The use of collaboration tools in supply chain : implications and challenges

The supply chain environment today is a collaborative business environment in which the members of supply chains are interlinked with each other. Hence the collaboration extends in supply chains to inter- and intra-enterprise applications, the so-called collaboration tools, such as customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, e-business and employee-business integration. In order to achieve this collaboration, supply chains also realize the need to implement integrated collaboration tools, which integrate tightly their intra- and inter-supply chain processes. With new technologies like Web-enabled services, wireless applications, and software applications, the supply chain today needs frameworks that consider the requirements of collaborative supply chain scenarios. This chapter thus will introduce a framework to ensure that collaboration at all supply chain levels is considered at a very early stage of the project so that the integrated supply chain collaboration can be designed and implemented. A case study of an application of collaboration tools is presented. This framework was used successfully to design and implement a collaborative integrated-enterprise system for a manufacturing enterprise. However, collaboration in supply chain is only effective if the collaboration tools are integrated or used jointly by supply chain and their collaborative partners. Therefore, this chapter first explains the concept of collaboration tools and its importance in the supply chain, evaluates the requirements for supply chain management (SCM), and tries to ascertain the collaborative problem areas specifically within supplier and SCM relations.