Abstract:
Revision of a part specification document, such as a drawing, a part specification, or a bill or materials, prompts execution of an automated notification process. A unique part number associated with the revised part specification document is employed in searching open purchasing documents for purchase orders or request for quotes containing the part number. Electronic mail addresses for outside supplier contacts are kept in the database and linked to the supplier master of the open purchasing documents containing the part number. An electronic mail notification of the part specification document revision is generated and transmitted to each electronic mail address identified as being associated with an open purchasing document containing the subject part number. The revision notification includes a link to the revised part specification document to enable the outside supplier to access the document and review the revisions. A response period during which the outside supplier is expected to access the revised document may be set, with an alert being generated if one or more outside suppliers receiving the revision notification fails to review the changes within the selected response period.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Technical Field  
         [0002]     The present invention relates generally to supply management systems and in particular to communications between an enterprise and outside suppliers for that enterprise. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to automatically notifying outside suppliers for an enterprise of design changes relating to the products supplied or services performed by the outside supplier.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Improvements and other design changes are frequently required during the life cycle of tools and similar products. Engineers or designers within an enterprise may institute design changes to improve performance, reduce manufacturing costs, or increase compatibility with other products. However, such design changes complicate the supply management process since outside suppliers affected by the changes must be notified.  
         [0005]     Currently, notification of outside suppliers regarding design changes is generally a manual and/or physical process. The engineer or designer must identify each outside supplier affected by the change. Modified drawings reflecting the design changes are sent, usually in hard copy form, to the outside suppliers which have been identified. Responses from the outside suppliers, which are also generally in hard copy form, must be correlated to the appropriate change or revision.  
         [0006]     In contemporary supply systems, identifying outside suppliers affected by a design change (e.g., part specification and/or drawing changes) is complicated by the global nature of most manufacturing bases. A design change implemented by an engineer in Houston may affect a manufacturer in England or Singapore with whom the engineer has never had contact. Mere transmission of hard copies of the revisions to an outside supplier located on a different continent requires significant time and expense.  
         [0007]     It would be desirable, therefore, to automate the process of notifying outside suppliers or other affected parties regarding relevant design changes.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     Revision of a part specification document, such as a drawing, a part specification, or a bill or materials, prompts execution of an automated notification process. A unique part number associated with the revised part specification document is employed in searching open purchasing documents for purchase orders or request for quotes containing the part number. Electronic mail addresses for outside supplier contacts are kept in the database and linked to the supplier master of the open purchasing documents containing the part number. An electronic mail notification of the part specification document revision is generated and transmitted to each electronic mail address identified as being associated with an open purchasing document containing the subject part number. The revision notification includes a link to the revised part specification document to enable the outside supplier to access the document and review the revisions. A response period during which the outside supplier is expected to access the revised document may be set, with an alert being generated if one or more outside suppliers receiving the revision notification fails to review the changes within the selected response period.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]     The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0010]      FIG. 1  depicts a data processing system network in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention may be implemented;  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a system for automatically notifying outside suppliers of part revisions in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  depicts a data flow diagram for a process of automatically notifying outside suppliers of part revisions in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  is a high level flow chart for a process of automatically notifying outside suppliers of part revisions in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0014]     With reference now to the figures, and in particular with reference to  FIG. 1 , a data processing system network in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention may be implemented is depicted. Data processing system network  102  includes server systems  104 ,  106  and  108  and a workstation  110  coupled to an enterprise network  112 . Enterprise network  112  is configured in accordance with the known art to allow workstation  110  to communicate with and control execution of applications within servers  104 ,  106  and  108 , and to allow applications within servers  104 ,  106  and  108  to communicate with each other. Enterprise network  112  also includes a connection to the Internet  114  to allow communication with a system  116  maintained by an outside supplier. Data processing system network  102  also includes a system for automatically notifying outside suppliers of part revisions as described below.  
         [0015]     Referring to  FIG. 2 , a block diagram of a system for automatically notifying outside suppliers of part revisions in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. System  202  or the exemplary embodiment includes an editor  204  executing within workstation  110 . Editor  204  may be a simple text or compound document editor employed to edit text or HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents, or a computer aided design (CAD) drafting or graphics program employed to edit drawings, which are preferably in the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). Editor  204  is employed by a user to modify or revise part information  206  for a selected part.  
         [0016]     Each product purchased by the enterprise from outside suppliers is assigned a unique part number, which is employed in linking documents relating to the product. Part information  206  includes various data regarding the product such as a bill of materials (BOM) containing a parts list for the product and documentation (DOC) such as drawings and specifications for the product. Part information  206  may be indexed or keyed by the relevant part number for the product.  
         [0017]     Part information  206  is maintained and controlled by an enterprise document management (EDM) utility  208  executing within server  104  and tracking user access and revisions to registered documents, and revision histories for documents. Document management utilities providing control over electronic documents (text or HTML files, spreadsheets, drawings or graphics, etc.), including access control and keyword search identification, are known in the art. In the exemplary embodiment, the functionality normally associated with document management is extended to provide a part data management utility, which links documents by the part number and allows documents relating to the same part number—e.g., the bill of materials, specification(s) and drawing(s) for a particular product—to be logically organized and treated together, particularly for the purposes of revision histories.  
         [0018]     Enterprise document management utility  208  also manages purchasing documents  210  relating to purchases from outside suppliers, such as purchase orders (POs) and requests for quotes (RFQs). Purchasing documents  210  identify products which are the subject of the purchases by part number  212 , and are associated electronic mail addresses  214  for contact persons at the outside supplier receiving the purchase order or request for quote. The e-mail addresses may comprise a field within the purchase document or metadata associated with the purchase document. However, in the preferred embodiment, the enterprise document management utility  208  (depicted in  FIG. 1 ) comprises a relational database, in which the outside supplier comprise a table or database including the e-mail addresses  214  for each supplier. Purchasing documents  210  include the outside suppliers&#39; name(s), which are employed to look up e-mail addresses  214  in the master supplier table or database.  
         [0019]     While the exemplary embodiment is described in the context of purchase orders and requests for quotes, the present invention may be applied to any type of supply document such as requisitions, frame agreements, or blanket orders. Moreover, the present invention may be utilized for customers as well as suppliers, and may also be utilized internally for production control. Accordingly, purchasing documents  210  may also include sales orders for customers, as well as work orders or shop orders for internal production flow management. In such cases, e-mail addresses  214  will be addresses for customers or particular enterprise employees within the production system rather than outside suppliers.  
         [0020]     System  202  also includes a queue  216  for revisions and an agent  218  executing within server  106 , together with an electronic mail (e-mail) server  220  executing within server  108  and transmitting e-mail messages to an e-mail client  222  executing within outside supplier&#39;s data processing system  116 . Although depicted in the example shown as executing within separate servers  104 ,  106  and  108 , enterprise document management utility  208 , agent  218 , and e-mail server  220  may all execute within a single data processing system.  
         [0021]     In operation, system  202  notifies outside suppliers by electronic mail of revisions to part information  206 . Upon detecting a revision to a document comprising part information  206 , document management utility  208  queues a revision entry for processing within queue  216 . The queue entry identifies the document revised and the part number to which the revised document relates. Agent  218  periodically checks queue  216  for revision entries requiring processing and, upon detecting a revision entry, searches purchase documents  210  for open or ongoing purchase orders and requests for quotes containing the part number within the revision entry from queue  216 . These matching open purchase documents are then employed to identify the outside suppliers which should be notified of the revision.  
         [0022]     In the preferred embodiment, only open purchasing documents are employed in the revision notification process, and outside suppliers are only allowed to access part information  206  which is associated with an open purchase document. Once a purchase order or request for quote is closed, access to the related part information by outside suppliers is terminated to maintain the security and confidentiality of proprietary enterprise information. An access control system (not shown) prevents access by any outside supplier to part information relating only to closed purchasing documents, but may permit selective access to part information based on the identification of an outside supplier within related purchasing documents.  
         [0023]     Any open purchase documents  210  including the part number associated with the revised part information document  206  are identified and the e-mail addresses within or associated with such matching purchase documents  210  are extracted. Because the same supplier may be identified in connection with more than one purchasing document, the list of e-mail addresses may be limited to unique or discrete addresses and not allowed to include duplicate addresses. Agent  218  then generates an e-mail message regarding the revision, including a uniform resource locator (URL) link to the revised document which allows the outside supplier receiving the e-mail message to access and review the revised document—under appropriate security constraints such a logging in with a password—over the Internet.  
         [0024]     Agent  218  transmits notifications to outside suppliers whenever a part revision is created, modified, deleted, or released within part information documents  206 . Thus, when a part revision is first initiated and saved by an engineer or designer, outside suppliers are notified to allow the supplier as much lead time as possible in preparing to retool production. Similarly, when a part revision is altered, the outside supplier is notified. When the part revision is canceled or “released” (formally incorporated into the design specification), the outside suppliers are notified to allow production to be changed accordingly.  
         [0025]     Agent  218  also sets a response period for each outside supplier notified. In the exemplary embodiment, the response period is two days. If an outside suppliers does not respond to the revision notification, either through a responsive e-mail or by accessing the revised part information document, agent  218  notifies an appropriate enterprise manager by e-mail, enabling the enterprise to determine why the outside supplier has not responded to the revision notification. For this reason, the outside suppliers&#39; e-mail addresses for receiving revision notifications may be employed as a user identifier in logging on to review the revised part information document.  
         [0026]     With reference now to  FIG. 3 , a data flow diagram for a process of automatically notifying outside suppliers of part revisions in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is depicted. A revision or change  302  to a part specification document  206 , such as a drawing or bill or materials, initiates the notification process. The notification agent utilizes the part number  304  to search purchasing documents  210  such as purchase orders and requests for quotes.  
         [0027]     The notification agent utilizes the purchasing documents  210  containing the matching part number for the revised specification document to determine the e-mail addresses  306  of the outside suppliers which should be notified of the part revision. The agent then generates an e-mail notification of the part revision, including a link to the part specification document which was changed, and transmits the notification  308  to each of the identified outside supplier e-mail addresses  306 . The notification agent may then optionally monitor response to the revision notification and alert a supply manager to any nonresponsive outside suppliers.  
         [0028]     Referring to  FIG. 4 , a high level flow chart for a process of automatically notifying outside suppliers of part revisions in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. The process begins at step  402 , which depicts a part specification change being initiated (or altered, deleted, or released). The process first passes to step  404 , which illustrates determining the part number associated with the part specification document (drawing, bill of materials, etc.) which is affected. The process next passes to step  406 , which depicts search purchasing documents for the part number, and determining the e-mail addresses of outside suppliers having an association with the purchasing document (for example, as the recipient or originator of the purchase order or request for quote).  
         [0029]     The process then passes to step  408 , which illustrates generating an e-mail notification containing the URL for the revised part specification document, and transmitting the notification to each of the e-mail addresses identified as being associated with purchasing documents containing part number from the revised part specification document. The process passes next to step  410 , which depicts a determination of whether all notified parties have responded to the notification within the preselected response period, either by return e-mail or, preferably, by accessing the part specification document which was changed. If not, the process proceeds to step  412 , which illustrates alerting an enterprise employee (such as a supply manager or clerk or the engineer/designer initiating the part revision) to the nonresponsiveness of one or more notified parties. Otherwise, the process proceeds instead directly to step  414 , which depicts the process becoming idle until another part revision is initiated.  
         [0030]     The present invention provides automatic notifications to outside suppliers of part revisions which affect the respective suppliers. A list of impacted vendors which should be notified of a part change need not be manually determined, but is instead automatically ascertained from purchasing documents, correlated by the part number of the part which was changed. The revisions are immediately accessible to the outside suppliers by accessing the revised part specification documents, rather than awaiting courier delivery.  
         [0031]     It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functional data processing system and/or network, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanism of the present invention is capable of being distributed in the form of a computer usable medium of instructions in a variety of forms, and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing medium used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of computer usable mediums include: nonvolatile, hard-coded type mediums such as read only memories (ROMs) or erasable, electrically programmable read only memories (EEPROMs), recordable type mediums such as floppy disks, hard disk drives and CD-ROMs, and transmission type mediums such as digital and analog communication links.  
         [0032]     While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.