534c Net-Centric Integration of Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Enterprise Management – Delivering the Process Industry's Equivalent to Sensor Fusion and the Battlefield of Tomorrow

Michael R. Basila, 17130 Deer Run Dr, BP Chemicals Company, Orland Park, IL 60467-8801

The Process Industry has led the application of digital manufacturing technology and its integration with Enterprise Management Systems since the early days of the computer. However, the promises of benefits from the full integration of manufacturing, supply chain, and enterprise management information have been elusive as the PC vapor ware applications of the 1980's. Boeing is currently implementing the Department of Defense Sensor Fusion and Battlefield of Tomorrow net-centric warfare initiatives, which give every soldier from the Theater Commander down to the individual grunts in the fields a real-time, 360o view of the battlefield and the tools necessary to manage the engagements. DOD is solving management and IT issues that closely parallel the manufacturing, supply chain, and enterprise management issues of the chemical manufacturing and refining industries. There are many examples of how companies have solved pieces of the enterprise data fusion puzzle from which we can extend a more holistic enterprise solution framed in terms of the DOD experience and current / near-term IT technologies.