Supply Chain Management: Integration and Globalization in the Age of e-Business

Supply chain management (SCM) refers to the management of materials, information, and funds across the entire supply chain, from suppliers through manufacturing and distribution, to the final consumer. It also includes after-sales service and reverse-product flows, such as handling customer returns, recycling of packaging and discarded products. In contrast to multi-echelon inventory management, which coordinates inventories at multiple locations of a single firm, or traditional logistics management, SCM involves coordination of information, materials, and financial flows among multiple firms. E-business? the use of Internet-based computing and communications to execute both front-end and back-end business processes has emerged as a key enabler to drive supply chain integration. Businesses can use the Internet to gain global visibility across their extended network of trading partners and help them respond quickly to a range of variables, from customer demand to resource shortages. This paper examines the impact of e-business on supply chain integration on four critical dimensions: information integration, synchronized planning, coordinated workflow, and new business models. By adopting e-business approaches businesses can reap the benefits of supply chain integration ? reduced costs, increased flexibility, faster response times ? more rapidly and effectively. The rise of global markets and increasingly virtual companies has focused management attention on competition between supply chains. In this paper, we present a framework for understanding supply chain management, highlighting the impact of integration and globalization.