Supply Chain Management (Term Paper Sample)

Phase2 DB Supply Chain Management
[Name]
[Institute]
Ways in Which Businesses Interact With and Manage Their Supply Chain
The internet has highly impacted on how businesses interact with and manage their supply chain. Success of a business is mostly dependant on supplier relationships. Thus, if a business is able to select its suppliers well, manage them effectively and maintain a good relationship with them, then such a business would be in better chances of succeeding. Some of the ways through which businesses interact with and manage their supply chain is by information integration, workflow coordination, and synchronized planning.
Information integration is defined as sharing of information among supply chain members (Lee and Whang, 2001, p. 4). This means that there can be faster response, transparency, trust building, and direct accessibility between businesses and their supply chain. Another way through which businesses interact with and manage their supply chain is by workflow coordination. Workflow coordination is defined as automated and streamlined workflow activities between businesses and their supply chain (Lee and Whang, 2001, p. 4). Workflow coordination means that there is improved service, efficiency, fast response, and accuracy gains between businesses and their supply chain. Synchronized planning is defined as design and execution of plans in a joint manner (Lee and Whang, 2001, p. 4). This assists businesses and their supply chain to lower costs, improve services and optimize their capacities in doing business.
Steps of the Procurement Process
The general steps for procurement process as outlined by Nathan (2014) are as follows:
1 Need Identification-identifying a product
2 Need Specification-specifying the right product
3 Source options-determining where to obtain the product
4 Determining price and terms-investigating best price and terms for the specified product
5 Purchase order-buying product between buyer and seller with specification of price, terms and conditions of product
6 Delivery-purchased order has to be delivered by agreed means
7 Expediting-addressing timeliness of delivery
8 Inspection and receipt of purchases –once product is delivered, recipient accepts or rejects product as per agreed price terms, and conditions
9 Invoice approval and payment
10 Record maintenance
Types of Procurement in Business-To-Business (B2B) In E-Commerce Environments
Most businesses are now recognizing the power of internet in B2B activities. As such, businesses are now using procurement processes in e-Commerce environments. The most common types of procurement in B2B in e-Commerce environments are online market places (e-markets) and electronic data interchange (EDI). EDI refers to electronic exchange of business data between trading partners (Ecommerce.hostip.info, n. d). On the other hand, e-markets are situations where many sellers and buyers come together in e-Commerce environments and function as intermediaries between a buyer and a seller (Ecommerce.hostip.info, n. d). EDI and e-markets procurements methods enable the entire procurement process to be more efficient, faster, and minimizing errors.
Impact E-Business Has On an Organization Internally With Employees