Patent ID: 7039562

Claim:
A computer-implemented system for graphical design and automatic generation of supply chain collaboration services capable of understanding supply chain semantics, the system comprising: a collaboration service designer, comprising software operable to: provide a graphical user interface (GUI) for soliciting from a user information regarding a design for a supply chain collaboration service and receiving from the user the solicited information regarding the design for the supply chain collaboration service; solicit from the user, using the GUI, information regarding the design for the supply chain collaboration service in a predetermined sequence of design steps, particular information regarding one or more particular aspects of the design for the supply chain collaboration service being solicited at each design step; receive from the user, using the GUI, the solicited information regarding the design for the supply chain collaboration service in the predetermined sequence of design steps, the user being prevented from proceeding from a current design step to a subsequent design step until the particular information regarding the one or more particular aspects of the design for the supply chain collaboration service being solicited at the current design step is received from the user; generate a file based on the information regarding the design for the supply chain collaboration service received from the user, the file containing a meta-model for the supply chain collaboration service; and communicate the file containing the meta-model for the supply chain collaboration service for access by a collaboration service generator; and the collaboration service generator, comprising software operable to: access the generated file containing the meta-model for the supply chain collaboration service; and using the meta-model for the supply chain collaboration service contained within the accessed file, automatically generate the supply chain collaboration service, the generated supply chain collaboration service capable of understanding of supply chain semantics for an underlying supply chain.