Strategies to Enhance E-Business Supply Chain

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE E-BUSINESS SUPPLY CHAIN
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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Logistic technology..........................................................................................................14
Automated self-billing.....................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
Recommendations....................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................17