Supply chain applications

The Council of Logistics Management (CLM), in conjunction with Andersen Consulting, maintains an inventory of supply chain applications. Its list of software in a CD format describes over 1200 application packages. To find the right fit for his or her business, fhe user can select from the many categories shown in Table 21.1. 

Typically, any listed package will include several of the functions shown in Table 21.1. Indeed, some packages claim to have them all. Herein lies a problem. Users have to decide which features are most important to their businesses. They then have to decide how well each candidate package supports 

We ve indicated that understanding the benefits and risks of technology is a challenge for many. One would hope that system marketers would be helpful in this regard. Unfortunately, so-called solution providers seldom emphasize clarity in their communications. Table 21.2 contains examples of sales-related press releases, brochures, and information articles from software companies and systems consultants. 

Readers might be excused if they concluded that this industry tends toward hyperbole. These companies have a large investment in product development, and each sale increases the return on that investment. So claims are often extraordinary. Descriptions of the results are vaguely worded superlatives replete witir fuzzy multisyllable terms such as transformation or integration.  

However, there is no doubt that systems solve real problems. The claims made by Company A in Table 21.2 are very similar to those made for TQM and JIT just a few years ago. In fact, the changes needed to achieve the benefits probably require both the software and nonsoftware disciplines to gain the most from the system. Often, the preparation for the system is as important as the system itself. Cleaning up the data is a necessary prerequisite to successful system use. Company B reflects a trend among many software suppliers — that of combining forces to offer a new product from two or 

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Glidden, R., Bockorick, C., etal. (2004), Design of ultra-low-cost UHF RFID tags for supply chain applications, IEEE Commun. Mag. 42(8), 140-151. 

It is also common to find several different supply chain applications residing on the same host machine. This may impose additional complexity for the overall site validation activity should some of these have a regulatory impact and others not. Where an operating system is shared, this could result in non-GxP-critical applications operating with additional controls in order not to compromise the activities of the GxP-critical application. 

The decommissioning of any supply chain application is an important regulatory process that often receives less attention than the commissioning of new applications. Decommissioning should be planned well in advance of the deployment of the new solution, and the plan should include a full... 

Online auctions for business are an extension of supply chain applications of the Internet, by which firms seek parts and supplies from a large pool of potential business partners. The real-time interaction in these auctions differs significantly from contract-based supply relationships, which may be stable but often inefficient in terms of costs. A more flexible and responsive supply chain relationship is required as the manufacturing process itself becomes more flexible to meet changing demands in real time. Especially for digital products, the business relationship between suppliers and producers may be defined by the requirement for immediate delivery of needed components. 

Angeles, R., 2005. Rfld technologies Supply-chain applications and implementation issues. Information Systems Management 22 l), 51-65. 

Greater availability of data. Ninety percent of the world s data has been created in the past two years and 80 percent of it is unstmctnred. Supply chain applications have not been built to harness the power of unstructnred data. Over time, it will increase in variability, velocity, and variety. The past practices for master data management will become obsolete. 

Big data supply chains and their impact on business will redefine supply chain applications, ft vdll enable sensing and predictive analytics that were previously only dreamed of by the early supply chain pioneers, ft will make traditional supply chain technologies obsolete, or legacy, applications. 

FIGURE 16.2 Balanced scorecard example supply chain application. 

Understand technical challenges for extracting data from legacy systems. ERP system data to support forecasting is a good example of a supply chain application. 

These and other questions are natural. A trap is trying to correct basic process flaws with complex software. The consequences of the confusion can be seen in the implementation of one popular application — Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It is certainly a supply chain application, located in Figure 25.1 at the interface between the company and its customers. 

The approaches listed above have value for both individual company and supply chain applications. Two other techniques have particular value in improving SCM practice during product design (1) discovery-driven planning and (2) the employment of stages and gates to manage product introduction. Both tools have natural extensions to supply chain formulation as the product is developed. 

This chapter provides a practical guide to selecting software for supply-chain applications. For many, this can be a difficult process due to the number of available solutions and the numerous and confusing claims made by software vendors. 

In SITELINK, each process step must be considered. In a retail chain supply chain application, this should include sourcing, warehousing, and transportation operations. Note that the documentation is for direct requirements. Indirect requirements were nonprocess costs. Examples are the logistics management and other building-related costs. These are resources that are not directly involved with the process. The indirect requirements matrix contained relationships between the direct and the indirect resources. 

Best of breed This term refers to a specialized supply chain application such as demand management or a warehouse management application. These are stand-alone and compete with similar functions that are part of integrated enterprise-level applications such as those from JD Edwards, SAP, or Oracle. 

Web services Supply chain applications delivered over the Internet. These reduce the cost and complexity of forming links between supply chain partners and customers for products in the chain. They use shared standards to speed the job of developing links. (Adapted from The Strategic Value of Web Services from the McKinsey Quarterly and Business Processes and Web Services by Alan Kotok)... 

Further evolution of supply chain management information systems strongly depends upon the success of the service-oriented architecture, which becomes more influential as more vendors provide functionality of their enterprise and supply chain applications as services. 

Angles R (2005) RFID technologies supply-chain applications and implementation issues. Inform Syst Manag 22 51-65... 

Balanced scorecard example — supply chain application. 

These approaches have great value for both individual company and supply chain application. They are also covered well in other books on product development. We have selected two approaches for further discussion. We believe they will find particular value in improving SCM practice. 

Chapters 22 and 23 described supply chain applications and the work of the Supply-Chain Council in promoting supply chain information integration. Here, we point to ways to use the capabilities of these systems to reduce supply chain cost and cycle times. James Morehouse points out that, for many, the tools are already available. How to use them "to extend the enterprise" is the challenge. 

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