Gaining Competitive Advantage through Information System in Supply Chain Management

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank almighty Lord for granting me the capability to proceed successfully. I would like to thank my supervisor, colleagues, and all those who helped me in completing this thesis, without their assistance and guidance this could not be possible. Last but not least, I would like to dedicate my thesis to all those who believe in the richness of learning

DECLARATION

I adjudge, the content of this dissertation is completely collected and done by unaided effort and the material in it, has not been published ever before. The opinion that is reflected in this dissertation is purely my opinion and does not represent any University's opinion.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the research1

Supply chain management (SCM)1

Supply Chain Elements1

Using IT in Supply chain Management2

Problem statement3

Research Aims and Objectives3

Aims3

Objectives3

Research questions3

Gantt chart4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW5

Supply Chain Management (SCM)5

Competitive advantage6

IT and Supply Chain Management6

ERP-system7

CRM-systems8

The system of class WMS8

TMS system8

SC IT integration capability9

SC IT flexibility9

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY11

Introduction11

Research Design11

Research Method and Design Appropriateness12

Mixed Methodology12

Secondary Research Methods12

Primary Research Methods13

Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods14

Target Population and Sample Size15

Instrument15

Literature Search15

REFERENCES16

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The technological revolution and the electronic in the last decade of the twentieth century changed the way the cooperation of suppliers and customers, and other links of traditional supply chains. To keep pace with the rapidly expanding company in the market today have to look for opportunities to build competitive advantage outside their organizations. Individual effort often turns out to be insufficient to fully meet customer expectations. To meet them the company must carry out joint activities with their trading partners. 

Background of the research

Supply chain management (SCM)

Supply chain management (SCM) has been noted as an increasingly important management field to help enterprises improve supply chain operations. SCM involves the flows of material, information, and finance in a network consisting of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers. In the past decade, we have witnessed a shift in inter organizational relationships away from traditional market-based arms' length relationships to strategic partnership-like relationships (Zuckerman 2002, 66). In fact, both the academic literature and the practitioner literature have noted that business competitions in a number of industries are no longer between individual firms, but rather between supply chains.

Supply Chain Elements

Among the factors that make the goal of supply chain can be said that both the quantity, quality, time, and cost are driving factors, and coming to depend on demand, and this is not constant, the quality demands Once they are older, delivery times are variable, and also costs vary (Nichols 2009, 230). This dynamic makes it difficult to manage so it is necessary to use information technology so as to facilitate decision making.

The five elements in a supply chain are:

Suppliers

Transports

The company

Retailing

Customers

Using IT in Supply chain Management

As time passed, competition started increasing, and this supply-based market got replaced by consumer-based market where there were plenty of suppliers to satisfy the consumer's demand. These revolutionizing changes compelled corporations to improve their SCM in order to survive in this ever-changing market (Mentzer 2007, ...