Supply Chain Management and the Internet

Abstract

The Internet increases the quantity and expands the richness of information in real time to many more participants in the supply chain and raises the importance and value of information in supply chain management. The ability to create supply chain visibility, that is, to “see across the supply chain,” extends the scope of management options across all firms in the supply chain, and contributes to reductions in costs and improvements in service. Firms are now able to integrate this information to mitigate the bullwhip effect, increase the speed of operations, and improve service. Firms must adopt new collaborative business models—based on creating an extended, real‐time enterprise—to achieve these efficiency gains. This requires that managers learn how to operate in a collaborative environment with an abundance of shared information, and this means resolving problems among supply chain partners that impede successful collaboration. Detailed case studies of Nortel, Cisco, Dell, and NMS illustrate these ideas.