Achieving Supply Chain Integration: Connecting the Supply Chain Inside and Out for Competitive Advantage

4. The Role of Information in Internal and External Integration

By Randy V. Bradley, Bogdan C. Bichescu, and Joon In¹

With the increasing number of new technologies available in the marketplace, integration and standardization of these technologies have become increasingly more important to the overall effort to achieve better organizational outcomes and supply chain effectiveness. Along this line, several factors can inhibit and/or enhance an organization’s ability to achieve its goals—information flow, information quality, and integration of IT infrastructure. Most major supply chain issues (in terms of execution) are related to a highly fragmented delivery system that lacks even rudimentary information management capabilities. This results ...