.

… future versions of this Case Study may consider the entire supply chain …

The scenario in this Case Study focuses on the sales, production, and distribution capabilities of ArchiMetal. In particular, the provisioning of raw materials and semi-finished goods to the PC and its relationship to production planning and sales is not discussed. However, future versions of this Case Study may consider the entire supply chain in order to address all the factors involved in promising and delivering products.

A more complete treatment of the supply chain could also consider the bullwhip effect [6] of increasingly wide swings in inventory as shifts in customer demand ripple upstream in the supply chain. The lack of coordination between sales and distribution and production planning described in this Case Study can trigger this effect. Future versions of the ArchiMetal scenario could include the collaborative forecasting and distribution techniques that organizations use to avoid such volatility.

Furthermore, the Case Study currently only addresses physical production and logistics in a cursory manner, showing how these can be modeled using the physical elements of the ArchiMate 3.2 Specification. In a future version, the Case Study could be expanded to include both the physical production and logistics in more detail, and the computer-controlled nature of modern manufacturing operations in an “Industry 4.0” world. An end-to-end integrated model of the product, information, and value streams within the entire supply chain would provide a useful analysis instrument for many different purposes.