Information technology-based enterprise integration and supply chain management

Citation

Gunasekaran, A. and Chung, W.W.C. (2003), "Information technology-based enterprise integration and supply chain management", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 9 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj.2003.15709aaa.001

Information technology-based enterprise integration and supply chain management

About the Guest EditorsDr A. Gunasekaran is an Associate Professor of Operations Management in the Department of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA. Dr Gunasekaran has held academic positions at Brunel University (UK), Monash University (Australia), the University of Vassa (Finland), the University of Madras (India), and the University of Toronto, Laval University, and Concordia University (Canada). He has over 125 articles published in 40 different peer-reviewed journals. He has presented and published about 50 papers in conferences and given a number of invited talks in more than 20 countries. Dr Gunasekaran is on the Editorial Board of over 15 refereed journals. Dr Gunasekaran is involved with several national and international collaborative projects that are funded by private and government agencies. Dr Gunasekaran is currently interested in researching benchmarking, agile manufacturing, management information systems, e-commerce, information technology evaluation, technology management, supply chain management and total quality management. Dr Gunasekaran has organized several international conferences in the emerging areas of operations management and information systems.Walter W.C. Chung is an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He graduated in Industrial Engineering and received an MBA from UNSW Australia. His research interests are in knowledge management for e-business. A recipient of the President's Awards for Achievement 1996/1997: Research & Scholarly Activities, he has successfully supervised research students up to the PhD level and published numerous research papers. He has been successful in research grants (HK$7.1 millions) and is active in consulting with business and industry. He is the Project Director of the Teaching Company Scheme for a couple of companies.

Information technology-based enterprise integration and supply chain management

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in the national economy. They employ a major portion of the workforce and contribute significantly to GDP. SMEs are flexible and innovative considering their size and organizational culture. At the same time, SMEs lack capital and skilled workforce for any change process in terms of implementing new methods such as JIT, TQM and BPR and new technologies such as CAD/CAM, MRP, ERP and e-commerce. SMEs lagged large companies on the implementation of new operations concepts and technologies to revitalize their business processes. However, with the development, standardization and availability of information technologies such as the Internet and WWW, many SMEs are attempting to implement them in their efforts to become a part of the global business network or agile supply chain.

This special issue is intended to promote the knowledge of best practices to SMEs for gaining competitive advantage in global manufacturing. It is aimed at providing an opportunity for SMEs in benchmarking the experiences of best-in-class practices. A range of best practices in addressing the theme of global manufacturing is explored; in particular, agile manufacturing, Internet-based enterprise integration and supply chain management, and information systems (including e-commerce and enterprise resource planning) development in SMEs. The experiences in transforming the local view of an SME to a global view of effective international operations are included. It will provide opportunity to both academics and practitioners to advance the practice and understanding of the deployment of information systems, virtual organization, agile manufacturing and supply chain in SMEs. This brief introduction provides the reader of this special issue with an overview of six articles appearing here.

The 1990s have witnessed the dramatic growth of the Internet, which combined with traditional IT technologies, is creating a global and cost effective platform for businesses to communicate and conduct commerce. Because of today's shrinking world, companies must create new sources of competitive advantage almost on a daily basis. This becomes critical for SMEs because they are considered to be a major component of all economies and are generally considered to be flexible, adaptive and innovative organizations, which appear to make them a good fit for e-commerce. Subba Rao et al. in their paper, "Electronic commerce development in small and medium sized enterprises: a stage model and its implications" study in detail the e-commerce development stages; the facilitators and barriers for SMEs stages include:

1. 1.

   presence;

2. 2.

   portals;

3. 3.

   transaction integration; and

4. 4.

   enterprise integration.

The authors have provided a comprehensive analysis of each of these stages considering the profile of SMEs and some case studies with the objective of presenting generic guidelines for e-commerce development for SMEs.

Tam et al. in their paper "Design of a re-configurable workflow system for rapid product development", present the design of a re-configurable workflow system using a product definition schema with the objective of expediting the product development activities. This system is characterized by its ability to cope with unexpected changes during the early stages of product development by reconfiguring the workflow of relevant processes, thereby significantly enhancing the agility of the entire system. A four-layered product definition schema is adopted to provide the conceptual foundation for the development of a rapid product design system. This has to cope with the frequent change requests due to ever changing customer demands in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

As the manufacturing market is becoming more global, a number of global manufacturing networks have been established, taking the advantage of fast-growing networking and information technologies. Networked enterprises consist of a number of firms that are geographically dispersed and do not belong to the same head company, a system with central management capability, possessing the ability of central task decomposition/allocation, co-ordination and monitoring. To ensure appropriate manufacturing operations are assigned to the appropriate firms, to the best interest of the "virtual" consortium, there is a need for the development of a collaborative platform that is capable of facilitating the efficient performance of resources and task allocations. In the paper "Development of a Web-based enterprise collaborative platform for networked enterprises", Lee et al. present the development of an Internet-based enterprise collaborative platform. The applications of the platform on business process management for networked enterprises are also discussed.

San and Chung in their paper "A model for assessing ideas for new venture products", describe a process of generating a new product idea based on activities observed in a real-life case. They proposed a model that adapts the approach used by venture capitalist in developing new products. The application of this model draws empirical data from the field. Sometimes the product idea extracted is already patented; permission may be required from the owner to manufacture by licensing arrangements, or to modify the product. Even if the product is not patented, it may be advantageous to form a strategic alliance with the current product supplier. The authors claim that the model has the benefits of being low cost, a fast process and suitable for the e-business environment.

To succeed in the current global market, companies are attempting to streamline their supply chain through the successful deployment of information technology. McLaughlin et al. in their paper "Using information technology to improve downstream supply chain operations: a case study", explain how a manufacturing company implemented a transportation planning and optimization system to enhance their downstream supply chain operations. The application development framework is used to analyze the implementation process. It is hoped that the findings of this case study will benefit companies seeking to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace through advanced physical distribution capabilities.

Jackson and Sloane's paper "Modelling information and communication technology in business: a case study in electronic data interchange (EDI)", provides a review of information and communication technology (ICT) models and frameworks in the implementation of one communication technique, namely electronic data interchange (EDI). The paper describes and explains the usage of these tools and any specific industries in which they are applied. The tools are individually analysed and then compared for similarities, dissimilarities, and their associated attributes. The methodology used divides the models into two categories, EDI specific and more generic. The data analysis informs the construction of a generic model for inter-organisational analysis, and conclusions concerning approaches are discussed. The analysis also forms the basis for the model selection process in specific scenarios.

We were overwhelmed by the response to the Call for Papers on "Internet-based enterprise integration and supply chain management – SMEs to exercise world class practice". The Guest Editors acknowledge the support of over 20 referees who reviewed manuscripts for this special issue. Each article was reviewed by at least two referees. The support provided by the Manufacturing Information Systems Research Unit of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to organize the workshop and to complete this special issue is appreciated. The Guest Editors would like to acknowledge Professor W.B. Lee (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) for his encouragement. The Guest Editors gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by Professor Majed Al-Mashari, the Editor of the Business Process Management Journal.

A. Gunasekaran and W.W.C. Chung