Information flow in the DAMA project beyond database managers: information flow managers

To meet the demands of commercial data traffic on the information highway, a new look at managing data is necessary. One projected activity, sharing of point-of-sale information, is being considered in the Demand Activated Manufacturing Project of the American Textile Partnership project. A scenario is examined in which 100,000 retail outlets communicate over a period of days. They provide the latest estimate of demand for sewn products across a chain of 26,000 suppliers through the use of bill-of-materials explosions at four levels of detail. A new paradign the information flow manager, is developed to handle this situation, including the case where members of the supply chain fail to communicate and go out of business. Techniques for approximation are introduced to keep estimates of demand as current as possible.