Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) and Supply Chain Management (Scm) -Application in Retail Industry Supply Chain (Marks and Spencer)

Supply chains must be managed to coordinate the inputs with the outputs in a firm to achieve the appropriate competitive priorities of the firm’s enterprise processes. The Internet offers firms an alternative to traditional methods for managing supply chains. A supply chain strategy is essential

Effective supply chain management can provide an important competitive advantage for a business marketer, resulting in improved communication and involvement among members of the chain, increased motivation, and decreased costs. Tracking the movement of and demand for components used to manufacture a product across a variety of potential and actual suppliers, provides insight and the ability to respond instantly to shortages, surpluses, and changes in market conditions. It seeks to optimize production, decrease manufacturing time, minimize inventory, streamline order fulfillment, and reduce cost.

Electronic business (e-business), the use of Internet-based computing and communications to execute both front-end and back-end business processes – has emerge as a key enabler to drive supply chain integration. As an overarching business concept, e-business has received increasing attention from academics and practitioners alike. E-business solutions in general are seeking to enhance supply chain effectiveness and efficiency through the automation of business processes. The adoption of e-business can result in benefits such as higher transparency, reduced transaction, manufacturing and other cost, reduced

The impact of globalization is increasing every day and companies are becoming more associated both in and out with other organizations. The turnaround time in any business for any event should be as minimum as possible. Enterprise systems add value to the organization by increasing both the operational efficiency and the throughput of the company. Today, supply chain management (SCM) is eventually becoming a core competency wherein the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is supposedly an integral part of supply chain management (SCM).

While researching on line I came across an article that described the affect that the Internet is having on supply chains today. “E-enabled supply chain management is fast emerging as a core strategy that organizations worldwide are adopting for sustainable business advantage”. (4)

Enterprise systems can be helpful to solve diverse business problems and optimize numerous processes in commercial organizations. Though the CIO is interested in different types of these systems being used, particular emphasis is placed on Supply Chain Management (SCM), which can be defined as “the management of information flows between and among activities in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and corporate profitability” (Baltzan, 2014). In order to profoundly evaluate the impact that these systems can have on different types of organizations, the paper will analyze two case studies, whose objective was to “promote further understanding of this process of adoption and integration of supply chain management

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)

Supply chain management has emerged as an important aspect in the modern business environment in light of the challenges businesses face because of rapidly changing customer expectations, inefficient product development processes, and increased cost of operations and human resources. This concept is increasingly considered as a new means of managing businesses and increasing performance and profitability. However, business enterprises must consider various aspects related to supply chain management during its implementation to gain performance and increase profitability. These elements include supply chain strategies and policies, suitable infrastructures or technologies, and logistics function.

Today global retailers are managing thousands of vendors and potential millions of individual customer across the world through efficient supply chain network. With worldwide sourcing, diverse merchandise and varied selling formats, supply chain is becoming complex every day. Retailers are wishing to take position in fast moving hugely competitive market must find the right supply chain solutions that will able them to deliver their products to customer at right place and a right time. Retailers always aim for broader product variety , best profitable selling price and lower cost (Hubner and Kuhn, 2012) and are growing vertically by encompassing more logistical functions (Fernie et al., 2010). In this volatile economic environment, retail industries are experiencing with some supply chain issues such as complexity in supply chain network, less practice of effective CSR, waste management, technology upturns and sustainable supply issue etc. These issues are being considering solemnly in order to bring more efficiency in supply chain. Because of inability to get the right products to right place at right time, retailers still losing big amount of revenue though they heavy invested on IT.( e.g. Friend and Walker, 2001; Gruen et al., 2002)

            The term supply chain management (SCM) was initially used in wholesaling and retailing to denote the integration of logistics and physical distribution functions with the goal of reducing delivery lead times. Manufacturers and service providers have used the same term to describe integration and partnership efforts with first- and second- tier suppliers to reduce cost and improve quality and delivery timing. Terms such as integrated purchasing strategy, integrated logistics, supplier integration, value chain management, supply base management, strategic supplier alliances, lean production, Just-In-Time (JIT) logistics, and supply chain synchronization have been used in the literature to

In recent years, the impact of E-Commerce (EC) on supply chain (SC) has caught considerable attention. Many companies in the supply chain engage themselves in the field of EC to pursue benefits.

E-business also allows a supply chain to be more collaborative by sharing information such as forecasting and inventory planning. In this essay I will be talking about how this all works together.

The lack of technology in traditional systems does not provide very much coordination with the supply chain. As a result there is possible delay in delivery of products and services from the supplier to the customer. Additionally the unavailability or delayed delivery of customer information takes away from adding value to customers and may in turn decrease profitability and performance. “Advances in information technology have radically changed access to information and in turn the business landscape, so much so, that the current business era is frequently referred to as the information age.” (Jiambalvo 2007, p. 14). As technology continues to advanced companies are realizing that in order to keep up the pace in a competitive global market there is a need for change in the way they conduct business regarding suppliers and customers. Companies are moving towards systems such as Supply Chain Management and Customer Relationship Management Systems that are more efficient in processing information and fuel improved operation of the value chain and interactions with suppliers and

Supply chain management is currently an important aspect in Management Information System. So much technology and brainpower have been used to improve the performance. In this decade electronic data interchange has made the process flexible, automatic warehousing and rapid logistics. Every organizations are trying to make their supply chain management more accurate using quick response, efficient customer response, mass customization, lean and agile manufacturing. (Fisher, 1997)

The case examines the supply chain management practices at Wal-Mart, the leading retailer in the world. The case explains in detail how Wal-Mart managed various components of the supply chain including procurement, distribution, logistics and inventory management. It covers how the use of innovative IT tools has helped the company in improving the efficiency of supply chain. The case concludes with a discussion on the benefits reaped by Wal-Mart due to its efficient and effective supply chain management system.