Information Supply Chains: Restructuring Relationships, Chains, and Networks

Abstract

Information supply chains (ISCs) take an information-centric view of supply chains, where information is not only used to support supply chain operations, but also to create value for customers and enable business partners to collectively sense and respond to opportunities in a networked ecosystem. Creating value in the ISC involves gathering, organizing, selecting, synthesizing, and distributing information. In so doing, ISCs should provide secure, confidential, reliable, and real time access to heterogeneous information, while ensuring that the right information is delivered to the intended recipients at the right time. In other words, security, information quality, and information lead-time delays are critical performance determinants in ISCs. Recent disaster events such as Hurricane Katrina have highlighted the need for and value of ISCs by exposing the vulnerability of supply chains to demand surges and supply disruptions. Mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities requires a mechanism that allows for continuously sensing the environment, detecting existing or anticipated vulnerabilities, and responding to these vulnerabilities in real time through information sharing and collaboration. This chapter describes how the autonomic computing paradigm can be used to build resilient information supply chains by restructuring the associated relationships, chains, and networks.