GM relies on BEA WebLogic and ebXML to re-tool parts ordering for 8,000 dealerships

Since its nationwide launch of RIM in August 2005, about 1,000 GM dealers are active on the new system, and another 3,500 are enrolled and will soon be active.

According to Donna Colorito, process information officer at GM Service and Parts Operations, GM uses BEA Systems Inc.'s WebLogic Server to distribute parts information from its legacy systems and has adopted Electronic Business XML (ebXML) as its communications protocol.

By the end of 2007, GM expects to have its approximately 8,000 U.S. and Canadian dealers using its Retail Inventory Management (RIM) system, which relies on intelligence gleaned from nationwide parts sales to recommend parts-restocking policies at dealerships.

"A key aspect of the system is recommending what part to stock, and that’s not a trivial thing. GM has some 1.3 million parts that can be ordered, and dealerships typically have between 5,000 and 12,000 parts on the shelf at any given time, said Mike Nicholes, a parts management consultant and head of Nicholes Capital Management LLC in Portland, Ore".

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