Information Technology Integration Case Study

1044 Words5 Pages

2.1 Information Technology Egbu and Botterill (2002) argue that Information Technology has the potential to aid collaboration and co-operation between people. Accordingly, some organisations have developed software to encourage social interaction in the organisation. The support for connecting people is not limited by location but can span the entire world. Collaboration and co-operation among many people supports effective and efficient team problem solving. Since supply chain consists of very many stakeholders who may not necessarily be living in the same geographical area, a tool for collaboration and co-operation breaks the barrier of communication over distance. Ward and Zhou (2006) reveal that Information Technology electronically …show more content…

Internal integration connects the different functions in an organization such as human resource, purchasing, and materials management and it is aimed at improving the performance of cross-functional processes that make up the supply chain process. ERP systems are designed to achieve such high levels of internal integration (Ward and Zhou, 2006). On the other hand, external integration connects a firm with its suppliers and customers and impacts inter-firm lead time (Ward and Zhou, 2006). A firm has to be integrated both internally and externally in order to reduce the overall lead time in a supply chain (Ward and Zhou, …show more content…

These activities include inbound and outbound transportation, warehousing, and inventory control, sourcing, procurement, and supply management, forecasting, production planning and scheduling, order processing and customer service all are part of the process as well (Zigiaris, 2000). The challenge that a supply chain poses is that the supply chain activities are run by different partners who are geographically isolated and therefore have to be integrated and linked in a chain so that they interact seamlessly (Zigiaris, 2000). A lack of integration of processes and partners in a supply chain increases the overall lead time in a supply chain (Ward and Zhou, 2006). As a result, supply chain management involves integrating supply chain processes and activities so that the processes are

Open Document