Enterprise SOA

ESA in action: TRW

Another example of a company using Java in its ESA implementation is TRW Automotive. TRW ranks among the world's leading automotive suppliers.

As a $12-billion-a-year business employing approximately 63,000 people in 25 countries, TRW is constantly looking for ways to improve product and process efficiency. To this end, TRW uses the Six Sigma Initiative to improve customer satisfaction, the quality of its business processes and products, and its methods of launching new products. TRW also employs the Six Sigma Initiative to create a culture capable of continuous process improvement.

TRW's Airbag Systems Group sought to simplify and automate its factory floor inventory and resupply procedures at its plants in Aschau and Laage, Germany, with the application of information logistics. They launched a Six Sigma "Black Belt" project that sought to identify redundancies and otherwise inefficient efforts in their supply chain. The project aimed to reconcile data from planning, ERP, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and factory floor applications into a single, integrated solution. Through this effort, TRW hoped to give floor personnel a real-time view of inventory and an automated resupply process. This would not only eliminate errors, but also drive down inventory costs by increasing consumption efficiency.

When it came time for implementation, the solution was to create a composite application automating this process using a variety of SAP NetWeaver components, including ...