This article relates to supply chain management mentioned in chapter 9. A key feature to remaining competitive is to adopt a fully automated supply chain in a business in order to make the relevant data available to suppliers, consumers, and distributors. This is, however, a difficult step to take, largely due to the fact that it is expensive to implement and there is no consensus among suppliers in pursuing such a task.
CIOs believe that being able to link business information to the customer is worthwhile, but it is a difficult task. Customers usually enjoy the convenience of being able to check upon the delivery status of the online products they have ordered, but this can only be achieved with the full cooperation of all the links along the supply chain, big and small. This full supply chain connectivity, however, is impossible to achieve because the small links on the supply chain are not interested in the extraneous expenditure of implementing new IT systems, training for those systems, and business plan changes that would result from such changes. Larger companies have no problem investing in such technologies, but small companies simply are not willing to invest what little they have for electronic data interchange (EDI) or web-based transaction links. Some people believe that large companies must do their share in providing the resources or whatever else they can to help out the smaller companies to make this connectivity work. As an example, being able to set up an EDI system in a small office would require a translator to convert data between the different systems used in the companies. Therefore, it would be very difficult for customers to be able to view data from the small mom-and-pop stores because there is no connectivity between the different information systems used in the companies along the supply chain. Even if all companies desired to implement this system, it would be impossible simply due to the heterogeneity of the information systems.
Despite these problems, however, both the CIO of Sport Chalet and the information systems application manager at West Marine plan on using a supply chain integration service to make it easier to provide connections between the small and large companies along their supply chain. I think this is a great idea, especially since I like to track my packages too and half the time the information is not available, so it would be a greater convenience for me to know where my package is, especially in the event that the package gets lost. I can see how this integration would be difficult, though, particularly since small companies cannot afford to participate. Large companies want to satisfy their customers, but if small companies start taking advantage of their help, a lot of problems can ensue too.
Reference:
Songini, Marc L. (2001). Fully Automated Supply Chains Hard to Pull Off. Retrieved
May 8, 2009 from PC World.
Website: http://www.pcworld.com/article/40862 /fully_automated_supply_chains_hard_to_pull_off.html
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This is a really hard problem to solve. You’re right, small companies just can’t afford the software which really makes it difficult on the larger companies who have the means to use this technology if the two are connected. I think that there should be a smaller scale process or software put in place that will maybe do the bare minimum in tracking and does not require massive amounts of training. This way, smaller companies can still stay in the game at an affordable rate.
ReplyDeleteAs we've learned in previous chapters, implementing new technology is hard and it requires a lot of changes. Big companies see the benefit of having a fully automated supply chain system because they have the resources to deal with problems if it should arise. In addition, they can benefit from the economy scale when the system is in place. On the other hand, small companies have smaller customer base, therefore, they will not benefit much from the economy of scale.
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