外文文献译文1
让我们看一个快速消费品行业的协同案例：沃尔马（Wal-Mart）和宝洁（Procter & Gamble）的供应链协同。在上世纪八十年代两家公司开始建立供应链协同机制之前，零售商很少与制造商分享信息。但是两个巨人开发了一套软件系统用以联接宝洁和沃尔马的配送中心，当在沃尔马配送中心的宝洁产品库存下降到一定水平时，这个系统会发出一个自动的警报给宝洁，从而执行一个补货的动作。这个信息系统至始至终联接着沃尔马的所有商店，它让宝洁可以监控沃尔马货架上宝洁产品存量的变化。当宝洁的某个品项存货发生突然下降时，可以通过实时的卫星链路将信息发送回工厂。
依靠这些实时的信息，宝洁知道应该什么时候生产、出货，在沃尔马的商店里陈列多少产品，不需要位置堆积如山的库存来保证对沃尔马的供货，并且结算和发票处理业实现了自动化。这个系统帮助宝洁实现了时间的节约、库存的降低和低的订单处理成本，从而也实现了沃尔马“天天低价”的目标。
思科系统(Cisco Systems),一家互联网设备供应商，也因为它的供应链协同而出名。思科通过连接供应商、集成商、契约制造商的增值网构筑了一个虚拟的JIT(just-in-time)供应链。当一个客户订购了思科的产品时，比如说客户直接通过思科的WEB站点订购了一台路由器，这个订单将会触发一大堆信息给集成电路板的契约制造商。同时，集成商也得到路由器的加工信息：比如说为路由器安装一个供电电源。思科的契约制造商有一些是从事路由器基座之类的零部件生产，还有一些是组装成品，他们已经知道都应该为这台路由器安装哪些零件，安装工序是什么，因为他们已经通过思科的增值网连接着思科的制造执行系统。
契约制造商进入思科的增值网后，增值网会开始检查契约制造商的生产线，确认哪条是合适于生产路由器的。生产厂会粘贴一个条码给路由器，插进电线以模拟检测它对各种不同网络化境的适应。完成之后对比它是否与客户订单符合。如果这些都检查没有问题，然后就要写入思科的软件系统，最后就可以出货给客户。
思科依靠这个强大的软件程序来无论何时何地都可以监控整个供应链，并且不再有仓库、存货、纸质发票。供应链可以自动运行，如果有问题出现，软件会发出警报给管理人员来解决问题，修补错误。供应链软件管理员称之为“例外管理”，如果没有错误发生就不需要做什么事情。
如果说这个供应链协同软件有什么弱点，就是说他们没有得到充分的检验,特别是在现在。思科的网络被设计成用来支持企业的快速增长。分布式的制造决策是非常好用的，如果决策能处理制造和销售过程中的大部分事情。但是思科的网络对于近来的经济波动几乎完全没有办法适应。当客户对思科产品的需求飞速下降时，它要花费大量的时间来调整所有的流程以适应复杂的供应链，思科和它的供应链伙伴也会受到大量过程库存的欺骗，这也是大型高科技制造企业的通病。思科被迫更加关注它的供应链计划能力。
外文文献原文1
Let's look at consumer packaged goods as an example of collaboration. If there are two companies that have made supply chain a household word, they are Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble. Before these two companies started collaborating back in the '80s, retailers shared very little information with manufacturers. But then the two giants built a software system that hooked
P&G up to Wal-Mart's distribution centers. When P&G's products run low at the
distribution centers, the system sends an automatic alert to P&G to ship more products. In some cases, the system goes all the way to the individual Wal-Mart store. It lets P&G monitor the shelves through real-time satellite link-ups that send messages to the factory whenever a P&G item swoops past a scanner at the register.
With this kind of minute-to-minute information, P&G knows when to make, ship and display more products at the Wal-Mart stores. No need to keep products piled up in warehouses awaiting Wal-Mart's call. Invoicing and payments happen automatically too. The system saves P&G so much in time, reduced inventory and lower order-processing costs that it can afford to give Wal-Mart "low, everyday prices" without putting itself out of business.
Cisco Systems, which makes equipment to hook up to the Internet, is also famous for its supply chain collaboration. Cisco has a network of component suppliers, distributors and contract manufacturers that are linked through Cisco's extranet to form a virtual, just-in-time supply chain. When a customer orders a typical Cisco product-for example, a router that directs Internet traffic over a company network-through Cisco's website, the order triggers a flurry of messages to contract manufacturers of printed circuit board assemblies. Distributors, meanwhile, are alerted to supply the generic components of the router, such as a power supply. Cisco's contract manufacturers, some of whom make subassemblies like the router chassis and others who assemble the finished product, already know what's coming down the order pipe because they've logged on to Cisco's extranet and linked in to Cisco's own manufacturing execution systems.
Soon after the contract manufacturers reach into Cisco's extranet, the extranet starts poking around the contractor's assembly line to make sure everything is kosher. Factory assemblers slap a bar code on the router, scan it and plug in cables that simulate those of a typical corporate network. One of those cables is a fire hose for Cisco's automated testing software. It looks up the bar code, matches it to a customer's order and then probes the nascent router to see if it has all the ports and memory that the customer wanted. If everything checks out-and only then-Cisco's software releases the customer name and shipping information so that the subcontractor can get it off the shop floor.
And there you have it. No warehouses, no inventory, no paper invoices, just a very nosy software program that monitors Cisco's supply chain automatically, in real-time, everywhere, simultaneously. The chain runs itself until there's a problem, in which case the system alerts some poor human to get off his duff and fix something. Supply chain software junkies call this "management by exception." You don't need to do anything unless there is something wrong.. If there's a weakness to these collaborative systems, it's that they haven't been tested in tough times-until recently. Cisco's network was designed to handle the company's huge growth. Distributed decision making is great if the decisions
