Strategies to Enhance E-Business Supply Chain

This report discusses the strategies and technologies to enhance the upstream and downstream activities in the supply chain of an organization. It focuses on Homeart, an Australian retail organization, and explores the use of ERP, EDI, and automation in supply chain management.

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE E-BUSINESS SUPPLY CHAIN
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive Summary
Supply chain is the network of entities required to enhance the business process of an
organization. In case of retail industries such as Homeart, it is one of the vital concern of the
organization to efficiently manage the supply chain to maintain a sustainable position in the
competitive market. A proper supply chain comprises every single element such as, source,
planning, production, inventory, information, transportation, billing and payment along with
the return of those products in case they do not match the customer expectation. Furthermore,
all the discussed elements are categorised under upstream and downstream activities.
Upstream activities are the prior activity of the production including the production itself,
whereas, the downstream activities are the activities comprises with all the after production
processes. This report will explain the technologies such as ERP, EDI, automation and many
others in order to enhance all the activities in every stages of a supply chain.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Organization overview...........................................................................................................5
Discussion..................................................................................................................................5
Supply chain...........................................................................................................................5
Supply chain management.....................................................................................................6
Elements of a supply chain....................................................................................................8
Upstream elements of a supply chain.....................................................................................9
Planning..............................................................................................................................9
Information.........................................................................................................................9
Source...............................................................................................................................10
Inventory..........................................................................................................................10
Production........................................................................................................................10
Relevant technology to enhance the upstream supply chain:...............................................11
Enterprise resource planning (ERP).................................................................................11
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)...................................................................................11
Automation.......................................................................................................................12
Downstream elements of a supply chain..............................................................................13
Transportation..................................................................................................................13
Billing and payment.........................................................................................................13
Return of goods................................................................................................................14
Relevant technology to enhance downstream supply chain.................................................14

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Logistic technology..........................................................................................................14
Automated self-billing.....................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
Recommendations....................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
In today’s competitive and technological marketing era, it is necessary for every kind
of organization to create a well-planned business strategy and manage the existing business’s
supply chain. The importance of managing the supply chain of a business indicates fulfilling
of some vital business goals such as, boosting the customer service, reducing the cost of
operation, improving the financial position and many more. The concept of supply chain
explains a network of any organization or individuals, participating in the creation as well as
sales of different kind of products (Seuring 2013). Beginning with delivering the raw
materials to the suppliers to delivering the desired product to the end users, the chain involves
various elements as well as segments. On the other hand, supply chain management is the
concept of oversight the organizational information, materials along with the financial budget
related to the products in order to manage the entire process of production (Rushton,
Croucher and Baker 2014). Furthermore, the process of managing a supply chain adds
integrating as well as coordinating the entire business process. The supply chain generally
include three type of flows, Product flow, information flow and finance flow. Product flow
includes transferring the goods from suppliers to consumers; whereas, the information flow
can described by transmitting as well as updating the organizational information. The report
is going to describe the supply chain and the way of managing the supply chain of the
Australian retail organization Homeart. Furthermore, the two categories of the supply chain
activity that is the upstream and downstream activities are going to explain in the report along
with the appropriate technologies to enhance their operations. The report will also
recommend some technologies to the management of the organization to upgrade the
business activities and gain competitive advantages.

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Organization overview
Homeart is a well-recognized retail organization in Australia having it’s headquarter
in the Melbourne city. The organization was established in the year 1977; however, the
headquarter has changed Bella Vista after few year. The vital idea of establishing the
organization is to provide day-to-day household products such as, Home appliances,
kitchenware, giftware, and furniture as well as numerous electrical elements to its customers
in an affordable price. The increasing customer demand and customer loyalty has become
beneficial for the organization. Currently the organization has all most 140 number of stores
operating in Australia (homeart.com.au 2019).
Discussion
Supply chain
Supply chain is the concept of a chain of entities, which are directly or indirectly
interrelated as well as interdependent to the organization and its end user, that is the
customers. The entire network comprises with the vendors a list of vendors to supply the raw
materials, number of producers to shape the raw materials into desirable products, series of
proper warehouse in order to store the products, followed by numerous distribution channels;
helping the products to reach near the retailers and the end users (Monczka et al.2015). Every
single discussed component is equally important to make a successful supply chain.
The Melbourne based retail industry Homeart has able to expand its supply chain by
creating its outlets in almost every states of Australia. Furthermore, as the particular
organization intended to provide day-to-day essentials such as kitchenware, giftware, and
small electrical components along with different interior design products to its consumers;
hence, it has to deal with a large supply chain. Moreover, for different kind of products, the
organization depends on a number of vendors and stakeholders to get the appropriate raw

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materials to improve the production in order to get comparatively better customer attention.
Apart from that, this particular retail industry has expanded a number of stores as per
customer convenience in order to make the product reach to its end users. As customer plays
the vital part for a sustainable business, the management of Homeart pays immense attention
towards the customer review as well as feedbacks for production improvement.
Supply chain management
The activity undertaken by the organization in order to maximize the customer attention
and minimize the market competition as well as cost of the production can be named as
supply chain management. Furthermore, the in order to manage the supply chain effectively,
it requires conscious effort and efficient tactics to be formed by the organizational
management. A complete supply chain covers every single activity, starting from the
production planning, sourcing, development, and logistics to the sales, which requires proper
business strategy and effective management along with an efficient information system to
coordinate the discussed activities. The Australian retail organization Homeart has
successfully expanded its supply chain in online in order to gain more revenue and user
attention. Hence, the management of this organization always keep track with the two core
ideas of successfully managing a large supply chain; which are as follows,
1) The first and foremost idea of supply chain management, which the managers of the
discussed retail organization follow is that; every single product or service that the
customers get, represent an effective as well as cumulative effort given at every stage
of the production by different channels, together called as a supply chain
2) The next vital idea that the Homeart management keep track is that, providing
satisfactory products to the consumers is the vital intention of the supply chain.
Nevertheless, managing a large supply chain is complicated, which sometimes result
in ineffective and disjointed chain. Hence, to avoid these kinds of issues the

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management of the organization always interlinks the physical and information flow
together (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). Emphasizing the concept, physical flow in a
supply chain involves the storage, movement and transportation of goods, whereas the
information flow focuses on allowing all the supply chain partners for carrying out all
the long term plans in a coordinative manner and control as well as upgrades all the
day-to-day business activities.
Figure 1
(Supply chain of Homeart)
As shown above, the supply chain of the Australian retail industry Homeart operates
by considering a number of entities. The organizational supply chain begins with the
vendors or suppliers who are responsible for providing raw materials and goods to the
organization. In order to get qualitative material, the management of the organization
relies on numerous vendors. Once the vendors provide the raw material to the

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organization, the managers of Homeart initiate the production activity according to
the previously formed business tactics. In order to maintain high reputation in the
market, the organization always look forward to qualitative production; hence, the
organization ensure quality checking as well as well packaging of the products, prior
to their final release to the market. After the products pass the quality checking, then
the organization collaborate with the transportation management systems in order to
provide the products to different associated distribution channel and then the products
are release to the demand market. Customers play vital part in the supply chain as the
feedback, review as well as their satisfaction and need for a product directs the
organization for better production. The chosen organization Homeart provides both
kind of shopping facilities to its customers, whether it is traditional method of
shopping or online shopping, the organization look forward to provide numerous
products to the customers to its consumers. However, in some cases, when the product
fails the customer expectation, then the supply chain get expanded as the organization
provide the advantages of exchange and refund facilities to its customers.
Elements of a supply chain
There are various elements present in a supply chain, which are as follows;
 Planning
 Information
 Source
 Inventory
 Production
 Location
 Transportation
 Return of goods

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Upstream elements of a supply chain
The upstream activity in a supply chain refers to every single activity that directly
comes to the organization from the suppliers for the production. Moreover, it can be stated
that, the upstream activity reflect each stage of the production, starting from planning to the
production (Melnyk, Narasimhan and DeCampos 2014). It establishes a relationship as well
as information flow between the organization with the supplier and vice versa. The upstream
elements in the supply chain of Homeart can be explained as follows;
Planning
Making effective planning and tactics in a business is the vital concern in order to
maintain the sustainability of a business. Prior to the creation of an effective supply chain, it
is necessary for the managers to build valuable strategies and work accordingly. Examining
the current market condition, calculating the competition, Checking the product demand and
viability are the vital part of a planning that are necessary to create a successful supply chain
and a sustainable business (Gunasekaran, Subramanian and Rahman 2015). Therefore, for
creating a noticeable market position, the marketing managers of the discussed retail
organization forms several strategies so that a proper balance between the demand and supply
will be maintained. Therefore, it can be said that a proper blueprint or plan leads to an
effective supply chain management system.
Information
Regardless of the type of organization, it is necessary for it to undertake a successful
information flow regarding every single aspects of the production. In order to get the best
understanding of competition and the current market trends regarding the demand and supply,
the managers of Homeart keep an eye to the timely dissemination of information flow
through every stages of the production. However, lack of proper information flow between

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the organization and the suppliers can lead to customer dissatisfaction (Maimon, Khmelnitsky
and Kogan 2013).
Source
In a supply chain, the vendors play a crucial role. In order to provide desirable
product to the end users, it is necessary for the organization to get qualitative raw materials
for the production (Madenas et al. 2014). Hence, the management of the Australian retail
industry Homeart deals with appropriate vendors and collect the raw materials in a cost
effective rate. Furthermore, the organization always look ahead to collect the raw materials
within a stipulated budget and within a planned amount of time.
Inventory
In order to get a clear vision about every stage of production, it is necessary to update
and manage the inventory in a regular basis. In order to evaluate the demarcated available
stock within the organization and the required cost, maintenance of an effective inventory
system within the organization is very much essential (Gunasekaran, Subramanian and
Rahman 2015). However, lack of proper inventory management system can lead to a critical
situation in managing the supply chain.
Production
It is the vital stage of the supply chain as well as an important element in the upstream
activity. In order to create a sustainable market position by staying ahead the competition,
every organization needs to handle qualitative product to its customers (Duan and Liao 2013).
Homeart has gained a lot of popularity among the customer, as it provides desired as well as
qualitative products to its customers. Apart from that, keeping track with the upgraded

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technology in order to make latest technologically rich product, has helped the discussed
organization to gain immense customer loyalty. Furthermore, in addition to qualitative
production, the production team of the organization ensures the quality testing of the products
followed by eye catching packaging and final preparation in order to deliver the final product.
The management of Homeart always believes that qualitative products in an affordable price
is the key requirements for gaining competitive advantage in the market.
Relevant technology to enhance the upstream supply chain:
The following technology can enhance the upstream activity of the supply chain of the retail
organization Homeart.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
It is one of the vital business process management software, designed to perform
effective inbound oriented functions. Furthermore, for carrying out proper execution of the
planned business tactics, most organization relies on an effective ERP system (Chofreh et al.
2014). In addition to managing the back office functions, efficient ERP system software can
minimize the delay in the operations that is starting from the planning, manufacturing, and
developing the product to the selling of that product, by integrating every stages of the
production. Hence, in order to enhance the upstream activity of the supply chain of the retail
organization Homeart, installation of an effective ERP system inside the organization can be
comparatively helpful.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
As per the above discussion, in order to managing a successful supply chain, it is
necessary for the organization to carry out an effective information flow with the vendors.

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Unlike the traditional data exchange process, this particular technology provides direct
application to application information exchange and communication (Jardini and Amri 2015).
It helps the organization in undertaking the standardize business communication in a
comparatively quick, flexible as well as in a more accurate manner. Moreover, business
communications require being secure and confidential; hence, installation of a suitable EDI
software will helpful for the discussed organization for transferring the commercial business
information in a more secure manner. However, some challenges such as difficulty in
understanding the importance of the software along with the fear of some technical problem
associated to the technology might become hindrance for its installation within the
organization. Nevertheless, proper training regarding the discussed technology can trigger the
occurring issues.
Automation
In today’s technological era, most of the organization choose to adopt automation in
order to enhance the production. Automation allows to use several control systems such as
computers and robot that can replace the human effort by providing comparatively high
accurate work in a less span of time or in other words, automation is the process of carrying
out the organizational production with minimal human assistance. Moreover, adoption of
modern manufacturing system can add value to the manufacturing as quality of the end
products, economics as well as the nature of employment in an organization get highly
modified (Radziwon et al. 2014). In case of the discussed organization Homeart, for
achieving high production capacity, triggering the issue of labour shortage, ensuring safety of
workers and reducing the employee cost the management of this organization can adopt
automation. Apart from that, automation can gain competitive advantage for the organization
by enhancing the production in an advance way.

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Downstream elements of a supply chain
Unlike upstream activities in a supply chain, the downstream supply chain intended to
emphasize on coordinating the goods and information flow between the customers and client
directly. Furthermore, the downstream activity defines the after production work or in other
way it can be said that, this activity of a supply chain implies the way of processing the
orders to make the goods reach to the customers in an efficient manner in terms of time and
cost (Gunasekaran, Subramanian and Rahman 2015). The upstream activity in the discussed
retail organization are as follows;
Transportation
In order to allow the raw materials to reach the door stapes of the organizational
production house and the final products to the door steps of the customers, transportation
plays a vital role. Furthermore, for efficient production it is necessary for the production team
to get the goods and raw materials in a timely manner. Hence, the management of the retail
organization Homeart, keeps an eye to the quick transportation service in order to get good
benefits from the production. However, sometimes the bad weather become a hindrance for
the organization’s intention of getting the raw materials on time. Nevertheless, the
organization deals with a series of vendors and stakeholders along with efficient
transportation service for ensuring zero damage products in a minimal cost and less time.
Billing and payment
It is one of the important supply chain activity as it is related to the financial concept
of the organization. Every organization including Homeart, requires a secure billing method
so that the financial intentions of the organization can be fulfilled.

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Return of goods
As the above discussed elements, the process of returning the goods is also one vital
element in a supply chain as it directly related to the customer and their satisfaction regarding
the product they get (Duan and Liao 2013). Homeart has been serving numerous amount of
product to its customer using both traditional as well as online method of shopping. However,
regardless of the efficiency, every machine can get malfunction in any time, resulting in
producing compromising quality of product. In such cases, the customer dissatisfaction might
arise, which can result in returning the product. Hence, it is necessary for every organization
including Homeart to maintain a good system for accepting the goods that are returned by the
customers and provide them alternative facilities such as exchange and refund.
Relevant technology to enhance downstream supply chain
Logistic technology
Logistic can be describe as the method of strategizing and executing an effective as
well as efficient storage and transportation service of raw materials and goods to the
consumption point. The vital goal of logistic comprises with satisfying the needs of the
stakeholders associated with the production and sales by providing the goods in a cost
effective as well as timely manner (Waters and Rinsler 2014). Initially, it was recognized for
transporting the military personnel and equipment; however, the retail organization and other
industries now a days taking advantages of the system in order to transport the goods for
manufacturing. Transportation management system is definitely one complex system to
handle; hence to simplify this the managers of Homeart can take the advantages of ERP
software and inventory management system including the warehouse management system
software.

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Automated self-billing
Homeart is one well recognized retail industry in Australia for providing numerous
household day-to-day items; hence, it is obvious for the stores to evidence major crowd and
long queue in the billing counter. Hence, for simplifying the billing and avoid the rush in the
billing counter, the organization can adopt the automated self-billing technology in the stores.
The radio frequency identification technology can turned as efficient in case of the automated
billing process. In the entire process, the RFID tags require to be implemented in the
shopping trolleys followed by all the item in the stores of Homeart will also have one RFID
tag attached to them (Fan et al. 2015). Therefore, when the customer will place a product in
the basket having the RFID tag, the code attached to it will be discovered and automatically
saved in the memory, resulting the entire bill displayed in the LCD screen just after the
shopping. It will definitely become beneficial in reducing the shopping time by improving the
customer shopping experience.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that managing a supply
chain is necessary in order to achieve the desirable success in the business. The supply chain
comprises with all the entities required to make a sustainable business. Starting from the
supplier to the consumers along with the production, transportation, management and
packaging of the products, the organizational management needs to pay equal attention to the
each stage of the supply chain in order to stand in the completion and stay ahead of it. All the
element in a supply chain broadly divided into two vital categories, that is upstream elements
and downstream element. The stages such as, planning, production, source, inventory and
information are the upstream elements, carried out to manufacture the product. On the other

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hand, downstream activity comprises with the activities like transportation, billing and
payment and returning the goods, which are carried out for direct dealing with the customers.
However, there exist several technologies such as, automation, electronic data interchange,
enterprise data interchange, logistic systems and automated self-billing systems using the
radio frequency identifier for simplifying both the upstream and downstream activities. The
above report has emphasized on the supply chain and supply chain management of the
Australian retail organization Homeart. Furthermore, the upstream and downstream supply
chain activities of the supply chain of Homeart have described here. The report has also
enlighten some technologies in order to enhance those activities, which can be recommended
to the discussed organization for expanding and simplifying the business.
Recommendations
In order to enhance the organizational working environment, every organization are
taking the advantages of current upgraded suitable technologies for their organization. No
doubt Homeart is an well recognized retail industry in Australia; yet, adoption of some of the
recent technology can be more beneficial for the organization in terms of gaining more profit
and customer loyalty. It can be recommended to the organization to focus on the automation
technique for more qualitative production. Apart from qualitative production, introducing
automation in the discussed organization can increase the work accuracy and enhance the
work environment by providing work place safety. Furthermore, it has been noticed that the
organization still continuing with the traditional billing and payment system. However, using
an automated self-billing using radio frequency identifier can enhance the customer shopping
experience as well as advantageous for the organization. Moreover, for e-commerce
customers, the organization can expand the payment method by coordinating the payment
method with mobile wallet. Apart from the traditional inventory management, the managers
of the above discussed organization requires to put emphasis on the upgraded modern

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inventory management techniques for getting more accurate and exact information about the
storage, manufacture, and development of the product.

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