Current supply chain operations sit in an information technology paradigm that can be characterized as follows: human controlled supply chain processes and manual user tasks, large monolithic platforms, process ‘silos’, incommensurable user interfaces, and no industry wide APIs and communication protocols.
The combined result of all these factors is a low automation level and high software initial, as well as extensive maintenance costs. The sea-freight automation framework (SAF) is an open source initiative created to introduce an automation structure (a set of APIs for supply chain operations and communications) to the industry. Its objective is to unify and further automate business processes as per the table below.
CONCEPT OF ENGAGEMENT
The SAF engagement concept is derived from the smart contracts model used in blockchain. ‘Engagement’ simply means a…
