inventory_item_demand Business Overview

This business DEX defines the information that will be required to ensure that the correct items of supply can be provided to front line user/support communities to enable operations to be successfully prosecuted. The information is thus expected to flow from the front line to the Supply Chain.

The DEX is intended to be used to reflect current Material Demand requirements within the MoD Supply Chain and, as such, has been carefully modelled to ensure that it meets these needs. It deliberately excludes the purchase of items from manufacturers, as these are the subject of other modelling and messaging areas.

It is expected that the DEX will be utilised by military units, identified by their unique Unit Identification Number (UIN), that are deployable and therefore will have a base address and a deployed or non-standard location/address. Optionally the DEX allows for the identification of the person placing the demand, as well as the military (or civilian support) Unit.

In order to keep track of resource usage, there are a number of ways of determining what the reason is for the demand being placed, including necessary cross-references to reports of faults, failures or defects, and links are also included to the related item that is being replaced and returned, where appropriate.

Whilst, ideally, the information about a required item would be available and comprehensive, in reality this information is not always readily to hand and demands often have to be placed for items using various, looser descriptions. The DEX allows for this and also identifies the Demanding Unit's Point of Contact to enable discussions over demand related queries.

For some demanded items, that could for example be categorised as 'Permanent' or 'Valuable and Attractive' or that have specific storage requirements, there is a need to know who the custodian will be and where the delivered stock will be held; the DEX allows for this information to be exchanged.

The DEX also enables the association of documents both to the demand and to the item being demanded, in order that reports, certification, etc can be managed.