IT and Streamlining of Supply Chain Management Processes
In the present day business scenario, IT contributes greatly in the execution of any business organizations daily operations. The IT provides streamlined data flow about different processes which makes the organizations supply chain of the more effective and robust without undermining its proficiency. Researches in the recent years shown that, most organizations are progressively applying information technology practically in their SCM to perform better and gain competitive advantage in their operating market (Wu, Chuang and Hsu 2017). In addition to that recent, developments in both information management, technology have empowered several industries to use IT in, sharing, acquiring effective utilization of business data with the different stakeholders.
Supply chain management is a part of system of interconnected business included in a definitive arrangement of item and administration bundles required by end clients. Supply chain administration comprises of stream of merchandise, data and assets. Principle target of SCM is to improve store network benefit and IT accomplishes a similar thing (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar 2014). IT assumes a critical part in production network choice stage which can be sorted as plan, arranging, or operational relying on the time period amid which choice made apply.
The developing technology advances are making opportunities for the business organizations to have advantage in different functional areas of business administration including SCM (Supply chain management) and logistics of products. The extent or degree of benefit relies upon the proper selection of technology for the specific operations, availability and accessibility to an efficient organizational structure, administration and culture approaches (de Camargo Fiorini and Jabbour 2017). In supply chain management data, automation and communication technologies has considerably expanded speed of identification of the products, information gathering, transmission and analysis of the collected data with great level of precision and dependability. Innovation is considered as a way to improve the quality of business operations and business competitiveness. If used properly the information technology can have a noteworthy part in achievement of goals in supply chain management by improving the effectiveness of the supply chain framework.
Business organizations that wishes to get competitive advantage in the market by decreasing the time for request to delivery cycle uses the different information technology components in their supply chain management process. Since SCM covers all procedures required in production and delivery of the products to the customer, it offers the chance to distinguish bottlenecks that causes obstacles in the total supply chain (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar 2014).
Benefiting from IT for Competitive Advantage
As customer are considered are considered as the most important factor in the market, thus the inter-organizational linkage turns out to be critical to meet the demands of the customers. Usually customers asks for great quality of service, for lesser cost with accessible mass communication. This can be accomplished by the business organization if there is dedicated chain of product suppliers, wholesalers, retailers and merchants in the complete supply chain. The use of the information technology, organizations are contending at worldwide level not only a locale or nation level to meet the customer requirements and acquire a larger market share.
Latest information technology with faster communication through the internet connects each stakeholder in the supply chain from start to end direct in worldwide market ease the participation and joining of business organization to build effective and efficient supply chain (Wu, Chuang and Hsu 2017). This drove them to make the most of their competitive advantage according to their part in the market to fulfill the demands of the customers. The limited cost and prepared accessibility of data assets permit simple linkages and lessen time delays in the supply chain.
The use of the information technology (such as inventory management system, transport management system) permits customers as well as suppliers to exchange business data among them, buy products also, benefits, and complete financial transactions easily (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar 2014). In addition, as of late reassuring the Supplier Diversity Value guarantees that various providers remain a basic piece of the broadcast communications industry inventory network and Improves access to capital for differing qualities suppliers to the organization.
At the initial stage the employees had restricted access to the information provided among them. As innovation propelled, information storage has turn out to be more common inside the business organizations.
Business organization that are linked together using the information technology supports innovation in the supply chain, easily manages the customer relations, improves the production of the products (de Camargo Fiorini and Jabbour 2017). In larger business organization, these innovations stacks turn out to be to a great degree complex. Organizations that adequately engineer and manage innovation may appreciate a noteworthy competitive advantage that helps in developing innovation abilities and efficiencies.
With the use of the network of work stations, general employees can now get to data and information systems with just one click that was considered impractical ten years prior, the following sections demonstrates the effect of use of innovation or technology in SCM on the two fundamental aspects:
Supply Chain Management in the Telecom Industry
Economic Impact on the business organizations: By proper utilization of the available data and information systems, the business organizations can effectively save material and required resources, and additionally time required to complete different tasks or operations of SCM in a manual way (Wu, Chuang and Hsu 2017). In addition to that the, regulatory and administrative operations performing with less amount of effort, making it less tedious through the presentation of suitable information required to complete those operations.
Organizational Change: It is observed by the researchers that the accompanying following factors are considered by the business organizations when implementing an information system in managing the Supply chain are:
- The environment in which the business organization operates.
- The structure of the organization.
- The way information is managed in the organization.
- Other stakeholders that are influenced by the decision of the organization (such as its business partners and employees indulge in the supply chain management process)
Some of the most common technologies used by the different organizations in different industries are discussed below.
EDI: EDI or Electronic Data Interchange technology is broadly utilized by business organizations in order to improve the efficiency of supply chains to easily complete the business information exchange and other related transactions (de Camargo Fiorini and Jabbour 2017). EDI is helpful in interchange of information between different information systems for pre-programmed processing of the acquired or received data. EDI is utilized by the different business partner of any organization to exchange typical business data which is essential to effectively complete the business operations. These auxiliary connections are normally developed between the business organizations that have a long term business relationship.
For instance, retailers send the EPOS (electronic point of sale) information specifically to the product suppliers, which thus triggers renewal of the order or shipment for the product sold out by them (Wu, Chuang and Hsu 2017). In this manner, the result of this kind of data exchange link with the suppliers will have the capacity to construct a verifiable sales pattern that will help in their own demand forecasting processes. As there is no requirement for employees to examine the data physically, EDI has many advantages, like, it is capable of providing real time sales data about at the clients end and also with high degree of precession which helps in improving the productivity of the supply chain (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). Additionally, it is used for sending invoices for the products shipped, affirmation of dispatch of the products, details of shipping of the products and any data that the connected organization agreed mutually to share among them.
Transportation management system: Transportation Management Systems is helpful in making the supply chain much more effective and give greater perceivability into customer orders and product shipment. The shipment scheduling issues are likewise can be solved by this system. Numerous transportation choices can be investigated as a result of prior visibility of the total supply chain. In this way the timely communication about the shipments and status reports can be likewise acquired in the prior stages of the supply chain (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). By having control on its supply chain, business organizations are able to make effective decisions that helps in increasing the productivity of the total supply chain.
Different Technologies Used in SCM
ERP: ERP or the enterprise resources planning systems are far reaching Information Systems utilized for the automation of the operations and procedures in a business organization. These are transaction based information systems that are incorporated over the entire business organization and different business processes (de Camargo Fiorini and Jabbour 2017). Fundamentally, they take into consideration information gathering for the entire business into application package which makes it a single source for the all the required business data by the different departments of an organization, for example management of customer orders for the products, inventory management and management of other financial operations.
There are several vendors that provides ERP solution packages like SAP, Peoples Soft and Baan which acts as the backbone of the organizations total IT framework (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). ERP packages are used as an organization/enterprise wide tool that helps in the gathering and processing of information and consequently decreases the manual operations and tasks related to the handling of the inventory, financial and data with respect to client product orders (Wu, Chuang and Hsu 2017). The ERP systems can be integrated with the existing information system that helps in developing a shared data model and sets some strict rules for accessing the data by the employees and officials of the organization.
In any business organizations the managers responsible for handling of the supply chain progressively tend to automate the total supply chain management system, from demand for casting to the distribution of the products, and to connect each component in the chain.
An ever increasing number of organizations need an incorporated answer for empower them to see the whole supply chain without a moment’s delay (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). For instance, they need to realize that on the off chance that they bore down to gauge, they can see the request history, which is a mix of information which have originated from deals arrange handling, stock administration and the warehousing framework (de Camargo Fiorini and Jabbour 2017). According to that the capacity to diminish human intercession yet regulate minutely the stream of parts and items along the whole length of the store network can help drastically in cutting coordination costs and boosting consumer loyalty.
It is found that one of the most significant feature of today’s business world is constant change in internal and external condition of associations. In such a condition, the achievement of the business depends more on getting data and utilizing it in accordance with the points of business than on variables like capital and work compel (Wu, Chuang and Hsu 2017). In this specific situation, the fundamental elements which involve the utilization of IT, which makes huge commitments to organizations to manage expanding worldwide rivalry, by organizations are mechanical, monetary, political, social and natural calculates and change business administration .
IT is a usage which significance is progressively getting to be noticeably essential in the accumulation, parade, safeguarding and transmission of information (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). In this manner, IT is likewise a compelling means for organizations as it offers organizations better approaches to perform superior to their opponents and increase competitive advantage.
One of the most imperative benefits of utilization of IT in the around there is the production network arranging and improvement devices that empower perceivability, finding advanced answers for complex arranging issues and incorporating entire esteem chain. The perceivability and synchronization of the data, for example, request and stock, organizations reach on time and successful buying, creation, deals and conveyance arranges (de Camargo Fiorini and Jabbour 2017). Another supporting application is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) that empowers continuous information compatibility between all gatherings in the inventory network.
A provider entryway with the data on value, arrange, quality, and stock pointer is an illustration how store network execution can be enhanced by utilizing web applications. With EVD, organizations roll out improvements in at least one than one level can coordinate data frameworks with the exercises of their organizations. With IT based frameworks, organizations can persistently screen their stock levels and stock needs can be consequently exchanged to the provider with EVD framework. Such an application diminishes wellbeing stock for the items obtained and abbreviates flow period. Additionally, with coordination between production network individuals, on-time generation applications can be figured it out (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). EVD makes it conceivable to screen arranges on the PC and to accomplish on-time conveyance. Other than the applications said over some other IT devices like Product Data Management (PDM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Planning System, Provider Relationship and Warehouse Management System, Geographic Informatics, and so on bolster organizations for a superior inventory network execution.
Conclusion
From the above discussions it is affirmed that the significance of IT and quality of data complements to each other in light of the fact that manual filtering of the huge amount of business data. Even though the automated processing of data processing counteracts manual oversights, it additionally makes the procedure less transparent and in this way, wrong data or data of low esteem may be created if the data is not of certain quality and not legitimately checked and verified. A distinction can be seen between the volume of data and richness of the data (measuring the quality of the data). The sharing of data in orderly manner includes more activity and responsibilities support to upgrade the quality of any organization which is helpful in the light of the supply chain. This paper talks about the part of IT as an empowering agent in Supply Chain Management and furthermore highlights the immense advantages to organizations with a thorough IT strategy.
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