Patent ID: 7206751

Claim:
A method for displaying a supply-chain collaboration between supply-chain participants, wherein the supply-chain participants are members of a business community and the supply-chain participants interact according to a predefined consecutive order, the method comprising: receiving data that identifies the supply-chain participants and interactions between the supply-chain participants; receiving data that identifies the consecutive order of the interactions; processing the data received to display in a first view, at least two columns representing business activities of the supply-chain participants, wherein each column represents at least one of the supply-chain participants in the interactions, order of the columns from left to right represents a flow of goods, and the business activities are represented by individual polygons within the at least two columns; processing the data received to display in the first view, the business activities in individual polygons, wherein the polygons are positioned adjacent to each other and to represent the interactions between the supply-chain participants in the supply-chain collaboration; processing the data received to display in a second view, the at least two columns in the same order as the first view, wherein the polygons are not adjacent and are connected by lines, and the interactions between the supply-chain participants are represented by the lines connecting the polygons; processing the data received to display in a third view, the at least two columns, wherein the at least two columns include at least one additional column, each of the at least one additional columns representing specific computer components used to implement the interactions between the supply-chain participants and utilization of the computer components by the supply-chain participants.