Building Principles and Application of Multifunctional Video Information System

Abstract

A supply chain is a network that enables the distribution options for procurement of both raw and finished materials, which can be transformed into finished goods and distributed to the end customer through various distribution channels.Commonly, the main goal of a supply chain is satisfy the customer's requests as soon as they appear.This process is wellknown as e-procurement.E-Procurement is more than just a system for making purchases online.It provides an organized way to keep an open line of communication with potential suppliers during a business process.E-Procurement helps with the decision-making process by keeping relevant information neatly organized and time-stamped.In this book chapter, we covered the e-procurement process in Supply Chain Management borrowing features from service-oriented and event-driven architectures to provide support for supply chain management collaborations, covering the basic concepts and the participants in eprocurement, describing the main functions from the roles of producers, distributors, retailers, customers, and service providers in the e-procurement process, identifying the main information technologies for developing Web-based systems for e-procurement, presenting some selection criteria, implementation strategies, and process redesign initiatives for successful e-procurement deployment and finally discussing research and new trends for e-procurement in order to provide a guide for designing effective and wellplaned process models in e-procurement which is an important prerequisite for implementation success.With these aspects, Well-managed e-procurement systems can be developed to help reducing inventory levels.A properly implemented e-procurement system can connect companies and their business processes directly with suppliers while managing all interactions between them.A good e-procurement system helps a firm organize its interactions with its most crucial suppliers.It provides those who use it with a set of built-in monitoring tools to help control costs and assure maximum supplier performance. Basic concepts in e-procurement for supply chain managementAs the world's economy becomes increasingly competitive, sustaining competitiveness and the resulting profitability depends less on the ability to raise prices.Instead, firms need to www.intechopen.comSupply Chain Management -New Perspectives 712 compete on the basis of product innovation, higher quality, and faster response times, all of which must be delivered, in most cases simultaneously and always at the lowest costs attainable.Those competitive dimensions cannot be delivered without an effectively managed supply chain.Firms with the most competitive supply chains are and will continue to be the big winners in contemporary business.The supply chain encompasses all activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw materials stage through to the end user, as well as associated information flows.Supply Chain Management is the integration of these activities through improved supply chain relationships to achieve sustainable competitive advantage (Handfield & Nichols Jr, 1999).The definition suggests that all of the links in the supply chain must be strong and well integrated.However, it is argued here that the key link, the one that sets the foundation for the others, is supply management on the input end of the chain (Dobler & Burt, 1996).It is the link in the supply chain that serves as the boundary-spanning activity on the input end of the business where the supplier base is built based on the suppliers' ability to help the firm deliver on the competitive dimensions.It is where industrial marketers come face to face with the demands of the buying firm's supply chain.The increasing emphasis on supply chain management has sharpened top management's focus on the valued-added potential of supply management.A recent survey suggests that 7 6 % o f C E O s e x p e c t s u p p l y m a n a g e m e n t t o c o n t r i b u t e t o s h a r e h o l d e r v a l u e a s f i r m s continue to move toward more outsourcing (Nelson et. al., 2002).The potential impact on competitiveness and profitability is enormous because the average manufacturing firm spends about 50% of its sales revenue on the purchases of goods and services needed to produce its final product.It is at the supply end of the supply chain where most of the expenditures on supply chain activities exist.This increasing emphasis on supply management, rather than on the more traditional ''purchasing,'' requires that the professional supply manager move beyond the typical transaction focus of purchasing where price and availability were the key factors to be considered in the purchase decision.The new basics of supply management require that supply managers take a more strategic view of what they do.Those new basics include a comprehensive understanding of target costing, value engineering, supplier development, and electronic procurement (Nelson et. al., 2002).The first three are not really new, having existed as an implicit part of supply management for some time.It is more accurate to say they are being rediscovered.It is electronic procurement, the productive use of the Internet to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the supply end of the supply chain that is new.Strategic supply management has the potential for significant value creation for the firm.Business professionals who have long been involved in supply management understand its power to create value.The emergence of e-procurement in the last few years is creating a higher profile for supply management, boosting its visibility to top management.The challenge to those operating on the supply end of the supply chain is to make a convincing business case for what they do.Although CEOs expect supply management to contribute to shareholder value, effective supply managers need to get comfortable with the language of top management to communicate how that value is created.The move to e-procurement provides a unique opportunity for supply managers for two reasons.First, the application of technology to boost competitiveness and profitability is on the agenda of any forwardthinking CEO.Second, the application of technology to supply management, where firms spend most operating dollars, is focusing more top-management attention on that issue.A recent study by Deloitte Consulting of 200 global firms indicates that 30% have begun www.intechopen.

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