A study on IT strategy for successful supply chain management

Abstract

SCM (supply chain management) is the concept about the enterprise``s resource flow from the value chain perspective. SCM is a strategy for competitive advantage by integrating and managing all the materials, information and capital flow in overall point of view. An enterprise can satisfy the needs of suppliers, customers and enterprise itself via successful SCM. Since the unprecedented growth of Internet has changed the overall business environment, a new concept of SCM, which is appropriate to the digital economy, was required. The word e-SCM, what we call, SCM in digital economy environment was appeared in this background. Advantages of e-SCM are numerous such as cost efficiency, customer satisfaction, lower inventory level, and quality assurance, etc. Many articles and studies are continuously arguing the effectiveness and efficiency of e-SCM. Almost all people agree now recognizing that adjusting themselves to digital economy as quickly as possible is critical to survive in this highly competitive environment. Though, there are virtually no studies that provide a realizable implementation guideline to be followed by enterprises for a successful e-SCM. That is the motivation of this study. In this study, first of all, general meaning of SCM and differences of traditional SCM and e-SCM is investigated. We also investigated the numerous effectiveness of e-SCM and the reason why we should adopt e-SCM concept. Then, three key factors for a successful e-SCM adoption were extracted through analyzing several cases that already implement successful e-SCM strategy. The ultimate goal of this study is to suggest a realizable information system implementation guide that may be the most important success factor for e-SCM. Before suggesting the implementation model, four types of information systems were classified and investigated. Based on the characteristics of the four types of information systems, evolutionary information system implementation model was sugge...