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TABLE OF CONTENTS, Part 2
Understanding the BizTalk Framework™
- Eliminating Transport Selection Issues
- Eliminating Calling Convention Issues
- Eliminating Data Format Issues
Technology Challenges in Manufacturing
Integrating Manufacturing Systems with Microsoft .NET
- Step 1: A Customer Requests a Quote
- Step 2: The Manufacturer Processes the RFQ
- Step 3: The Customer Orders the Product
- Step 4: The Manufacturer Processes the PO
- Step 5: The Customer Requests Order Status
- Step 6: The Manufacturer Executes and Completes the Order
The Future of Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing
Summary
For More Information
Understanding the BizTalk Framework
Companies adopt applications that are suitable to their needs and combine them in ways that convey a competitive advantage. These applications, though individually powerful, often require extensive complex programming and code maintenance to work collaboratively.
Once integration code has been written, the smallest business process change can lead to countless man-hours and myriad costs incurred by the resulting computer system alterations. When you consider the permutations that are possible when you expand your enterprise to include the information systems of corporate partners like suppliers and vendors, the need for a new application development paradigm becomes obvious.
Microsoft is defining a new approach to achieving information flows between applications without requiring a common platform, object technology, or defined enterprise information model. The result of this work is the BizTalk Framework, a set of tools and technologies that define a consistent approach to using XML.
The BizTalk Framework is based on open standards and can be applied to applications that run on any platform. It was designed to eliminate transport selection, calling convention, and data format from application integration. The BizTalk Framework has three components:
- A technical specification that defines how to use XML consistently.
- A code set that defines a small number of mandatory and optional XML tags.
- The www.biztalk.org Web portal for locating, managing, learning about, and publishing XML and XML style sheets (XSL).
Eliminating Transport Selection Issues
Before the BizTalk Framework, developers were forced to perform application integration and wrapping wizardry in order to send transactions over the Internet. A heterogeneous mixture of applications would require more than one technical mechanism for exchanging data. This could take the form of a specific calling convention (RPC), a network protocol assumption (HTTP, SMTP, FTP), or a particular message delivery or abstract method call technology (Microsoft Message Queue Server, Tibco, Tuxedo).
XML is a data description technology that enables you to exchange data between business processes and applications without regard to source or destination platform issues, lending transport independence to the BizTalk Framework. BizTalk Framework-compatible servers from Microsoft and other vendors facilitate this transport independence.
Eliminating Calling Convention Issues
Calling conventions deal with the order that parameters are passed between programs and expectations related to how information will be returned.
Before the BizTalk Framework, the calling convention issues that modular, component-based technologies were designed to address within each application migrated and manifested themselves between applications. To resolve these issues, developers had to write code for function or method location, parameter ordering, return conventions, and response constraints.
Uncoupling applications and implementing an infrastructure that manages the flow of information between applications can minimize these problems. XML solves the problems associated with parameter ordering, and the message-driven programming model promoted by the BizTalk Framework addresses the remaining calling convention issues. With the BizTalk Framework and a BizTalk Framework-compatible server, you can administer information flows that mirror business processes.
Eliminating Data Format Issues
Before the BizTalk Framework, developers were required to build an adapter layer to share information directly with a partner application, or to use intermediate data formats. These adapter or transformation layers were a combination of hand coding, technology bridges, and table-driven transformations to track differences in type, meaning, context, and security.
The flexible nature of XML reduces the need for applications to move information in a set order or format, and the eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) simplifies programming tasks associated with data transformation. The combination of these technologies ensures that vendors can publish their XML data schemas to www.biztalk.org and be assured that other companies will be able to interpret information encoded with those schemas.
Technology Challenges in Manufacturing
When manufacturing enterprises make the decision to integrate certain aspects of their facility with their trading partners and suppliers, and to make available to their customers additional information and services over the Internet, several complex technical considerations come into play.
First and foremost, partners must contend with security. Microsoft .NET facilitates the secure dissemination of information to trusted trading partners with the .NET Enterprise Servers, all of which implement proven security features. The built-in security of the powerful, world-class .NET-compatible Windows 2000 Server operating system, along with the Windows Update feature to ensure the application of security patches, helps to alleviate much of the concern surrounding Web-based commerce.
Once security has been fully considered and properly dealt with, partners must think about the different platforms they implement internally. The transport mechanism for the shared data must be able to communicate with platforms as varied as Windows, UNIX, VMS, and OS/400.
Microsoft .NET offerings, with their native XML support, package information and services in a format that can be understood by any platform that also supports XML. By implementing the SOAP transport protocol, using any of a variety of transports, partners can enable complex application-to-application communication over the Internet.
Once the security and transport issues have been resolved, partners can focus on the advanced service and information offerings that will differentiate themselves from their competition and increase their market share.
Visual Studio.NET facilitates the writing of complex Web services that function across corporate boundaries, are understood by various platforms, and provide the advanced transaction capabilities that trading partners desire.
One question remains: With the vast array of XML-based solutions available today, why should you select Microsoft .NET products?
The answer is simple. The cost of hardware and software is the smallest line item in information technology (IT) departments. The most expensive item for IT managers is almost invariably application development time. A Microsoft solution enables both faster time-to-market and development cost savings. With Microsoft .NET products, application programmers need not spend valuable development time learning and writing infrastructure provided by Microsoft technologies. Rather, they are free to focus their energy and resources on solving business problems, not on implementation details.
Additionally, if your internal enterprise is already well-integrated with Microsoft products such as SQL Server and Exchange Server, the transformation to exposing information to your business partners, suppliers, and customers by using Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers and technologies will come easily. As the W3C recommends new standards, Microsoft fully supports them, ensuring that your solutions built on Microsoft .NET products are always state-of-the-art.
Integrating Manufacturing Systems with Microsoft .NET
Imagine a manufacturing company that has fully implemented Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing, including Visual Studio.NET and Microsoft BizTalk Server. It has the technology to receive orders from customers, place part orders with suppliers, and update customers and trading partners on production status.
The manufacturing company exchanges data with its trading partners using any of several possible TCP/IP-based protocols. The manufacturing company can send and receive business documents as e-mail via SMTP, as files via FTP, or as POSTs to a Web server via HTTP. The business document itself is wrapped in a SOAP envelope, as required by the BizTalk Framework. Finally, a line of business (LOB) schema is used to format the data as a standard business document.
Step 1: A Customer Requests a Quote
A customer sends a request for quote (RFQ) to the manufacturing company using the LOB schema defined for the manufacturing industry and published at www.biztalk.org. The RFQ is encoded as XML and submitted to a Web service, which was built using Microsoft Visual Studio.NET.
A LOB schema describes how a type of document, such as a purchase order or request for quote, will be encoded in XML. Although individual developers are free to define their own schemas-what document tags are named and what they describe-by using industry-standard schemas, companies within an industry can more easily share information over the Internet. Companies that want to implement XML can locate information about standard schemas, documents, and business processes supported by other businesses and applications on www.biztalk.org, created and managed by Microsoft.
Step 2: The Manufacturer Processes the RFQ
The manufacturing company receives the RFQ via its Web service, which initiates an orchestration process. This process first assigns a priority to the RFQ, based upon such factors as current market conditions, internal production capacity versus other outstanding orders, and the relative importance of the customer. Much of this information comes from internal systems, and the orchestration process queries these applications using both loosely coupled and tightly coupled mechanisms.
The manufacturer also must know the cost of the raw materials for the order. The manufacturing company sends RFQs for the necessary materials to its suppliers. Once the manufacturing company receives quotes and delivery dates for the various materials, it can calculate a product price and expected delivery date of its own, and send a response to the customer.
The manufacturing company stores this orchestration process as an XLANG schedule on a BizTalk Server. When the manufacturing company receives a business object document, for example an RFQ, it follows a defined business process. The manufacturer's business analysts define the process, and its developers define the implementation.
The BizTalk Server enables the definition of business processes in a graphical format. It enables the implementation of these processes by using specific computer systems. The manufacturing company defines the business process separately from its technical implementation.
This division between definition and implementation is significant. If you have captured all of your business process definitions in COM-based objects, for example, dependent systems could easily break if you change that business process. If you store definition and implementation separately, the behavior of your computer systems doesn't need to change when the business process changes. Your applications will be more stable, a particularly important consideration if you are working with multiple customers and suppliers over the Internet.
Step 3: The Customer Orders the Product
Satisfied with the price of the product, the customer sends a purchase order (PO) document to the manufacturing company, wrapped in a SOAP message. The manufacturer's ability to receive the order is exposed as another Web service.
Step 4: The Manufacturer Processes the PO
The manufacturer processes the PO in the same way it processed the RFQ, by using business logic stored in BizTalk Server. When the manufacturer receives a business document, BizTalk Server determines the encoding approach, the document identity, and the business purpose of the document. If necessary, BizTalk Server maps the data encoded in the original purchase order to the manufacturer's internal implementation of a PO.
Having received the purchase order, the first step in the manufacturer's business process is to acknowledge the order by sending an acknowledgement document back to the customer. Next, the production order is sent to the manufacturer's enterprise planning and scheduling module. As we'll see in the following steps, other applications will be called upon to participate in this business process. BizTalk Server includes powerful tools to orchestrate applications within and across organizations, as well as tools for visual modeling, and implementation and management of running processes.
For example, throughout the business process, BizTalk Server can manage the flow of information and the integration of applications transactionally. If BizTalk Server determines that some aspect of the transaction has not completed successfully, it will roll the process back with a compensating action.
Step 5: The Customer Requests Order Status
To track the status of its order, the customer uses another delivery Web service, built by the supplying manufacturer using Visual Studio.NET. The service wraps a SOAP method call to the manufacturer's enterprise software. The customer is apprised of any labor or part supply constraints that affect the on-time delivery of the ordered product.
The customer can use this Web service to request order status at any time during the manufacturing process. The manufacturing company offers Web services such as this to differentiate itself from its competition.
Step 6: The Manufacturer Executes and Completes the Order
In the meantime, the order has been sent to a WIP tracking system so that it can be routed through the manufacturing facility. An operator, using product monitoring software in the factory, picks up the product order and production is begun. Multiple work orders are created to take the product through the various manufacturing stages.
During the manufacture of the requested product, the customer can continue to request status, or the manufacturer can opt to send automated status updates at pre-defined times or upon reaching production milestones. To inspire customer confidence and increase loyalty, the manufacturing company has written Web services that immediately inform the customer of slips in the production schedule due to supply shortages or other constraints. Finally, the customer is informed when the product ships.
To ensure secure Internet communication with its customers and suppliers, the manufacturing company has implemented authentication, authorization, and encryption mechanisms.
This is an example of programming the Web. The developers in the preceding scenario used various open technologies together with the Microsoft .NET platform to automate the consumption and dissemination of Web services for the benefit of their trading partners and the streamlining of their business processes. By programming the Web with Microsoft .NET, this fictional company extended its enterprise.
The Future of Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing
Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing will help enterprises to realize new business opportunities. Companies can use the tools and runtime environment of .NET to build employee self-help services and customer self-help Web sites. Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing will enable trading exchanges to share information in new and useful ways while enabling participating companies to distinguish themselves from their competitors.
Wide acceptance of XML and LOB schema such as those published on www.biztalk.org will help make vertical communities and auctions commonplace. Microsoft .NET products and technologies, with their extensive support for XML, will expand the playing field for application service providers and application hosts. SOAP, the foundation of Microsoft's BizTalk Framework, will be the foundation of more advanced and powerful protocols.
Microsoft .NET and the BizTalk Framework will help manufacturers to design and develop next generation Internet devices. The Universal Plug and Play (UpnP) Forum is already discussing the possibility of an industrial automation working group, which would define how plant-floor devices such as PLCs communicate over ad-hoc networks, exposing SOAP-based control services and other XML-based features. The ability to plug devices like these into a network, have them configure themselves for communication, reset in a common fashion, and synchronize with other factory and office electronics, is an astounding prospect.
Microsoft .NET will enable companies to more tightly integrate back office systems and factory floor controllers with Bluetooth-enabled handhelds, speeding the dispersal of diagnostic and maintenance information to the individuals and machines who require it. Embedded systems built on the Windows CE or Windows NT Embedded operating systems will be able to participate fully in .NET scenarios, behaving as either clients or servers of information and services.
Today, Microsoft is working closely with various industry standards bodies to implement XML standards in manufacturing technology and to streamline business processes. Microsoft implements the recommendations of these standards bodies as they become accepted standards. They are implemented as specified, guaranteeing with a high degree of certainty that solutions on diverse platforms will interoperate with Microsoft .NET products and technologies.
- The Open Applications Group Integration Specifications (OAGIS) organization has published a variety of LOB schemas on www.biztalk.org, the XML standard Web site created and managed by Microsoft, to guide the use of business object documents such as purchase orders, status requests, and requests for quote. This ensures that various enterprises agree upon and utilize schemas in a similar manner, minimizing the need to translate data from one format to another.
- The OLE for Process Control (OPC) organization is developing the next set of RPC specifications that will include support for XML. Microsoft works closely with OPC, ensuring that automation issues vital to manufacturers are addressed and standard technologies supported by the Microsoft .NET platform.
- The Open Modular Architecture Controls (OMAC) Users Group includes companies with interests in developing and implementing open control technologies, including the Windows operating system with hard real-time extensions, in manufacturing and common application programming interface (API) for motion and machining operations.
- The Universal Plug and Play Forum, of which Microsoft is a member, defines an architecture, based upon existing standards, including XML and SOAP, for ad hoc peer-to-peer networking. The architecture addresses the definition of device interfaces so that the devices and services of disparate organizations can communicate with minimal configuration effort, resulting in minimized IT costs for businesses.
- The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) organization was spearheaded by Microsoft, IBM, and Ariba, and is being embraced by other industry leaders, including Andersen Consulting, Commerce One, Compaq, webMethods, Extricity, Great Plains, SAP, Sun Microsystems, and VerticalNet. UDDI will facilitate the exchange of Web services among diverse companies, reducing the administrative and technology costs of doing business.
- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes Web-based standards such as HTML, XML, and SOAP, and addresses content issues. Microsoft implements recommendations of the W3C as they become standards, ensuring that the Microsoft .NET platform supports the most current open technologies.
- The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) publishes Internet-based transport protocol standards, and addresses connection issues. Microsoft implements IETF standards as specified, ensuring that the Microsoft .NET platform interoperates with other platforms and products that also implement IETF standards.
- The European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) is an international industry association dedicated to the standardization of information and communication systems. Microsoft submitted to ECMA for review its specifications for the common language infrastructure of its .NET base framework. If accepted as a standard, the common language infrastructure will enable a .NET application to execute on any platform supporting the infrastructure. Additionally, versions of the common language infrastructure could be built for any platform.
Summary
The Microsoft.NET platform shifts an organization's focus from individual Web sites and devices connected to the Internet to constellations of computers, devices, and services that work together reliably and securely to offer broader, more convenient solutions. With Microsoft .NET, you can extend your enterprise to include your suppliers, customers, and any other trading partners engaged in your manufacturing process.
Microsoft .NET is based on open standards. It augments the presentation capabilities of HTML with the metadata capabilities of XML, offering a means of unlocking information for organization, programming, editing, and distribution.
The .NET Framework enables the applications that you develop to run in a managed environment; your code benefits from features such as garbage collection, cross-language integration, cross-language exception handling, enhanced security, versioning and deployment support, a simplified model for component interaction, and debugging and profiling services.
The Microsoft .NET initiative and the BizTalk Framework enable external integration and interoperability. By supporting open protocols, including the SOAP, HTTP, FTP, and SMTP, as well as XML, Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing enables you to network seamlessly with your manufacturing partners.
With Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing, your computers and devices are no longer isolated islands of information. Microsoft .NET for Manufacturing makes your information systems integrated, collaborative providers and recipients of data and services.
For More Information
For additional information about the tools and technologies discussed in this document, please visit the links below at Microsoft's Web site.
© 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
