The Role of Technology in Modern Supply Chain Management

This report delves into the critical role of technology in modern supply chain management and logistics, exploring its transformative impact on business processes. The introduction highlights the importance of technology in enhancing efficiency, transparency, and customer satisfaction within the...Read More

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPLY CHAIN
IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPLY CHAIN
Name of student
Name of university
Author’s note:

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IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPLY CHAIN
Table of Contents
Part 1. Introduction.........................................................................................................2
1.1 Reason for choice for report.............................................................................2
1.2 Academic objectives of project........................................................................3
Part 2. Literature review.................................................................................................3
Impact of technology on supply chain management..................................................3
Advanced technologies to develop supply chain management..................................8
Importance of RFID technology in supply chain management...............................11
Importance of cloud computing in supply chain management................................16
Importance of big data within supply chain management.......................................18
Part 3. Summary and conclusions................................................................................21
3.1 Reviews of objectives........................................................................................21
3.2 Limitations.........................................................................................................21
3.3 Suggestions for future research..........................................................................22
References....................................................................................................................23

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Part 1. Introduction
This report intends to debate importance of technology within supply chain
management as well as logistics. Logistics is commonly described as the segment of supply
chain procedure that mainly executes the planning, implementation and then controlling the
operative, effectual, inverse and the onward flow along with the storing of the goods,
information and any kind of information among the origin place and the consumption place
for satisfying the desires of customers in the correct conditions. Moreover, the supply chain
mainly comprises of the stages that are needed for satisfying requests of customers.
Supply chain management could be described as management of the information,
resources and the assets with the movement in the procedure from the suppliers to the
manufacturers to the wholesaler to the retailers to the customers. The present emerging
technologies are developing the strategic chances for any organisation to create significant
competitive benefits in the numerous areas of function with administration that includes the
logistics plus the supply chain management. Moreover, the main amount of the
accomplishment solely depends on the choice of appropriate technology for any application,
the accessibility of the appropriate infrastructure within organisation, management strategies
as well as culture. This research project discusses the main impact of technology in the
supply chain of organisations. A detailed literature review has been presented for the
discussion of the importance of technology within supply chain management and logistics.
1.1 Reason for choice for report
The key reason why this topic is selected for this report is to understand the recent
developments with the technological field in supply chain management with deriving the
main methods by which supply chain management could be improved in future with the
appropriate use of technology.

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1.2 Academic objectives of project
To determine main impact of any technology on the logistics and supply chain
management in present times
To determine the various technologies that are used in the supply chain management and
logistics and understand their importance in supply chain
To understand the role of the modern technologies in the supply chain management and
logistics
Part 2. Literature review
Impact of technology on supply chain management
The modern technologies is significantly transforming the daily business processes for
several organisations in supply chain management. The requirement for the real time
pursuing and appropriate delivery schemes creates the supply chain management suitable for
the technological improvement, which includes mobiles, handheld technology as well as
wireless technology. These technologies are leading completely throughout the transportation
and the logistics sectors (Fredendall & Hill, 2016). With the completely changing prospect of
the technologies in the modern times, maintaining the pace with the innovative capabilities
and the most appropriate practices could be significantly challenging for the large companies
those possess significantly profound investments in the older technologies and it is
considered as a long lasting procedure (Hugos, 2018). Even though the transitions takes
significant time, the leveraging of innovative and modern technologies is crucial in the
competitive industry (Monczka et al., 2015). Some methods by which technological
innovation is transforming the supply chain management are:
Increased transparency and efficiency: In the present times, where technological
innovation has not been implemented, the shippers are under immense pressure of reducing

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the costs of supply chain as the section of the superior initiatives of saving the assets of the
companies (Lin, 2014). The shippers desire increased services and increased transparency
from managers of the supply chain, precisely deprived of any increase in the costs. With the
introduction of the wireless period, several providers of third party logistics plus the
managers of supply chain have implemented the wireless tools along with cloud computing
technology for the automation of systems and gain improved accuracy (Tian, 2016). Not
solely the automated schemes are significantly swifter and increasingly effectual than the fax
based prototypes, the methodologies of the mobile as well as automated technologies also
offer improved data apprehension that could help in improving the processes and it could also
be stored as well as analysed for targeting the areas of significant improvement.
Figure 1: Technology in supply chain management
Source: (Lin, 2014)
As an example, it could be considered that the mobile devices could convey the
wireless evidence of delivery along with updated transportation observing that could help the
mangers with the discovery and then addressing the operational anomalies (Wisner, Tan &
Leong, 2014). The 3PLs are turning to the technological solutions for rearrangement the
activities of the supply chain of clients and then enhance the relations with clients. The
increased usage of the technology of Customer Relationship Management prevails to offer

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the simplified access perceptibility of the operations of supply chain, assisting the leaders
with identification of the inefficiencies as well as the bottlenecks in the commercial
operations. The technologies like RFID or Radio Frequency Identification is the most popular
technique of data capture and automatic identification. As the RFID chips could be easily
linked to the catalogue, clothing and many other aspects, the likelihoods of the tracing are
significantly expensive and it is valid to several prospects of supply chain (Dabbene, Gay &
Tortia, 2014). The use of technology significantly reduces the labour expenses by the
appropriate restructuring the data apprehension and then decreasing error prone manual
procedures. The access to the updated, updated information all through the complete supply
chain is presently impacting significantly on the progress of the companies and expected to
do the business. The simplified access to the real time information has impacted severely
(Kshetri, 2018). The APIs provides the logistics providers with the ability of interfacing with
several system in enhanced manner and then decrease the time taken to gain the data from
one point to another point. The enhanced flow of information also provides the possibilities
of increased asset utilisation by providing loads to the shippers, reducing the empty miles
from network of transportation (Waters & Rinsler, 2014).
Figure 2: Technology in supply chain management
Source: (Dabbene, Gay & Tortia, 2014)

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Increased focus on the individual employees: The modern smartphone technology
providers the vendors and the shippers with the ability of pairing the workers with
appropriate devices accurately for the daily work. As the mobiles devices are becoming more
varied and diverse, the companies are determined to match correct job with the right device.
While the smartphones are becoming increasingly precedent in the operations of supply
chain, this technology is still under debate. In the present times, several asset-lite carriers
leverages the smartphones technology (Rushton, Croucher & Baker, 2014). With the use of
apps, the proprietary programs as well as the mobile technologies, the smartphone technology
utilises the alerts from smartphone that are placed with driver and it creates a trace of how the
freight is pursued. The smartphones provides the open network of the carriers with the
capability of acting like sealed fleet network (Khajavi, Partanen & Holmström, 2014).
Improved communication as well as community: The smoother as well as
increasingly frequent communication creates the business processes significantly easier. The
mobile applications as well as the real time communication could develop improved sense of
unity as well as development from those already implemented in the market (Mangan,
Lalwani & Lalwani, 2016). The managers are could use the technology significantly but the
improved communication as well as the access of real time information could provide the
updated information about the happenings of the business. Further than conventional
communication options, smartphones provides the employees of the 3PL companies with the
enterprise technology solutions made accessible in the marketplace utilise the pings as well as
the information and it improves the communication as well as offers several capabilities for
making the big carrier quicker (Apte & Petrovsky, 2016). The tactical workforce
administration is specifically crucial for the businesses those are immensely understrength or
facing several difficulties filling the capacity. The supple communication channels within the
features of supply chain could upsurge the productivity of the employees and increase morale

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of the employees. The improved collaboration as well as the communication finally provides
the company with the ability of providing better customer services. The communication aids
in the products delivery as well as product tracking that leads to the greater customer
contentment with the supply chain procedure. When the employees are associated using
several phases of supply chain, the workers likely feel increasingly fulfilled and there is a
situation when the operations are executing smoothly (Chen, Preston & Swink, 2015).
Figure 3: Impact of technology in supply chain management
Source: (Apte & Petrovsky, 2016)

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Advanced technologies to develop supply chain management
In the recent times, the utmost important business area within any industrialised
facility is the supply chain. The supply chain of companies are the point of the processes,
which not only determines the effectiveness of distribution but it also improves the quality of
product any customer procures. The supply chain management can be termed as the crucial
component of the productivity. In the technologically developed business markets, the most
substantial changes is acceptance of the modern technologies of enhancing the efficiency as
well as the accountability within the complete supply chain (Rauer & Kaufmann, 2015). The
online chain management has immensely transformed the recent business by enabling the
increased visibility as well as tracking. Technologies allows the real time monitoring of
complete chain that includes the invoicing as well as shipping.
The main dynamism within the technology products includes smartphones, tablets, the
GPS devices and several other technology that have grown to be popular in the manageable
supply chain knowledge that is significantly vital in observing supply chain with the use of
wireless technology (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014). The major gain from the revolution in the
technological field is the flexibility that is offered to the logistical managers in the tracking as
well as monitoring of the complete chain. The supply managers now have the ability of
making the required changes in supply chain. These particular changes in supply chain with
help of the technology allows increasing the customer satisfaction (Luthra et al., 2014). Some
of the shared technologies that are utilised in modern supply chain of the companies are:
Radio technology: The major issue that is tackled by the managers of the supply
chain in the companies is increase of the anomalies when the orders are placed in the transit.
It not merely leads to the damages but it ultimately has the negative effect on the brand. With
the acceptance of the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification technology), any enterprise
could efficiently manage each of the product equally at production line as well as in supply

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line RFID chips are implemented on the matters that aids the personnel in swiftly detecting
anomalies in any of the orders (Korpela, Hallikas & Dahlberg, 2017). This is presently the
most innovative methods of correcting the issues prior it ruins complete supply chain.
Advanced Weighing Technology: The major hindrances within supply chain is the
assessing procedure. The out-of-date truck scales are presently being utilised in the majority
of the industrial facilities that significantly compromises the efficiency (Oettmeier &
Hofmann, 2016). For eliminating this particular issue, the modern technologies include
resourceful on-board truck scales. It permit the continuous operations when accesses to the
platforms balances are not accessible. This particular scale measures the payload weight as
well as the gross weight of the truck (Govindan et al., 2014). It helps in enhancing the
productivity by guaranteeing that the truck carries the majority of the weight from the loading
point while saving money as well as time. Onboard truck scales are being increasingly
adopted as the safety assurance for ensuring the operators in any warehouse for any example
solely convey the permitted weight on the lifts (Marinagi, Trivellas & Sakas, 2014).
Figure 4: Impact of technology in supply chain management
Source: (Govindan et al., 2014)

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Social Media Revolution: With the increased popularity of the social media
websites in the present times, the businesses are increasingly leveraging the power of the
social media for the optimisation of the supply chain operations. This leveraging the most
ingenious method of opening increased channels and prevail within touch in live with each of
the shareholders of the company within supply chain (Taticchi et al., 2015). It is significantly
easy in responding to the questions, report within real time, report the price fluctuations and
then improve the visibility of the company.
Figure 5: Importance of technology in supply chain management
Source: (Taticchi et al., 2015)
Transport Management Software: The supplies administration with the
computerised solutions is forthcoming of the businesses. The utilisation of the computerised
tracking as well as shipping allows the integration of all the operations from any one panel
(Stadtler, 2015). However, it is presently possible to possess such panel in the mobile devices
that means, it provides the change of organising the catalogue data, manage the shipping,

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manage the circulation and then generate the electronic notice of the landing, combined in
one place. It helps in enhancing the customer experience as well as reduce the errors within
the complete process (Gunasekaran et al., 2017).
Data analytics: The modern technologies provides significant amount of data that
could be used by the companies for predicting the customer behaviour and the customer
preferences (Wu et al., 2016). Each new tools is generating huge amount of data that is
helping in driving the intelligence that could be used by supply chain management
effectively. With the consideration of data sources from RFID, the customer surveys, the
CRM transactions as well as the call center logs, it is often predicted that the big data would
be utilised in modern supply chain of the businesses (Ross, 2015).
Importance of RFID technology in supply chain management
Significant evidence is gathered for utilisation of the supply chain management for the
efficient allocation and distribution. Moreover, the literature on the application of RFID is not
described briefly in detail. The efficiency of any supply chain and the logistics plays
immense part in the growing return of a business. Moreover, the major discussion that is
conducted in the present times is the search of the optimum level of the operational efficiency
within any supply chain (Luthra, Garg & Haleem, 2015). Presently, the major
interconnectivity among various connection among the supply chain plus the logistics is
inaccurate and incomplete owing to the fact that each of the connection within any chain is an
individual entity. It hints to the deprived product visibility along with the clearness in the
stock within supply chain. It is specifically crucial when the scalability issues are considered.
The present technology that is being implemented in the organisations is the RFID or Radio
Frequency Identification. This technology is combined along with the information
distribution systems. It is considered that in future, this combined technology would impact
crucially in future of the global trade (Chen, Zhang & Delaurentis, 2014). With the

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implemented boundaries of the trade in the organisations, the trades are consistently
increasing and growing to be more dispersed, it is crucial to possess the tool that helps in
collaborating this kind of complicated supply chain. Moreover, the decision of implementing
the new technologies is significantly questionable as the aspect of cost is involved. Majority
of the companies are reluctant to deploy the new technologies due to the fear of not gaining
effective ROI from the investment (Wu, Chuang & Hsu, 2014).
Figure 6: Importance of technology
Source: (Chen, Zhang & Delaurentis, 2014)
The vertical segments like the retailers, manufacturers and the distributors considers
the supply chain management as critical section for the businesses and arrival of the RFID
has been discovered for enhancing the efficiency of SCM process (Subramanian &
Gunasekaran, 2015). The utilisation of the RFID technology is being done by the retailers as
this technology aids in the minimising the gaps within the communication among retailers
and the suppliers by the transformation of the correct informant ions at accurate time. The
development of the electronic retailing in the form of the scanning of bar code, inclusive
system for the mobile communications, the acceptance of the RFID as well as other devices

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have significant accelerated the function of marketing within bulk of the retail organisation
(Tachizawa, Alvarez-Gil & Montes-Sancho, 2015). However, it is easily possible to achieve
critical information regarding the customers, then synchronise all the processes using RFID.
The RFID creates the opportunity of the making the supply chain efficient and effective. The
RFID manages complete supply chain actions like the attaining of the resources, the storage
of materials, management of the inventory, the manufacturing procedure, supervision of the
customer facilities and logistics (Luthra, Garg & Haleem, 2015).
A study has been carried out by several researchers on the factors that are distressing
the acceptance of RFID in small countries where the companies are not so developed. The
companies adopt the technology of RFID for growing the efficiency in terms of the
operations, supply chain and manufacturing (Christopher & Ryals, 2014). On similar ground,
the researchers added that there are errors in the inventory management that could be reduced
with the adoption of RFID. Some researchers reported that RFID technology assists in the
reduction of supply chain costs. It is learnt by several researchers that the RFID technology
assists in enhancing the communication plus collaboration of supply chain as complete
system. It assists in the management of SCM on the real time basis (Addo-Tenkorang &
Helo, 2016). It has been discovered by several researchers that several retailers are not
considering the implementation of RFID. Moreover, there has been none debate on the issues
like motivating the RFID implementation across several industries.

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Figure 6: Importance of technology
Source: (Christopher & Ryals, 2014)
The RFID technology utilises the radio waves for transmitting the identity of any
object wirelessly. The data of RFID could be easily accessed via clothing, non-metallic
materials and the human body (Zhong et al., 2016). Any RFID technology comprises of three
components, namely, an antenna, a transponder, and a transceiver. The use of RFID has been
immensely done in the supply chain. It provides significant contribution towards supply chain
performance. It assists in management of the supply chain process efficiently and it assists in
the growth of the company (Fan et al., 2015). The process of supply chain could be easily
defined as the chain comprising of the manufacturer, supplier, transporter, customer, retailer,
warehouses and the distributors. Moreover, the supply chain process is discovered to be

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varied within the various companies. In order to have effectual and operative supply chain
management, there is a requirement of proper information flow with several levels of the
supply chain. The customers and the end users procure the products from retailers, and the
retailers buy it from above level, who are the distributors. This process of buying and selling
the constant process that is followed by majority of the companies. Within supply chain
process of the companies, the RFID is utilised for automating the procurement of materials
and the products of distribution centers and then it stores along with helping in reducing the
money, time as well as complexity (Silvestre, 2015). With the implementation of the RFID
tag on any product of the companies, the users could track the movement of the product from
manufacturers to customers.
Figure 7: Improvements in supply chain management
Source: (Silvestre, 2015)

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Importance of cloud computing in supply chain management
In the present business world, the application of cloud computing technology within
supply chain management is the innovative practice that offers the chance of conducting the
analysis of cloud computing in supply chain management (de Barros et al., 2015). Prior
migrating from any conventional supply chain to any supply chain in cloud, the companies
are required initially to analyse all the technical requirements for the migration of the supply
chain activities to cloud (Nakasumi, 2017). The process of transformation could be easily
executed with the cloud lifecycle that is a significant improvement lifecycle with several
stages, which permits this transformation process in being evaluated and then improved for
the companies.
Moreover, before implementing this transformation process, there is a major
requirement for the companies to execute the assessment of the each of the factors for
implementation of the cloud technology within the supply chain. It has been observed that the
cloud computing technology is mainly used within supply chain management for the planning
as well as forecasting, procurement along with sourcing, logistics as well as the service
administration (Wang et al., 2016). Within planning and forecasting, the cloud based
platforms have been designed for assisting the companies with improving the service levels
with the effective coordination with partners of the supply chain network, who imparts a
essential role with the demand predicting. These particular platforms could gather the sales
data using internet, execute the common analytics and the subsequently carry out increasingly
precise statistical demand predictions for the entire supply chain of the company.

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Figure 8: Importance of cloud computing in supply chain management
Source: (Wang et al., 2016)
The aspect of sourcing within supply chain management includes the receipt,
acquisition plus examination of received materials with procurement procedure along with
the selection of suitable suppliers. With the implementation of the cloud computing
technology in sourcing aspect of the supply chain management, cloud enabled platforms
could operate as the database, which comprises of the several data regarding the various
suppliers, with creating immense benefit for the companies who transact with several
suppliers. Subsequently, the companies are enabled with selecting the suppliers relying on the
ability of providing the suitable semi products or the raw materials as per the specifications of
the end product along with the fulfilment of the time limits. It has been observed that the

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cloud enabled technologies allows the companies as well as the suppliers with developing the
contracts, then developing the contract management.
Within the prospect of logistics embedded within supply chain management, the cloud
computing is significant useful for warehouses, inventory as well as the transportation
management, because this technology provides the logistics tracking functionality for several
supply chain associates. The processes like the replenishment scheduling, the order handling,
the fleet administration, route preparation of the transportation as well as the global trade
obedience could be migrated to cloud for improved functionality. Particularly, any single
combined cloud enabled platform offers the benefit of the rationalized transportation and the
decreased on-hand and the inventory of pipeline, which could direct to the significant yearly
freight cost saving. Specifically within logistics segment, the cloud services seem to be
immensely crucial for the necessities of the 3PL companies for the warehousing and the
itinerary management for several various customers within singular system.
Importance of big data within supply chain management
Due to the significant technological advancements across all the entities of supply
chain, the data generated from supply chain of the companies is significantly increasing at
swift pace. The main information flow has been documented in the terms of the physical
documents till the rise of the information technology within supply chain. In the present
times, majority of information flow associated with material flow is being documented in
form of the structured data stored in the digital platform. As scope of the supply chain is
presently accessible all around the world, huge volumes of data that is collected from the
various processes as well as the velocity at which, this data is being generated could be easily
qualified as the big data. Additionally, the entities like the sales and marketing are presently
significantly dependent on the analysis of all the unstructured data as well as the structured
data for gaining improved insights on the requirements of the customers and then improve

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upon cost aspects of the supply chain processes. The appropriate utilisation of big data could
provide the significant value in the areas like the product development, the market demand
forecasting, and the decisions of the supplying, the optimisation of the distribution as well as
the customer feedback. The main motive of the introduction of big data analytics in the
supply chain of the companies is for solving the existing issues that could not be solved with
the conventional methods.
Figure 9: Importance of Big data in supply chain management
Source: (Nakasumi, 2017)
The major challenge that underlies within the supply chain and the big data analytics
and the big data is complexity of supply chain process as well as the unstructured data that
has evolved from this particular process. The supply chain entities are easily unified by the
physical flow, which involves raw materials, the returned items and finished products. The
efficient administration of the increased complexities within supply chain of the companies is
essential for competing better within the global market. The complexity in supply chain is
linked with the information as well as the material flow among the various entities of the

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supply chain. Conventionally, these particular flows are easily organised sequentially from
the suppliers to the customers. In the present business world, the information flows does not
follow the linear form. Any typical supply chain mainly comprises of several elements or
parts of numerous kinds that are associated among one another indirectly or directly. The
numerous elements as well the interrelationships are immensely significant for the
complexity that is occurring within any system. The main features of the complexity are
required to be considered to gain improved accepting of the impact.
The implication of the big data analytics within supply chain is analysed plus it has
been discovered that the big data analytics helps supply chain by improving the predictions
on the customer needs, enhancing the efficiency of the supply chains, enhancing the risk
assessment within supply chain, improve the tracking of the supply chains of the companies
and then improve the reaction time for the companies. The companies could lose the
customers if the companies fails to satisfy the requirements of customers. However, the
reputation of the company could be significantly affected because of the partial fulfilment or
not able to satisfy the requirements of the customers. In age of the customers, the offering of
correct product to correct person at correct time as well as place is crucial for gaining the
customer loyalty and satisfaction. The smart organisations extensively leverages the Big data
for gaining complete view of the customers for the improved predictions of the customer
requirements, comprehend the personal preferences and then develop an unique experience of
the brand. With the proper use of the big data analytics within supply chain of the companies,
the cost efficient solutions could be discovered, cost reduction could be discovered and the
analytics could be properly exploited for improving the supply chain management of
companies.
The predictive analytics is considered as the major section of the big data analytics.
With the proper utilisation of the predictive analytics in supply chain management of

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companies, the companies could assess the probabilities of the main occurrence of the
problems, the potential impact. The predictive analytics within Big data could help in the
identification of the risks associated with the supply chain by proper analysis of significantly
large historical data volumes and the techniques of the risk mapping. The accurate predictions
of all the risks linked with supply chain of the companies could help in development of tools
as well as methods for minimising the effect of any probable risk. With the improved
traceability within the supply chain ensures the improved tracking of the goods from the
production aspect to the retail phase. The enhanced traceability could help in the integration
of the various entities of supply chain and then manage the proper movement of the goods.
The improved capabilities of tracking provides the improved control over the entire supply
chain procedures.
Part 3. Summary and conclusions
3.1 Reviews of objectives
The objective of the study was to comprehend the importance of the various
technologies within supply chain of companies. It has been discovered that use of proper
technologies within the supply chain can help in improving the supply chain significantly.
The technologies helps in improving the procedure by which the companies execute the
complete supply chain process. The cloud computing technology linked with the supply chain
of the companies helps in providing improved storage capabilities and computation power of
the data of the companies also increases significantly. With the proper utilisation of the big
data analytics in supply chain of companies, data that is gained from the numerous processes
could be effectively analysed.

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3.2 Limitations
There are some limitations of the use of the technology in the supply chain
management that are essential to be analysed and evaluated prior the operation of technology
in supply chains. With the application of technology in the supply chain of the companies, the
security issues are discovered to rise significantly and it leads to the loss of data of the
companies. There are several situations when the technology might not be working properly
and it leads to the damage in the business processes of the companies and some sectors of the
business are significantly affected.
3.3 Suggestions for future research
It is presently analysed that the developments in the present technologies could impact
significantly on the supply chain of companies. The RFID technology which is presently
being used in supply chain of companies is in earlier stages of development and this
technology can be significantly established in future. The developments within the optimised
solutions of the cloud computing and big data technology could help the companies with the
integrating the technological solutions in the supply chain of companies. The digital supply
chain implemented in the companies could be significantly beneficial as it would provide the
optimised solutions for businesses. Some of the key areas of research in the future are the
implementation of the optimised solutions of cloud computing in the businesses that could be
used for storing and deploying in the cloud and this deployed information in the cloud could
help the companies to view the information of the companies anytime from anywhere. The
real time traffic data could be effectively managed with proper utilisation of technology in the
supply chain of th organisation that could significantly affect the receiving as well as
shipping of the modules of the fragments for the development of product or the end user
delivery of the goods. There is significant potential of research in the sector of the
implementation of Internet of Things within the supply chain of companies. The smart road

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knowledge that could develop the off traffic and the data of weather as well as strategy the
innovative routes or even spontaneously alert the crucial personnel of the delays.

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