Supply Chain Integration and Performance †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Supply Chain Integration and Performance. Answer: Introduction: There are various types of information technologies being available in the market. Some of the key information technologies being effective for Transport will be the Business relationship management. This will help in maintaining the effective relationship with the suppliers. Cost control software will also be beneficial for them in regulating the cost of sourcing (Schwalbe 2015). Enterprise resource planning will be helpful in coordinating all the activities from sourcing the materials to buying it. Infrastructure management software will be beneficial for them due to the reason that it will help to promote a centralized approach in their supplier reduction effort. Recommendations will include effective implementation of the information technologies in the sourcing of raw materials. Moreover, expertise employees should be appointed in order to run the technologies effectively. Existing employees should be given proper training to get accustomed with the new technologies (Chidambaram and Ramachandran 2012). This is due to the fact that, if the employees are not comfortable with the technologies, then the optimal utilization of the information technologies cannot be leveraged. The internal infrastructure should also be modified accordingly in order to create suitable environment for the use of the technologies. The initiated information technologies in the organization should be updated periodically with time. This will help to effectively meet the changing requirement in the business state of affairs. Less number of suppliers will help the organization in organizing the data more effectively. The data mining from the information technologies will be more accurate and effective. Moreover, the less number of the suppliers will create more penetrated relationship with the chosen suppliers and the information will more effectively be gathered. Thus, it will enhance the process of information sharing (Schuh et al. 2014). This is due to the reason that, due to the presence of less number of suppliers, the information being gathered from them will be more along with garnering more detailed information. Thus, use of the information technology will be more mining more data from the existing suppliers. The key benefit of using the information technology over the traditional way of operation is the fluency and accuracy. This is due to the reason that, working with the help of information technology will enhance the automation in the process and initiation of the automation will enhance the speed of the operational process. On the other hand, automation and use of software will have less chance of errors compared to the manual forms. Thus, the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the operational process will get enhanced. Moreover, with the help of the enhancement of the information sharing, more diversified ideas and data will be generated (Prajogo and Olhager 2012). This will in turn help the organization in having more options for decision-making process. Another key advantage of using the information technology and information sharing will be the less cost involved for the organization. This is due to the reason that initiation of information technology will involve less manua l employees and thus the cost being involved in managing the employees will be less. Thus, the overall cost of the organization being involved in their operational activities will get lowered. Though, there are various benefits that are being gathered by the organization from the initiation of the information technologies, however, they will also face some prominent challenges from its implementation (Reichert and Weber 2012). One of the key challenges that they will face is the cost involvement in implementation of the information technologies. This is due to the fact that, initiation of information technologies will involve buying the software from the vendors, which will cost a huge amount. In addition, the installation of the software in the existing system along with buying the required hardware will also involve a good amount of money. As discussed earlier, employees will also have to provide training in order to make them accustomed with the technologies. Thus, it will also involve cost to initiate the training process. Other challenges for the organization will include resistance from the side of the employees (Pieterse, Caniels and Homan 2012). This is due to the reason that, several employees will feel uncomfortable in accepting the newer technologies due to the fact that, fear will be there that automation will take away their jobs. Thus, organization has to handle this resistance. Information technology and information sharing are both important for the organization. This is due to the reason that, these two act as complimentary to one another. More initiation of the information technology will generate more information sharing. Initiation of information technology will help the organization in increasing the speed and efficiency of their operational activities (Mithas et al. 2012). On the other hand, initiation of information sharing will help them in generating diverse information regarding their suppliers. Thus, in the case of Transport, these both concept will be equally important in gaining more competitive advantages from the management of their suppliers. Reference Chidambaram, Vijayabanu, and Amudha Ramachandran. "A study on efficacy of employee training: Review of literature."Business: Theory and Practice/Verslas: Teorija ir Praktika13, no. 3 (2012): 275-282. Mithas, Sunil, Ali R. Tafti, Indranil Bardhan, and Jie Mein Goh. "Information technology and firm profitability: mechanisms and empirical evidence." (2012). Pieterse, Jos H., Marjolein CJ Canils, and Thijs Homan. "Professional discourses and resistance to change."Journal of Organizational Change Management25, no. 6 (2012): 798-818. Prajogo, Daniel, and Jan Olhager. "Supply chain integration and performance: The effects of long-term relationships, information technology and sharing, and logistics integration."International Journal of Production Economics135, no. 1 (2012): 514-522. Reichert, Manfred, and Barbara Weber.Enabling flexibility in process-aware information systems: challenges, methods, technologies. Springer Science Business Media, 2012. Schuh, Christian, Michael F. Strohmer, Stephen Easton, Mike Hales, and Alenka Triplat. "Supplier relationship management." InSupplier relationship management, pp. 7-12. Apress, 2014. Schwalbe, Kathy.Information technology project management. Cengage Learning, 2015.