4. Real-time stock control

Some organisations have such a time-critical 'supply chain' that an almost minute-by-minute tracking of stock is needed.

A supply chain is one where each business depends on a supplier 'downstream', who then depends on yet another supplier and so on - to form a 'supply chain'.

A supermarket uses real time stock control. As soon as an item is sold at the EPOS till, that record is sent to the database stock control system to reduce that stock level by one item.

As soon as the stock level falls below a set level, an automatic order is sent to the supplier. It is all computer driven with no humans needed unless a problem occurs.

They need a real-time system because the sheer volume of sales make it vital that delivery times are as short as possible.

Supermarket shelves start to become empty if even a few hours are lost. You may have seen this happen as soon as snow begins to block the roads, preventing deliveries.