Abstract
Green Integrated Supply Chain Management (GISCM) brings together various stakeholders in the supply chain within and outside the organization to help the organization improve its environmental credentials. To benefit both the business and the environmental bottom line, the supply chain management of an organization needs to be analyzed, planned and optimized for sourcing and deliveries and in an environmentally-conscious manner. Such analysis includes suppliers, customers, regulatory authorities and employees at all levels on an organization. Undoubtedly, electronic (Internet-based) systems deliver enterprises with a competitive advantage by opening up opportunities to streamline processes, reduce costs, increase customer patronage and enable straight thorough processing capabilities. These same characteristics of good SCM can be converted to handle environmental issues related to supply chain operation and processing. This chapter proposes a fundamental framework for creating and analyzing GISCM solutions.
TopGiscm Solutions
Whilst large-scale GISCM systems are yet to happen in some organizations, the concept of establishing information flows between points in the supply chain has been around since the 1980’s. Through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), customers and suppliers have communicated supply data through direct dial-up interfaces and other mediums (Zieger, 2001). However, the ability for the Internet to create a common communication infrastructure has made integration much more cost-effective. GISCM has promised to “deliver the right product to the right place at the right time and at the right price” (Comptroller, 2002).
From the basic supply chain software development perspective, four vendors are well known: namely Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft and Ariba. There are also a multitude of medium-sized vendors in the ISCM solution space (Armstrong, 2002) that need to be considered from a green perspective. All vendors claim that ISCM will enable the enterprise to respond, in real time, to changes in demand and supply.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): The structured transmission of data between organizations by secured network telecommunications
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): A system is intended to manage all the information and functions of a business or organization from shared databases
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): The strategy for managing and nurturing an organization’s interactions with customers and sales prospects
Capable-To-Promise (CTP): The maximum output of a production process less what has been sold or promised
Inter-Organizational Activity: Processes or activities connecting business functions between organizations
Intra-Organizational Activity: Processes or activities connection business functions within an organization
Knowledge Management (KM): The process of systematically and actively managing and leveraging the stores of knowledge in an organization
Carbon Emissions: The production of Carbon dioxide (CO2) affected by human activity including the processes during the manufacturing of products