Why Is Investing A Supply Chain Management? Essay

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

Making investment into IT requires precise valuation of the available resources and consideration of the potential risk associated with the success or failure of that specific project. IT involves both machines (which can be both hardware and software) and manpower in order to run those machines. In order to operate and implement the IT strategies the organization requires highly skilled

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.

Information Technology (IT) is a foundation for conducting business today. It plays a critical role in increasing productivity of firms and entire nation. It is proven that firms who invested in IT have experienced continued growth in productivity and efficiency. Many companies' survival and even existence without use of IT is unimaginable. IT has become the largest component of capital investment for companies in the United States and many other countries.

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)

The complexity of the reverse supply chain can be both difficult and challenging all at the same time. By implementing the most innovative and sophisticated software in an organization can exceed the old practices and replace those with the best. In doing so, not only will the sustainability improve the organizational practices in efforts to reach benchmarks but also harvest strong ties within the global economy will as well. Over the past decade the technological boom has taken the world by storm. In all new emerging markets there is a demand for the latest and greats IT innovation that are available. “the potential impact, be it positive or negative, of information technology on the effective management of the logistics function. This is achieved by defining the concepts of logistics, management, information and technology to create a base of understanding” (Introna, 1991). However, in the world of Supply Chain Management some companies have been left behind due to the lack of IT infrastructure. By falling behind this has cause a break in communication within both the forward and reverse flow of supply chains. This is an underlying issue that has caused many consumers and buyers alike to discontinue working with companies for multiple reasons ranging from lack of accountability as well as social issues including the recovery and disposal of products, goods, and materials alike.

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 (SCM) is a systematic integration of suppliers, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), distributors and customers in order to produce and distribute the right quantities, to the right time, and at the cheaper cost, while satisfying the entire supply chain partners (Balsubramanium & Roosebelt). In simple words, it is a process of moving goods from manufacturers to a consumer. Today successful companies, uses softwares or web based application service provider (ASPs) to provide them a better supply chain solutions. Technology has been the life and blood in all the fields since many years but in supply chain, it is playing an extraordinary role. Not only by cutting the cost, enhancing

Ever since our emergence into the twentieth century the public has become very conscious about our effect on the environment and how companies manage their environmental foot-print. It’s because of this push from consumers about making products sustainable and he companies have had to implement their sustainable and green supply chain management (GSCM). These GSCM’s are designed to take on old supply chain management systems by reducing the environmental costs of the supply chain. However there is no one industry normal way of doing this and there are many different reasoning’s as to why a company would want to have a GSCM system. In the literature review many articles focused on GSCM will be examined to further understand were agreement son GSCM and misconceptions are. It will help show how GSCM can be implemented and what ways have been working for different organisation with examples. After reviewing the different industry ideas on GSCM recommendations will be made for future implementation

In order to answer the question of what is supply chain management we must know what a supply chain is. According to (Mentzer et al., 2001, p. 1) “Supply chain is defined as the network of organisations which are involved in different processes that produce value either in the form of products or services delivered to consumers”. A supply chain is made up of suppliers, manufactures and distributors, a good way of looking at this is the supply chain pipeline. A supply chain is seen as an enabler, this is why people are seeing this increased importance for it and realize it is the weapon of the future. A supply chain starts at the upstream stage, which is usually the sourcing of raw materials then downstream to the disposal stage (Berk, 2005)

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 quality of information is directly related to the quality of the information technology department efficiency and its ability to process information intelligently, efficiently and speedily.

Decisions on investments in IT are controversial and crucial in an organization. For it to be successful, an organization needs to align its IT vision with its corporate strategy, should consider the skills of the personnel, ensure that there are no communication gaps, have an appropriate leadership structure with proper accountability delegation.

Businesses must invest in IT for numerous reasons; three of those reasons are to achieve operational excellence, gain competitive advantage and for the company’s survival. Information technology has completely changed the world and for businesses to thrive and to gain and sustain competitive advantage, investments in IT must be made.

Through this paper we have traced the path of evolution of IT from its nascent stages, globally as well as from the Indian perspective. We have tried to take into account the tremendous growth of the IT sector in India and single out the advantages faced by the Indian IT sector. We have also looked into the performance of the Indian IT industry and its