Information Flows and Technology

Information Flows and Technology

1. THE ROLE OF INFORMATION IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS

   • Information is the key that unlocks supply chain responsiveness to demand. Information complexity, proliferation, diffusion, velocity and accuracy are key drivers of developing increasingly sophisticated supply chain information technologies.
     • Demand-side information: Is how do suppliers know when their freight is required, in what quatities, or indeed, what the customer´s exact specification.
       • Supply-side information: Is how do downstream supply, chain partners and customers know when freight will be delivered by suppliers, what quantities it will arrive in or what specification.

2. INFORMATION VISIBILITY AND TRANSPARENCY

   • Information visibility: is the ability to see information at the various points across the supply chain an when required.
     • The barriers to gaining information visibility and transparency can be: cultural, financial, technical or organisational.
       • The benefits of supply chain-spanning information technologies are Customer-oriented operations, time compression, reduced schedule variability and shorter planning periods, consistent partnerships, etc.

3. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS

   • Electronic data interchange (EDI) is a technology for the electronic interchange of data between two or more companies.
     • Enterprise resource planning (ERP) requires a substantial financial, resource and time investment at implementation and for maintenance and development.
       • Collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) it is a fundamentally a new collaborative method of scheduling logistics between suppliers and customers.

4. RADIO FREQUENCY INDENTIFICATION (RFID)

   • The remote communication capability of RFID is what differentiates it from current traceability technologies.

5. GLOBAL STANDARDS

   • GS1 is a global standards organisation that manages the standards for bar codes and RIFD tags for the world`s leading organisations.
     • It provides data services that ensure the proliferation of products and freight can be uniquely and accurately identified. It offers 9 different formats of bar codes.
       • Another service GS1 offers it is Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN).

6. SUPPLY CHAIN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

   • In logisics and SCM, supply-side and demand-side knowledge is critical to managing supply chain performance.
     • Supply chain knowledge management is an emerging area or research. For example, demand-side information is essential for understanding market demand, however is important to know what to do with that information.

7. Bibliografía: John Mangan, Chandra Lanwani, Tim Butcher. (2011). Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management. John Wiley & Sons. (UK).

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uckr-ftTYR4

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