Available-to-promise on an in-memory column store

Abstract

Available-To-Promise (ATP) is an application in the context of Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems and provides a checking mechanism that calculates if the desired products of a customer order can be delivered on the requested date. Modern SCM systems store relevant data records as aggregated numbers which implies the disadvantages of maintaining redundant data as well as inflexibility in querying the data. Our approach omits aggregates by storing all individual data records in an in-memory, column-store and scans through all relevant records on-the-fly for each check. We contribute by describing the novel data organization and a lockingfree, highly-concurrent ATP checking algorithm. Additionally, we explain how new business functionality such as instant rescheduling of orders can be realized with our approach. All concepts are implemented within a prototype and benchmarked by using an anonymized SCM dataset of a Fortune 500 consumer products company. The paper closes with a discussion of the results and gives an outlook how this approach can help companies to find the right balance between low inventory costs and high order fulfillment rates.