Government-defined standards alleviate any confusion as to these roles and most importantly, define a common basis for completing all transactions necessary to manage a supply chain efficiently. The greatest need in supply chains is to have clarity of roles, responsibilities and the analytics and metrics used to manage them over time (Li, Su, Chen, 2011)
2011). Nascent efforts to resolve this issue have been taken on by industry standards organization RosettaNet (Thibodeau, 2002), yet this organization's focus has only been on the high technology industry
For Lowe's, supply chain integration is essential to the successful operation of their business model, which includes home decorating products, maintenance and repair products and supplies and an extensive supply chain that provides the foundation for the company to grow its market share in the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) consumer market segment. Lowe's has found that integrating their supply chain management and execution systems across the many geographies they source from, in conjunction with integrating to the centralized ERP system, is essential to attain economies of scale (Holley, 2002)
(NYSE: LOW) is headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina and currently employs approximately 262,000 people as of January 31, 2014, making it one of the largest home improvement retailers in North America (Lowe's Investor Relations, 2014). The company is renowned for its enterprise IT expertise, including integration of a large-scale SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system throughout its globally-based supply chain (Songini, 2002)
¶ … supply chain integration important to organizations? Proper supply chain integration allows organizations to save both time and money. A "totally integrated supply chain enables an end-user to more efficiently and cost-effectively manage manufacturing, inventory, and transaction costs" through streamlining (Sims 2013)
"Wal-Mart embraced technology to become an innovator in the way stores track inventory and restock their shelves, cutting costs and passing the savings along to customers. In the process the company became synonymous with the concept of successful supply chain management" (Traub 2012)
But just as important are information flows. Information flows allow the various supply chain partners to coordinate their long-term plans, and to control the day-to-day flow of goods and material up and down the supply chain" (Handfield 2011)
The CCBCC is successfully doing this today through the combination of core components of their CPFR strategy, implemented through a series of enterprise software applications and major shifts in processes and programs internally. The result continues to an acceleration of the company's performance based on the core foundation of the CPFR Model (Barratt, Oliveira, 2001)
Joint business plans ensure the company has the ability to effectively plan for spikes in demand more effectively than traditional, and less flexible means allow for. The collaborative planning phase of the CPFR Model is essential for ensuring a high degree of logistics coordination and collaboration has been achieved (Bonet, 2005)
In conjunction with these accomplishments, the CCBCC has also successfully developed a Demand Driven Supply Network (DDSN) that is capable of responding to unique order requirements in a fraction of the time possible with more traditionally designed systems and workflows. A DDSN is capable of working in conjunction with CPFR systems to further accelerate order accuracy, profitability and on-time, or perfect order performance (Crampton-Thomas, 2006)
The collaborative planning phase of the CPFR Model is essential for ensuring a high degree of logistics coordination and collaboration has been achieved (Bonet, 2005). The collaborative forecasting process including sales forecasting, exception management and resolving expectations, all essential for making a strategic commitment to CPFR function correctly, are also evidence in the CCBCC implementation (Ireland, 2005)
Instead what was needed was a more collaborative planning and forecasting approach to provided for greater demand management workflows, greater precision of the distributed order management, pricing, sourcing and supply chain processes, which are all components of a DDSN framework (Crampton-Thomas, 2006). With the greater level of collaboration, communication and demand management with suppliers and distributors companies can often exponentially increase their performance on the perfect order metric (Novack, Thomas, 2004)
Naylor, et. al (1997) defines leagility with regard to the supply chain as "Combining agility and leanness in one supply chain via the strategic use of a decoupling point" (Jones, 2004)
Horizontal B2B companies operate across numerous different verticals or industries like Siebel Systems. (Larson & Fischer, 2000) The Internet has enabled B2B firms to cut costs in purchasing raw goods
True, selling to another business involves haggling over prices, delivery and product specifications. (Patton, 2001) But the greater range of consumers also means that B2C businesses may have to stock more potentially unused inventory, rather than less, because consumers are broader based in their characters, needs, and profiles
¶ … supply chains continue to gain in importance as a core attribute of current and future business models across nearly every industry, the need for using IT resources more effectively in orchestrating each transportation mode becomes essential. Orchestrating supply chain processes from transaction to fulfillment provides third party logistics providers (3PLs) with the opportunity to manage and modify manual processes to gain greater performance on a consistent basis (Gilmore, 2002)
Orchestrating supply chain processes from transaction to fulfillment provides third party logistics providers (3PLs) with the opportunity to manage and modify manual processes to gain greater performance on a consistent basis (Gilmore, 2002). In the article Global logistics solutions: A Guide to the problems Shippers face (MacDonald, 2007) the author provides an overview of how supply chains need to be managed as a strategic series of process and system assets, with specific attention paid to the orchestration of transportation modes
Four critical problems supply chains face are also discussed including a lack of supply chain visibility and forecasting, the need for continual quality improvement at the process level, more optimization of transportation network designs, and selecting the best possible analytics and metrics to measure global performance. These four problems taken together are often the impetus for many corporations who have a high reliance on their supply chain systems to create and expand a technology platform to support and strengthen suppliers, buyers and their supplier network (Milmo, 2002)
Supply chain visibility across the many modes of transportation is essential for any manufacturing company to meet the customer delivery dates they have set (Gilmore, 2002). Creating greater visibility across road, rail, maritime, air, intermodal and telecommunications-based supply chain components all needs to start with the design of transportation network designs that are agile enough to react to market pressures yet strong enough to withstand varying types of market conditions and transaction velocities (Trunick, 2002)
The study centers on existing ICT adoption in small and medium 3PL services providers, concentrating on the process areas that are most well-attuned to automation. As supply chains become increasingly global and complex, the need for greater technology integration at the 3PL level becomes essential for profitable operation (Bourlakis, Bourlakis, 2005)