Designing An Architecture For Agent Oriented Supply Chain Management

Success for many organizations depends on the firm’s ability to balance product and process changes while exceeding customer expectations for improved cost delivery and quality. In lieu of these issues firms have started to implement principles of supply chain management. Supply chain management mainly involves managing the flow of incoming materials, manufacturing operations, and downstream distribution has to be in alignment that is responsive to change in customer demands eliminating a surplus of inventory.

Supply chain management is a practice that involves the planning, supervision, and implementation of strategies and controls to direct the movement of goods and services provided to customers. The intent of this essay is to incorporate a synopsis of existing literature and to provide the reader with a general understanding of how supply chain management correlates with the organizational design and structure of modern firms. The essay comprehensively reviews the components of supply chain management and their integration with functional areas within an organization. The information presented in this essay

A Supply Chain (SC) is an integrated process where involves various parties who are directly or indirectly working together to fulfil a customer’s demand. These parties can be manufacturers, suppliers, transporters, warehouses, distributers, retailers and end consumers. The functions of the SC cover a variety of areas, such as R&D, information flow, marketing, finance, distribution, operation, and customer services.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) aims at integrating all corporate activities to improve relationships at all levels (internal operations, supplier networks, and distribution channel) to meet the competitive edge and satisfy the customer. In order to build an effective and complete business process that supports SCM, information among all business partners need to be shared. Information sharing through the Internet reduces the gap for business-to-business (B2B) commerce by enabling seamless integration with enterprise processes among partner corporations.

Supply chain management (SCM) is the efficient management of the flows of material, data, and money in the supply chain. SCM software concentrates on improving decision making, forecasting, optimization, and analysis. The benefits of SCM have long been recognized in business, government, and the military. In today’s competitive business environment, efficient, effective supply chains are critical to survival and fully dependent on SCM software, which depends on up-to-date and accurate data. If the network goes down or data are outdated, those managing the supply chain are mostly working

Based upon his ten years research on supply chain issues in diverse industries such as food, fashion, apparel and automobiles he devises a framework which will help

As businesses expand they often come to a point where they see the need to work with outside firms. After careful analysis they tend to identify associates that share common business philosophies and mutual goals. Most companies join together to achieve efficiency, increase quality, advance cycle times, improve lead times, and increase financial proceeds that could not have been independently obtained. According to Poirier, Quinn, & Swink (2008) collaboration is vital to the success of a supply chain (p. 13). The partnership is important between different areas in the supply chain, but also suppliers and customers. Through collaboration information is exchanged to include resources, and provisions of detailed roles. Poirier, Quinn, &

The current management of information systems, product development, and product sourcing methodologies has led to lower results than expected. It is necessary for the company to apply new supply chain management systems to build an efficient and competitive product and service infrastructure, net value, synchronize the supply of goods and to be able to measure the company’s performance.

on Simchi-Levi et al (2002), Designing and managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies and Case Studies

The challenges that organizations face in supply chain integration is the ability to successfully coordinate activities across the supply chain so that they can improve performance in the areas of increase service level, reduce cost, better utilize resources, reduce bullwhip effect, and effectively respond to changes in the marketplace. According to Levi (2008),

A supply chain can be termed as a network of organizations that collaborate to share information and materials. Supply chain management is a way by which the companies can gain competitive advantage over their competitors by reducing their cost and lead time and at the same time increasing their efficiency by differentiating the processes and the links between the suppliers and the buyers (Klassen & Why bark, 1994). For doing so, using IT based systems is the need of the hour. With the ever growing demand and expectations from the customers along with dynamically changing market, the companies are turning to the successful deployment of IT to re-engineer their supply chain, so as to sustain and grow their business. (Poter, 1986). This is a great opportunity to incorporate IT into supply chain due to the increasing development in IT and communication that leads to integration of system architecture and Information technology (Balan, Vrat, & Kumar, Assessing the challenges and opportunities of global supply chain management, 2006). Moreover optimal information sharing using IT based systems has reduced the need for sharing of information within the organization (Balan, Vrat, & Kumar, Information distortion in a supply chain and its mitigation by using Soft Computing Approach, 2009). The recent advances have also made it possible for the companies to be flexible and be able to respond quickly to the changing demands and conditions of the market. (Lee, So, & Tang, 2000)

The length of the supply chains for several US companies is being increased by the current global competition and outsourcing. This makes it vital for these industries to utilize a systems approach to consider the big picture in their decision-making. Applying a systems approach is important in enhancing supply chain agility. This is because integrating the systems approach in supply provides a unit set of common and reliable data across an organization’s chain of production and supply. This approach will also allow for a secure multitier visibility to enhance

Supply chains has been relevantly defined as a “system of organizations which are convoluted through upstream and downstream linkages, in the diverse methodologies and activities that create benefit in the form of services and products in the hands of a definitive consumer”, and is therefore the sum total of efforts in integrating a network of firms and coordination as regards information, material and financial flows. Interestingly, the two main supply chain objectives have moved, from decreasing operating expenses and general inventory levels, to the concerns of how to enhance the customer service and the momentum of product delivery to the business sectors.

The supply chain indicates the supply and demand network made up of the raw materials suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and the ultimate consumers (ARNDT, 2004). The supply chain management is the vital concept in the modern management. In the supply chain management, the supply chain integration is just an important management model. The supply chain integration just realizes higher value and competitive advantages of the whole supply chain through coordinating the businesses process and cooperating within the organization and among the different organizations (LEE, 2000). It does not only facilitate the coordination of the business processes in the supply chain, but

Supply Chain Management(SCM) is defined as a set of approached utilized to efficiently integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses and stores, so that merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities to the right locations and at the time in order to minimize system wide costs while satisfying service level requirement.(Simichi-levi et al., 2008). Increasingly organisations are taking advantage of modern communications and transportation technologies in order to increase their