A Logistics Processes Integration Model Based on Web Services

Today's competitive business environment has resulted in increasing cooperation among individual enterprises as members of a supply chain. For the enterprise, how to integrate heterogeneous logistics-related software becomes a key challenge in the whole lifecycle of logistics processes. This paper presents such a framework called SCLPIF for supply logistics processes integration based on Web services via steps (1) logistics service abilities describing, (2) logistics service abilities publishing; and (3) logistics service abilities discovery mechanism. This framework can be adopted as a new supply chain logistics service model which uses a design pattern and solution templates. The implement processes of SCLPIF are illuminated. By means of SCLPIF, each engaged logistics service provider can creates new Web services and leverages exiting ones.