[tm-rg] Distributed ATP use case

[Haugen Robert]

Information Aggregation example:

"Available To Promise" is a function or query in an order processing
system that determines whether the quantity of an item ordered will be
available at the required time.

Early versions of ATP considered only finished goods inventory in one
location.  Supply chain or distributed versions consider also
work-in-process (in manufacturing), goods-in-transit, and inventory
(whether finished or in previous stages, that is, "in the pipeline") in
many locations and often controlled by many companies.  (See attached
diagram)

Two versions of ATP:
1) All available "in the pipeline" for a particular product or product
family, often for a defined timespan;
2) Sufficient to satisfy a particular demand.

ATP to satisfy a particular demand usually means "to fill a customer
order".  Such an ATP aggregation might want to be transactional, that
is, provide assurance that the aggregation succeeded (completely), or
that it failed (completely or according to a reported pattern). 

"Failing according to a reported pattern" in this case might mean that
business rules would be applied to the reported failures, for example:
* if one supplier did not respond, but the demand was satisfied anyway,
it doesn't matter; 
* if the demand was not satisfied, the interaction with the supplier
might be retried, or tried in some other way;
* if a particular supplier has a service-level contract with the client
company which was violated by its failure, a penalty might be applied.

Specific Transactional Requirements:

* Non-atomic outcomes:  the client may not want the whole transaction to
fail if one or more participants fail.
* Ability to apply business rules to participant failures, which may
mean that the client must know the identity of each participant.
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