Integration of Service Models - Preliminary Results for Consistent Logistics Service Management

Abstract

The logistics industry is characterized by a high level of collaboration between logistics customers and providers. In fact, sophisticated, knowledge-intense business models such as 4th party logistics providers that are responsible for planning, coordination, and monitoring entire supply chains across logistics companies can be observed. However, integrated approaches for engineering and management of fourth party logistics are rather in its infancy. The Logistics Engineering and Management platform is a service-oriented approach for the development and management of long and mid-term logistics contracts. It serves as a collaboration platform and integrates services from different logistics providers. In this paper a core feature of the platform is presented, a service repository as a single point of truth coping with the complexity of miscellaneous service descriptions and models. Central idea behind this repository is the integration of different specialized service models and the construction of a comprehensive model, which supports direct implementation of services as concrete logistics tasks. In this article we present preliminary results of the service repository's development and realization and an outlook for future research.