Supply chain information technology

Figure 6.2 Gap in Supply Chain Information Technology Systems...

This section describes the wide and fragmented supply chain information landscape. This is also a landscape with blurry boundaries between categories of applications. Hardly a week passes that one does not hear about a new acronym or revolutionary tool in the domain of supply chain systems. Unless one closely follows the technology, one can be excused for being confused. 

Robb, Drew, The virtual enterprise how companies use technology to stay in control of a virtual supply chain, Information Strategy The Executive s Journal, Summer 2003, pp- 6-11. 

Ftmctional requirements for supply chain information systems depend upon a particular supply chain configuratiOTi problem (some of the common functional requirements are identified throughout the book). These requirements, almig with earlier defined key requirements, determine the design of the supply chain information system. Several conunon features of such a design can be identified. Information technology solutirms are made up by pairing hardware, communications, and software. Typical characteristics of such solutions in the supply chain environment include ... 

Fig. 4. The technology supply chain, faciUtating the flow of information and allocation of resources. This is a necessary tool, but not sufficient in itself in...

The data held within marketing and supply applications are key inputs into the efficiency of the supply chain and provide the vital link that connects Information Technology to the physical world of raw materials, intermediate stock, finished inventory, business processes, and people. What is done with that data — how data are collected, processed, communicated, stored, or otherwise manipulated, determines their true value to any organization as Information Technology takes its place as an enabler for efficient enterprise coordination. 

The focus here is on production, processing and distribution within the supply chain, with major emphasis on improving information, education, technology development, research and extension for organic farming and its process chain. 

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