Interoperability study for upgrading ERP applications

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This proposed project supports the continued research collaboration between McCoy Drilling and Completion -Farr (McCoy) and the University of Alberta to investigate the scalable interoperability technology for upgrading Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) applications in a critical business transition, from self-dependent and in-house manufacturing to an open and global supply chain based production. Complex product assembly structures and configurations as well as the dynamic manufacturing processes have to be modeled in a generic manner so that the data structures generated by, or developed in the past with, the existing ERP tool can be seamlessly integrated with, or migrated into a new data structures which are in turn to be interfaced with a new ERP tool. The research focus is on the interoperability between the existing and a new ERP systems, as well as the collaboration scheme among different suppliers and partners in a supply chain model. The research activities include manufacturing process modeling and redevelopment of the ERP interfaces for the new scenarios with the distributed manufacturing management requirement; generic computational solution for the resources planning and job scheduling in a dynamic supply chain system; neutral data schema definition for the automated ERP data migration or integration, and finally, the development of a cost engineering method under the new framework of ERP implementation. The corresponding deliverables are the generic and acceptable manufacturing outsource and in-house process models and procedures in the form of standardized operation data forms and computerized management interfaces integrated with the new ERP system; a working computer program to generate and modify master production schedule with the consideration of available capabilities and resources; Updated or migrated data files based on the existing ERP data contents that can be accessed and used effectively by the new ERP system; A set of effective working procedures and a computer program that is integrated with the new ERP software such that different scenarios of cost engineering in the context of supply chains can be quantitatively simulated and ompared.