Topic outline

• Developing Business Processes for Supply Chain Issue Analysis

  Developing Business Processes for Supply Chain Issue Analysis

  Content Type
  Exercise

  Duration
  30m

  Level
  Intermediate

  See how to implement issue analysis and resolution logic using InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator™. 

  An issue analysis can include factors such as:

  • Root cause analysis
  • Impact analysis
  • Issue rating by severity and urgency
  • Issue resolution or recommendations
  • Actions related to the resolution, such as sending out a notification

  In this exercise, you will design and configure a business process using the steps required to connect to the rest of the issue resolution logic provided by Supply Chain Orchestrator.

  If you need an introduction to the BPL editor, try Building BPL Business Processes (online course, 1h 30m).
• Start the Exercise

  Start the Exercise

  In the following tasks, you will create and test a BPL business process to be used for issue analysis. An international electronics company has recently been experiencing delayed shipments and needs a business process to analyze the issues generated. This business process will: 

  • Initialize the context object of the business process, saving important information such as issue ID and related objects.
  • Save the results of analysis, such as severity, urgency, root cause, and impact analysis.
  • Create workflow recommendations to resolve the issue.
  • Save the analysis results back to the issue so that the results can be accessed through the API.

  Users will then be able to access the analysis and make decisions on how to best handle any delayed shipments issues that arise.

  • In this exercise, you can use your own instance of InterSystems IRIS or launch the virtual machine using the button below. After launching the lab, click Start the Course! to begin the exercise.

    For responses to common questions on using VM-based Learning Labs, visit FAQ: Using Learning Services Virtual Machines.

    Your login information for the VM is the following:

    • Username: student
    • Password: LearningServices7

    Please be aware that this may take a few minutes to load. Do not refresh the page.

  •  You must be logged in to launch an InterSystems IRIS instance.

    • Log in with your existing account.
    • Don't have an InterSystems account? Create a new account.
  • Log into the VM
    

    1. Once your VM has lauched, click the link in the launcher to open the VM desktop.
    2. Log in with the credentials:
       • Username: student
       • Password: LearningServices7
    3. In the VM, open Google Chrome via the icon on the left.
    4. Click the Supply Chain Orchestrator link in the Chrome bookmark bar.
    5. Log in to the Management Portal with the credentials:
       • Username: superuser
       • Password: demo3232
  • Get set up
    

    1. From the Management Portal, navigate to Interoperability > List > Productions.
    2. Create a new production with the following settings:
       • Package: SC.BP
       • Production Name: IssueAnalysis
       • Production Type: Generic
  • Add components

    You can now add the required components to your production. A basic production configuration for issue analysis in Supply Chain Orchestrator has one required business service, SC.Core.BP.Service.SingleIssueBS, which is the gateway to all business processes for issue analysis.

    If you plan to use workflow processing for issue resolution, you will also need to add a workflow operation. InterSystems IRIS operations for workflow processing are included in Supply Chain Orchestrator. Issue resolution options are implemented using the InterSystems IRIS Workflow Engine.

    If your business logic requires connecting to other systems for purposes such as sending a notification or updating an ERP application, you will need more operations to execute the corresponding logic.

    1. Add a new business service to your production with the class: SC.Core.BP.Service.SingleIssueBS
    2. Add a new business operation to your production with the class: EnsLib.Background.Workflow.Operation

    
    

  • Create a new BPL business process

    Issues may be generated from KPIs or originate elsewhere. If analysis is required for issues generated automatically from KPIs, there is typically one business process for each KPI definition. For issues originating elsewhere, there is typically one business process for each issue type—but it is possible to have more than one business process for a given issue type. Issues are routed to the corresponding process by the business service.

    Follow these steps to create a business process for delayed shipment issues and set up the context object. The request class and context superclass used in this step are provided as part of Supply Chain Orchestrator.

    1. In the Management Portal, navigate to Interoperability > Build > Business Processes.
    2. Click New to create a business process with the following settings:
       • Package: SC.BP
       • Name: LateShipmentProcess
    3. In the new business process, change the Request Class to SC.Core.BP.Message.IssueAnalysisRequest.
    4. Change the Context Superclass to SC.Core.BP.IssueContext.
       
       
    5. Add a context property: supplyshipment as type SC.Data.SupplyShipment.

       This property will allow you to keep track of the related issue object within the business process context object.

  • Configure the business process

    In general, business processes for issue analysis can be configured following standard InterSystems IRIS guidelines. This exercise focuses on the specific steps and configuration required to take advantage of Supply Chain Orchestrator, which allows the related processes to be accessed through an API call.

    A typical business process for issue analysis includes three general steps: initialization of the analysis, business logic, and saving the analysis results to the issue. We will begin by adding activities for each of these steps, then configure each step further.

    
    

    1. Add two sequence activities to the business process diagram:
       • Name: Initialize the analysis
       • Name: Impact analysis
    2. Add a code activity named Save analysis to issue, and connect this activity to the end activity.
    3. Save the business process.
  • Initialize context properties

    The initialization step allows you to keep track of the issues and related business objects in the context object that you configured earlier.

    1. Open the first sequence activity, Initialize the analysis, by clicking the plus symbol (+).
    2. Use an assign activity with the following settings to save the issue ID to the context. The issue ID is retrieved from the request.
       • Name: Set issue ID
       • Action: set
       • Property: context.issueId
       • Value: request.issueId
       

       In many cases, an issue is tied to an instance of a business object or transaction, such as an order or a shipment. In the next step, you will call the function provided to retrieve that object instance and save it to the supplyshipment context property created earlier.

    3. Use a code activity to call the function and retrieve the object instance, then save it to the context property:
       • Name: Initialize impacted business object
       • Code: set context.supplyshipment=context.getImpactedObject()
       
       

       Different business processes can be used to analyze the same issue, so in the next step you will save the name of this business process.

    4. Save the business process name to the context so it can be saved back to the issue with the analysis results. This can be done with an assign activity, retrieving the business process name from the request object.
       • Name: Set process name
       • Action: set
       • Property: context.analysis.processName
       • Value: request.targetProcess
       
    5. Return to the top level of the business process diagram by clicking the business process name in the top left part of the diagram.
  • Set and save analysis results

    After completing the actual business logic—such as logic for determining the severity, urgency, root cause, and impact of the issue—you will need to save analysis results back to the issue and update the issue with results from the latest analysis.

    Note:

    This exercise does not include actual business logic. The logic will depend on your specific use case and can be implemented using standard InterSystems IRIS guidelines.

    All the analysis results need to be saved in the analysis object. The corresponding properties are severity, urgency, rootCauseAnalysis, and impactAnalysis.

    1. Open the second sequence activity, Impact analysis, by clicking the plus symbol (+).
    2. Add an assign activity with following settings:
       • Name: Set severity
       • Action: set
       • Property: context.analysis.severity
       • Value: 3
    3. Add three more assign activities to set the following values for the other properties:
       • context.analysis.urgency: 4
       • context.analysis.impactAnalysis: "Serious customer satisfaction concerns, and a penalty of $50K."
       • context.analysis.rootCauseAnalysis: "This is caused by a local COVID shutdown."
    4. Save the business process and return to the top level of the business process diagram.
       
       
    5. Save the analysis details back to the issue so the results can be accessed by APIs or in analytics cubes. Add the following code to the Save analysis to issue activity:
       do context.saveAnalysisToIssue()
       
       
  • Provide workflow recommendations (Optional)

    If your business logic involves providing recommended solutions, each recommendation option needs to be analyzed and the outcome saved.

    To allow for user interactions with the recommendations from the business process, Supply Chain Orchestrator uses a workflow management system. In this step, you will create and populate a scenario object, SC.Core.Data.Internal.ActionScenario, which can then be shared with users.

    1. Add a new sequence activity after Impact Analysis named Option A Details.
    2. Within the new sequence activity, add a code activity with the following settings. This creates an object, newScenario, of type SC.Core.Data.Internal.ActionScenario.
       • Name: Create Option A
       • Code: do context.createNewScenario()
       
       
       
       In the next step, you will set the properties of the scenario object. This object represents the option of solving the delayed shipment issue by moving the order to a different plant. Note that in this exercise, you will set the properties of the scenario directly, but in a real business process, most properties would be set through business logic that analyzes that impact of the proposed scenario.
    
    
    3. Use assign activities to set the following scenario properties:
       • context.newScenario.optionName = "Option A"
       • context.newScenario.optionNumber = "A"
       • context.newScenario.description = "Move the sales order to Hamburg plant"
       • context.newScenario.supportingData = "Impact: The order will be fulfilled on time, with extra $1500 shipping cost. Extra workload on Hamburg plant will require an early maintenance window."
       • context.newScenario.costImpact = 1500
       • context.newScenario.timeImpact = 36
       • context.newScenario.feasibility = 1
       • context.newScenario.recommended = 1
       
    4. After all properties are set in the scenario object, add another code activity, and use another included context method to save the scenario to the analysis:
       do context.addScenarioToAnalysis()
       
       
    5. Repeat steps 1-4 to add a second scenario called Option B with different property values.
    6. Return to the top level of the business process and update the final code activity to save the workflow analysis:
       • Name: Save analysis to issue
       • Code: Begin code.

         set context.analysis.workflowId = $ListGet(process.%MasterPendingResponses.GetAt(1),1)
         do context.saveWorkflowAnalysisToIssue()
         

         End code.
       
       
       This code saves the workflow ID and the workflow analysis to the issue.
       In the case that a new round of analysis is started before the previous workflow is closed, the workflow will be cleared. Saving the workflow ID will allow you to reference the original workflow when user responses are received.
       Note:

       The lab in this exercise uses an earlier version of Supply Chain Framework. For Supply Chain Framework versions 1.4.2 and later, the code block that retrieves the workflow ID should be written differently. Refer to documentation on saving analysis results for an example.
    
    
    7. Save and compile the business process.

    
    

    For more information about adding call activities for user input in the workflow, see InterSystems IRIS documentation.

  • Add the business process to the production

    Now that the business process is complete, you must add it to your issue analysis production.

    1. From the Management Portal, return to Interoperability > Configure > Productions.
    2. Open SC.BP.IssueAnalysis.
    3. Add a new business process:
       • Business process class: SC.BP.LateShipmentProcess
       • Business process name: LateShipmentProcess
       • Enable now: Selected
    4. Start the production.
  • Test the business process

    After a business process is configured for an issue analysis, you can manually run the analysis on an issue through an API.

    1. Open VS Code in the virtual machine using the icon on the left of the desktop.
    2. Open the files BPL-request-1.http, BPL-request-2.http, and BPL-request-3.http. These files contain the requests for the following steps. You can click Send Request at the top of each file to send the REST requests.
    3. Send the request in BPL-request-1.http, which creates a new issue.
       
    • HTTP Action:POST
    • URL: http://server/api/scdata/v1/issues
    • Header name: Content-Type
    • Header value: application/json
    • Body:Begin code.

      {
          "uid": "ISSUE-1001",
          "description": "Issue created from API",
          "impactedObjectType": "SupplyShipment",
          "impactedObjectId": "29",
          "triggerType": "API",
          "issueCategory": "ShipmentIssue",
          "severity": 1
      }

      End code.
    4. Next, using the second request file, run the issue analysis using the following REST call.
       • HTTP Action: POST
       • URL: http://server/api/scbi/v1/runissueanalysis/ISSUE-1001
       • Header name: Content-Type
       • Header value: application/json
       • Body: Begin code.

         {
         "processName": "LateShipmentProcess"
         }
         

         End code.
    5. If the second REST call is successful, run the following REST call to retrieve the analysis details using the third REST request file:
       • HTTP Action: GET
       • URL: http://server/api/scdata/v1/issues/ISSUE-1001

    
    

    The following is a sample response of such an API call:

    Begin code.

    {
        "ID": "877",
        "recordCreatedTime": "2022-10-15T14:32:55.472Z",
        "lastUpdatedTime": "2022-10-17T09:50:35.180Z",
        "description": "Sales orders which were shipped late compared to the committed ship date",
        "triggerType": "KPI",
        "triggerObjectId": "SalesOrderLateShipVsCommitted",
        "impactedObjectType": "SalesOrder",
        "impactedObjectId": "d60924c1-ec18-4de8-963d-c569d75fb201",
        "severity": 2,
        "urgency": 3,
        "status": "workflow",
        "latestAnalysis": {
            "recordCreatedTime": "2022-10-17T09:50:35.174Z",
            "lastUpdatedTime": "2022-10-17T09:50:35.179Z",
            "issueId": 877,
            "runSequence": 3,
            "processName": "MfgOrderProcess",
            "severity": 2,
            "urgency": 3,
            "rootCauseAnalysis": "Order expected to be late due to a delayed maintenance caused by a late shipment of a part needed. ",
            "impactAnalysis": "Serious customer satisfaction concerns, and a penalty of $50K.",
            "workflowId": "54",
            "status": "workflow",
            "resolution": "none",
            "scenarios": [
                {
                    "optionNumber": "A",
                    "optionName": "Option A",
                    "description": "Move the sales order to Hamburg plant",
                    "costImpact": 1500,
                    "timeImpact": 36,
                    "supportingData": "Impact: The order will be fulfilled on time, with extra $1500 shipping cost. Extra work load on Hamburg plant will require an early maintenance window.",
                    "feasibility": 1,
                    "recommended": 1
                },
                {
                    "optionNumber": "A",
                    "optionName": "Option B",
                    "description": "Wait for the part, complete the maintenance, and use expedited shipping once done.",
                    "costImpact": 500,
                    "timeImpact": 0,
                    "supportingData": "Impact: $2000 extra shipping cost. Order expected to be 2 days late.",
                    "feasibility": 1,
                    "recommended": 0
                },
                {
                    "optionNumber": "C",
                    "optionName": "Option C",
                    "description": "Leverage spare parts in Munich plant and redirect current shipment to Munich.",
                    "costImpact": 12000,
                    "timeImpact": 0,
                    "supportingData": "Impact: Current sales order will be done on time, but this will put $250,000 revenue at risk at Munich plant due to the delayed maintenance.",
                    "feasibility": 1,
                    "recommended": 0
                }
            ]
        }
    }
    

    End code.
  • In this exercise, you completed the design and configuration of a BPL business process using Supply Chain Orchestrator to perform issue analysis. These steps can be applied to business processes within your own supply chain systems as the framework to analyze issues and their impact, and to allow this information to be accessed through an API.

• What's Next?

  What's Next?

  Continue learning with the following resources:
  

  • Learn more about Supply Chain Orchestrator (learning path, 1h 15m).
  • Read more about issue management (documentation, 7m).

  • Share Your Feedback!