SCM Technologies And Their Applicability In

The SC Operations

Tesslyn Suzanne

School Of Management Studies

CUSAT, Kochi- 22.
E-mail:tesslyn.azad7@gmail.com

Abstract: A supply chain is the network of suppliers, distributors and

subcontractors used by a manufacturer to source its raw materials,
components and supplies. Logistics companies store, transport and
distribute supplies and work-in-progress within the supply chain and
distribute finished products to customers or intermediaries. Integrating supply
chain and logistics operations improves efficiency and reduces costs,
increasing the manufacturer’s competitive advantage. As we move on in the
21st century, like all other functions supply chain management is in a state of
metamorphic flux. Several newtechnologies are creeping into SCM which are
reshaping this crucial business function. Some ofthese forces and
technologies include collaboration technologies, internet based procurement,
webtechnologies, EDI, ERP, RFID for inventory management, E-Commerce,
and Cloud Computing.

Keywords: advanced weighting technology, agile supply chain

management, social media consultant, EDI, ERP, RFID, E-Commerce
and Cloud Computing

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Supply chain management (SCM) is concerned with the flow of products and
information between supply chain members’ organizations. Recent
development in technologies enables the organization to avail information
easily in their premises. These technologies are helpful to coordinates the
activities to manage the supply chain. The cost of information is decreased
due to the increasing rate of technologies. In an integrated supply chain
where materials and information flow in a bi-directional, Manager needs to
understand that information technology is more than just computers. At the
earliest stage of Supply Chain (the late80s) the information flow between
functional areas within an organization and between supply chain member

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 organizations were paper based. The paper based transaction and
communication was slow. During this period, information was often over
looked as a critical competitive resource because its value to supply chain
members was not clearly understood. An IT infrastructure capability provides
a competitive positioning of business initiatives like cycle time reduction,
implementation, implementing redesigned cross-functional processes.
Several well know organizations that are involved in supply chain relationship
through information technology have ripe huge gain through. The emergence
of the Internet has allowed firms to compete effectively and efficiently in both
domestic and international markets. It is a well-known fact that Internet-
based computing and communication has emerged as a key enabler to help
organisations achieve greater coordination and collaboration among supply
chain partners and automate the supply chain process (Akkeren andCavaye,
1999). This has created competitive pressures as manufacturers and
distributors are forced to become more responsive to the retailers and
consumers. These pressures are forcing manufacturers/buying organisations
to reduce costs, decrease order cycle times, and improve their operating
efficiencies. Nowadays, the use of technologies help the organisations to
better manage their supply chains, as supply chain management applications
built on technology platforms have enhanced
the ability of organisations to integrate their processes through collaborative
information sharing and planning

2.0 SC TECHNOLOGIES AND ITS APPLICABILITY

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2.1 Advanced Weighing Technology

One of the greatest encumbrances in the supply chain is in the weighing

process. Outdated truck scales are still used in most industrial facilities which
greatly compromise efficiency. Luckily, modern technology includes the
ingenious onboard truck scales. These allow for seamless operations when
access to platform scales is not available. The scales measure payload
weight and the truck’s gross weight. They enhance productivity by ensuring a
truck carries the maximum weight right from the point of loading while also
saving time and money. The onboard truck scales have also been adopted
as a safety guarantee to ensure operators within a warehouse for instance
only carry the allowed weight on their lifts. The weighing process is one
of the most significant hurdles in the supply chain managem ent.
Most industrial facilities still resort to outdated truck scales, which
dramatically compromises the efficiency. Innovative technologies
like the ingenious onboard truck scales facilitate seamless
operations when access to platform scales is not available. The
scales are used to m easure payload weight and the truck’s gross
weight. They ensure that a truck carries the maximum weight right
from the point of loading while simultaneously saving time and
money.

2.2 Social Media Revolution

In today’s time social media is the ultimate power. It is a staircase to

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 success. Every single person on the Earth knows the power of social media
and the role it plays in revolutionizing any business or industry.

There are 1.3 billion monthly active users (MAU) of Facebook. There are
many other social media platforms like Twitter, et al that have millions of
active users. Increasing the visibility of the company on social media is user
to bring success to any industry.

SCO consultant considers social media as an important part of supply chain.

The consultants see social media as the best way to stay in touch with the
stakeholders that are a part of supply chain. Social media also opens many
new opportunities and channels for the industry.
With such numbers, it makes more sense for modern businesses to leverage
the power of social media to optimize their supply chain operations. It is an
ingenious way to open more channels and remain in touch in real-time with
all stakeholders in the supply chain. It is easy to respond to questions, report
in real-time about incidences in the supply chain, report price changes, and
also enhance visibility of the company.

2.3 EDI

Electronic Data Interchange is an inter-organisation computer to computer

exchange of standard business documents in a structured and machine-
process able format with the objective to eliminate duplicate data entry and
to improve the speed and accuracy of the information flow. EDI based
system has a significant advantage over the manual paper based system in
terms of built-in delay due to several processing points during transit, data in
accuracy or error due to repeated data entry at several steps, labour
intensive uncertainty about delivery of information along with high costs of
transmission.

Advantages of EDI are:

 Improved operational efficiencies of manually intensive business

processes by automating business document input, validation and auditing.
The sophisticated auditprovides a simple view of business information across
different systems, and it proactivealerts help you manage exceptions so you
can respond immediately to unplanned events.
 Improved Customer Service by providing internal and external business
partners with “status” information on business information flows inside and
outside an organization.
 Improved business responsiveness through greater visibility and
adaptability to changing business requirements. New business partners,
platforms, document formats,technologies and business processes can be
added quickly and efficiently whilemaintaining centralize control.
 Improved reaction time to supply chain issues. As 80% of a businesses
document information flow now relies on electronic transfer of information,
any loss of information flow is unacceptable for clients, suppliers, or trading
partners (both internal and external).To maximize ROI, proactive and
intelligent surveillance of business document transfer is critical. Receiving an
alert at the end of a day is not longer acceptable as receiving information

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 when problems occur along with how to solve the problem is required.
Notified of a problem, a user can rapidly identify the root cause and correct it
by operations such as: correcting incorrect information, retrying the transfer,
cancelling the transfer, executing an alert to the appropriate person(s) – by
e-mail for example – of the risk of client-impact from a problem in the supply
chain.
 Compliance to regulatory requirements. For reporting companies,
regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA are a fact of
life. EDI’s sophisticatedaudit and document management features allows an
organization to comply with regulatory requirements in one central solution.
In summary, EDI provides management, automation, format transformation,
information routing and business process management with the purpose of
streamlining business to meet the needs of an organization. EDI manages
the flow of business information from end to end, ensuring higher processing
speeds, improved reactivity, and higher quality of service.

2.4 Agile Supply Chain Management

Agile methodology ensures success.The supply chain has to be agile,

flexible as well as interactive. Agile supply chain management is all about
coping with the minute and intense turbulences in the supply chain by quick
decision making. This management approach has the capability of taking the
company to a great success high. Dealing with an unplanned situation is
what agile supply chain management stands for.

All the technologies, strategies and methodologies mentioned above are

getting many takers in supply chain. These innovations enhance the supply
chain by leaps and bounds.

At Gazelle we are try to utilize these technologies to bring in significant

improvements to clients supply chain processes. Come to talk to us to
understand how you can leverage these new trends to improve your supply
chain initiatives.

2.5 Cloud Computing

Cloud computing supplies computational resources on demand via a

computer network. Traditional computing models require both data and
software to be fully contained on the user's computer. In cloud computing,
the user's computer may contain almost no software or data (only an
operating system and a web browser). The provider's cloud computing
services form the cloud. These services are provided via an Internet
connection within one or more of the next layers: application, platform and
infrastructure.

• Application services (SaaS- Software as a Service) deliver software as a

service over the Internet to the client who doesn’t need to install and run the
application on his own computers. All the software management, update,
maintenance and support are executed centralized, only on the provider’s
computers. The software allows collaboration through the network with

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 business partners due to its model – single instance, multi-tenant
architecture.
• Platform as a Service provides a computing platform comprise hardware
architecture and software framework to support the software.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides computer infrastructure as a
service: servers with multi-core processors, software, data-center space or
network equipment.

Companies can use one or combinations of these services and they pay
according to the pay for what- you-use model, achieving significant cost
reductions. The service provider will deal with investment in licenses,
infrastructure maintenance and upgrades. Software implementation is
simple, with minimal technical requirements and easy management. Cloud
computing is an innovative business model which ensures an efficient
outsourcing for Supply Chain collaboration software and infrastructure.
SCM business processes are parallel and data are managed by each
company’s integrated information system. In order to extend these internal
systems to SC level, companies have to connect them through networks.
Cloud computing enables the networking of multiple and interdependent end-
to-end processes (order fulfilment, collaborative forecasting and
replenishment, market analysis). It supplies a collaborative framework
allowing an effective process management through standardized processes.
SaaS provides a high level of security, so that companies are able to share
information without trust limitations. This creates visibility for each Supply
Chain member for the entire network o that to support the decisional process

2.6 RFID Technology

Automatic identification, or auto ID for short, is the broad term given to a host
of technologies that are used to help machines identify objects. Auto
identification is often coupled with automatic data capture. That is,
companies want to identify items, capture information about them and
somehow get the data into a computer without having employees type it in.
The aim of most auto-ID systems is to increase efficiency, reduce data entry
errors, and free up staff to perform more value-added functions, such as
providing customer service. There are a host of technologies that fall under
the auto-ID umbrella. These include bar codes, smart cards, voice
recognition, some biometric technologies (retinal scans, for instance), optical
character recognition, and radio frequency identification (RFID).The Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) Evaluation Centre covers criteria for tags
and storage devices, readers, wireless hubs and servers, and the
middleware necessary for evaluating an RFID system deployment. RFID
systems are used in different situations that require the tracking of unique
items. RFID tags, in the context of enterprise resource planning and supply
chain management, make items visible from manufacturing through
distribution. RFID tags may be used to carry basic information such as an
address, to more complex information used at different stages of an
assembly line. In general terms, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a
means of identifying a person or object using a radio frequency transmission,
typically 125 kHz, 13.56 MHz or 800-900MHz. There are several methods of
identification, but the most common is to store a serial number that identifies
a person or object, and perhaps other information, on a microchip that is

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 attached to an antenna (the chip and the antenna together are called an
RFID transponder or an RFID tag).

Fig 1. RFID system

An RFID tag consists of a microchip attached to an antenna. RFID tags are

developed using a frequency according to the needs of the system including
read range and the environment in which the tag will be read. Tags are either
active (integrating a battery) or passive (having no battery). Passive tags
derive the power to operate from the field generated by the reader. An FID
reader, usually connected to a Personal Computer, serves the same purpose
as a barcode scanner. It can also be battery-powered to allow mobile
transactions with RFID tags. The RFID reader handles the communication
between the Information System and the RFID tag. An RFID antenna
connected to the RFID reader can be of various sizes and structures
,depending on the communication distance required for a given system's
performance. The antenna activates the RFID tag and transfers data by
emitting wireless pulses.

Advantages of using RFID

 Reduces Clerical Errors, Increase Data Quality. RFID gets the human out
of theloop where clerical errors are about eliminated in terms of inventory
levels and asset visibility.
 Improves Asset Visibility and Utilization. RFID can give you complete
situationalawareness. If you know where an asset is, you can use it.
 Increase Efficiency. No more point and scan labour-intensive tasks that
areassociated with bar codes. Also, people no longer need to be always
looking for stuff,nor do they have to do inventories by hand. This frees them
up to do their real job.
 Reduce Theft. Theft can be a significant cost to businesses. RFID can
provide nearreal-time and historical information to reduce and prevent theft
of products. By havingnear-real-time visibility of product, businesses can pin-
point and eliminate theft that occurs along the supply chain as well as in
retail stores.

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 Improve Customer Experience. RFID items enables businesses to further
integrateservice offerings, automate customer tasks, and anticipate customer
needs. RFID technology can be integrated with smart shopping carts, kiosks,
and Point-Of-Sale terminals to improve the customer’s shopping experience.
RFID tags enable businesses to up-sell and cross-sell other products and
accessories in real-time.
 Improves Decision-Making. RFID technology gives real-time information
that enablebetter decision-making as well as reduces the decision-making
cycle. Improved decision-making results in:
 Reduce Inventory. RFID technology improves inventory accuracy. This
enablesbusinesses to eliminate excess and missing inventory as well as
reduce losses and write downs. RFID technology enables physical inventory
in stores and warehouses to match what is in the system.
 Improve Forecasting and Planning. RFID enable businesses to gain
visibility of theentire supply chain to include supplier visibility, in transit
visibility, and customer visibility .With better and expanded current and
historical information, businesses can improve forecasting capabilities.
 Reduce Out-Of-Stock Conditions. Out of stock items cause missed sales,
and willeventually lead to lost customers. RFID tags enable businesses to
prevent out-of-stock conditions in warehouses and in retail stores.
Businesses can get near-real-time and better historical information to
eliminate conditions that cause out-of-stock conditions.

RFID technology proved to be the silent supervisor, monitoring and recording

details of product movement and alerting shipping personnel of errors. RFID
tags are now placed on pallets at the stretch wrap machine. In the outbound
loading area, each forklift is equipped with an RFID reader and a screen,
which signals the operator whether pallets for a particular order are included
on the accompanying Bill of Lading. During loading, the operator is
immediately given several warnings, including a flashing red screen and an
audio alert if a pallet is about to be placed on the wrong truck or if the
number of pallets in the shipment is incorrect.

2.7 Electronic Commerce and SCM Based on Internet/Intranet

Electronic commerce and the Internet are fundamentally changing the nature
of supply chains, and redefining how consumers learn about, select,
purchase, and use products and services .The result has been the
emergence of new business-to business supply chains that are consumer-
focused rather than product-focused. They also provide customized products
and services.

E-commerce impacts supply chain management in a variety of keyways.

These include:

 Cost efficiency: E-commerce allows transportation companies of all sizes to

exchange cargo documents electronically over the Internet. E-commerce
enables shippers, freight forwarders and trucking firms to streamline
document handling without the monetary and time investment required by
the traditional document delivery systems. By using e-commerce, companies
can reduce costs, improve data accuracy,

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 streamline business processes, accelerate business cycles, and enhance
customer service. Ocean carriers and their trading partners can exchange bill
of lading instructions, freight invoices, container status messages, motor
carrier shipment instructions, and other documents with increased accuracy
and efficiency by eliminating the need to re-key or reformat documents. The
only tools needed to take advantage of this solution are a personal computer
and an Internet browser.

 Changes in the distribution system: E-commerce will give businesses

more flexibility in managing the increasingly complex movement of products
and information between businesses, their suppliers and customers. E-
commerce will close the link between customers and distribution centres.
Customers can manage the increasingly complex movement of products and
information through the supply chain.

 Customer orientation: E-commerce is a vital link in the support of logistics

and transportation services for both internal and external customers. E-
commerce will helpcompanies deliver better services to their customers,
accelerate the growth of the e-commerce initiatives that are critical to their
business, and lower their operating costs. Using the Internet for e-commerce
will allow customers to access rate information, place delivery orders, track
shipments and pay freight bills.

o E-commerce makes it easier for customers to do business with companies:

Anything that simplifies the process of arranging transportation services will
help build companies'business and enhance shareholder value. By making
more information available about the commercial side of companies,
businesses will make their web site a place where customers will not only get
detailed information about the services the company offers, but also where
they can actually conduct business with the company.

Ultimately, web sites can provide a universal, self-service system for

customers. Shippers can order any service and access the information they
need to conduct business with transportation companies exclusively online.
E-commerce functions are taking companies a substantial step forward by
providing customers with a faster and easier way to do business with them.

 Shipment tracking: E-commerce will allow users to establish an account

and obtain real-time information about cargo shipments. They may also
create and submit bills of lading, place a cargo order, analyze charges,
submit a freight claim, and carry out many other functions. In addition, e-
commerce allows customers to track shipments down to the individual
product and perform other supply chain management and decision support
functions. The application uses encryption technology to secure business
transactions.

 Shipping notice: E-commerce can help automate the receiving process by

electronically transmitting a packing list ahead of the shipment. It also allows
companies to record the relevant details of each pallet, parcel, and item
being shipped.

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 Freight auditing: This will ensure that each freight bill is efficiently reviewed
for accuracy .The result is a greatly reduced risk of overpayment, and the
elimination of countless hours of paperwork, or the need for a third-party
auditing firm. By intercepting duplicate billings and incorrect charges, a
significant percent of shipping costs will be recovered. In addition, carrier
comparison and assignment allows for instant access to a database
containing the latest rates, discounts, and allowances for most major
carriers, thus eliminating the need for unwieldy charts and tables.

 Shipping Documentation and Labeling:There will be less need for manual

intervention because standard bills of lading, shipping labels, and carrier
manifests will be automatically produced; this includes even the specialized
export documentation required for overseas shipments. Paperwork is
significantly reduced and the shipping department will therefore be more
efficient.
 Online Shipping Inquiry: This gives instant shipping information access to
anyone in the company, from any location. Parcel shipments can be tracked
and proof of delivery quickly confirmed. A customer's transportation costs
and performance can be analysed , thus helping the customer negotiate
rates and improve service.

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3.0 CONCLUSION

The adoptions of integration technologies to support the supply chain

management can be seen either as a way to provide efficiency savings, or as
a strategic response either driven by necessity or due to competitive
pressure. It provides benefits like standardised production, simplified supply
chain process, and automated process, upon the implementation of
supplychain integration by the case companies involved in the study. The
Internet has had an enormous impact on the personal and professional lives
of businesspersons. On the business side, the Internet has brought new life
to existing technologies and offered businesses the opportunity to engage in
the world marketplace. The harnessing of the Internet by business has
enabled greater cooperation and information exchange up and down the
supply-chain. The Internet has enabled businesses to improve the supply-
chain by the way they manage inventory, place orders, and communicate
critical information with each other.

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