به اشتراک گذاری داده در تجارت بنگاه به بنگاه: منبعی برای یکپارچه سازی زنجیره تامین

The flow of information between parties in a supply chain is crucial for carrying out an effective and efficient transition of consignments. To support the flow of information, diverse communication systems exist. Although the electronic data interchange technology has been around for more than 30 years now, it has not reached small- and medium-sized enterprises to any significant extent. The results of more than 20 case studies imply that smaller companies run the risk of being permanently excluded from integrating their logistics operations in the supply chain. However, the advent of the Internet and concepts of electronic business open up new perspectives for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

To provide effective support for the functioning of the logistics channel, the overall information systems architecture must be capable of linking or coordinating the information systems of the individual parties into a cohesive whole. In practice, each company's information system should support both proprietary and shared data. Since it is needed to manage the company, the proprietary data would be accessible only to those employees who have legitimate internal business needs. The shared data should be available through appropriate information interfaces to customers, logistics suppliers, or any other party having a need to know, through a contract or standard to which all parties agree [1]. This has become more important in later years as many companies are increasingly outsourcing their logistical activities to third parties, which in turn heightens the demand for effective data sharing [2]. This article lies within the scope of the shared data segment and, by carrying out several case studies, it tests whether the above statement “The shared data should be available through appropriate information interfaces…through a contract or standard to which all parties agree” is a vision or a reality. Additionally, the goal is to analyze to which extent small, medium, large and huge companies, taking part in the supply chain, utilize advanced information technology. To be able to position the information system, often called the logistics information system (LIS), within the concepts of logistics, LIS may be defined as follows (adapted from [3]): Logistics Information System is an interacting structure of people, equipment, and procedures which together make relevant information available to the logistics manager for the purposes of planning, implementation, and control. This definition implies that the data sharing between parties in the supply chain is of fundamental interest, and that the flow of information is essential for carrying out an effective and efficient movement of consignments. By using more advanced technology and data sharing, one can increase the resource utilization and thus reduce costs [4]. Development in information and communication technology has made it possible to integrate the supply chains so that the links between suppliers, producers, customers and third parties have been easier to establish. The elementary factor in making these links feasible is that the companies must develop the information systems in accordance with standards and communication technology that the other parties can agree to [5]. There exists a general consensus about this, but the means of communicating the relevant data or information are a different story. Establishing electronic links with their suppliers and customers enables companies to transmit and receive purchase orders, invoices and shipping notifications with much shorter lead times than previously, which gives potential to speed up the entire shipping transaction [6]. The most common technology for moving such messages between larger companies is electronic data interchange (EDI) meaning that “structured data, by agreed message standards, is transferred from one computer to another, by electronic means” [7]. However, there exists a barrier through which smaller companies are not able to break: the cost of implementing EDI communication technology, and the cost of installation and maintenance of value-added networks (VANs), place electronic communications out of reach for many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For the most part, these businesses rely on telephone and fax for their business communications. Even the larger companies that use EDI do not often realize the full potential benefits because many of their business partners do not use EDI. Therefore, although the technology has been around for more than three decades now, it has not reached SME's to any significant extent. Whereas 96% of 1998's Fortune 1000 companies in the USA are using EDI, 98% of the other companies are not [8]. The EDI is a solution made by the large companies for the large companies, while the small- and medium-sized ones do not have the opportunity to join the society.

The aim of this article is to analyze to what extent small, medium, large and huge companies, taking part in the supply chain, utilize advanced information technology to share data. To provide effective support for the functioning of the supply chain, the overall information systems architecture must be capable of linking or coordinating the individual information systems of the parties. EDI is the most common technology for moving such messages between companies, but the cost of implementing it places such electronic communications out of reach for many SMEs, so they have not adopted it extensively. Even the larger companies that use EDI do not reap the full potential benefits because many of their business partners do not use the EDI technology. More than 20 case studies, based on interview techniques, were carried out in both transportation and production companies. These case studies show that SMEs do not have the basic information systems to be able to implement some kind of advanced communication system. They communicate only through telephone and fax. Some of the reasons why they hesitate to join the EDI society are: • the investment is not in the communication module alone, but also in an information system that can support the input and output from such a system; • the customers do not require EDI communication, as they themselves do not have such a technology; • the number of transactions is so small that it would not justify the investment. There is a need for less expensive methods of sharing data in the supply chain to make it possible for the SMEs to participate. The advent of the Internet opens up new perspectives for these companies, as it makes electronic communication affordable to even the smallest companies. The Internet can contribute to and support EDI communications in diverse ways. The most obvious ways are: • to send EDI messages with e-mail, where the EDI message is enveloped in an e-mail message automatically and sent by a well-established message system; • to use EDI over Internet, where companies receive and send EDI messages over the Internet instead of through direct telecommunications; • direct use of Internet to distribute information or collect it, with an Internet page key-in capability; • an even more simple, less expensive and newer alternative is to map the content of an EDI message to a text file or an Internet site for use by non-EDI-established partners. The results of this investigation indicate that the effective data sharing between different parties in the supply chain is more of a vision than a reality, especially when SMEs are taking part. The method last mentioned above, though, is promising for the small companies that must join other partners in their data-sharing efforts to make better coordination possible in the supply chain.