INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCE RESEARCH, IJOAR .

ORG
ISSN 2320-9127

International Journal of Advance Research, IJOAR .org

Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014, Online: ISSN 2320-9127

ERP SYSTEMS IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Dr. Mohamed Baymout
Dr. Mohamed Baymout is a professor at Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Keywords
ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning, SCM: Supply Chain Management, E-SCM: Electronic Supply Chain
Management, CRM: Customer Relationship Management, SOA: Service Oriented Architecture, ICT:
Information and Communication Technologies.

ABSTRACT
Supply Chain Management and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems are two of the most
popular components of enterprise solutions for today. SCM ensures that upstream and downstream
members of the chain are able to deliver according to the standards required in order to deliver a
product or service that satisfies the customers needs. ERP systems on the other hand ensure that
operations and transactions of a business are integrated into a centralized repository to facilitate in
information sharing and decision making within the organization. Most ERP vendor solutions of today
like SAP and Oracle are providing SCM as an extension module to the ERP core. These added
functionalities allow organizations to collaborate and interact with other supply chain members. In
addition, technologies like middleware and frameworks like Service-Oriented Architecture are rapidly
gaining mainstream adoption according to recent technological trends studies by Gartner. Thus, the
vision of having enterprises with a pool of integrated enterprise solutions consisting of ERP, SCM, BI,
DSS, CRM, etc. is now feasible and highly possible.
In this article, we examine how ERP and SCM can work together to bring benefits to a business. We will
also review two successful case studies of ERP and SCM implementations to examine how a business can
gain value from such a combined solution. Finally, a conclusion of the studies was made and it was
determined that ERP and SCM indeed can go hand-in-hand to deliver a solution that can be beneficial to
an organization.

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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND E-SCM

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional
business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across
businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the
individual companies and the supply chain as a whole (Mentzer et al., 2001). SCM is meant to make the
overall processes more clear and unified. Thus the flow of management and co-ordinating decisions and
inventory are faster and more efficient coming from the top of the chain all the way down. SCM uses
integrated business processes in order to simplify daily operations in real time.
E-Supply Chain Management (E-SCM) uses the advances of technology made available through
the advancement of the internet to further simplify SCM by utilizing it to simplify the flow of information
to different members of the supply chain, thus, further making SCM more efficient and much easier.
Through this, a supply chain can share crucial information in real-time. The use of the internet in
information sharing will better reflect decisions from all spheres of the business in and out as it also
facilitates information sharing and collaboration according to Gimenez and Lourenco (2004). Also from
Gimenez and Lourenco (2004), it can be seen that the primary effect of E-SCM to organizations is that
the internal value chain is improved as well because of information sharing and collaboration. Functional
and business units are able to improve customer relationship management and customer service
management as a result (Gimenez & Lourenco, 2004). Supply chain business process integration
involves collaborative work between buyers and suppliers, joint product development, common systems
and shared information. According to Lambert and Cooper (2000), operating an integrated supply chain
requires a continuous information flow. Lambert (2004) stated that SCM and E-SCM are crucial features
for a successful ERP since the flow and information sharing is important for the business to function.
SCM requires the management of materials and information flow in the whole chain, from suppliers
through to customers. It has been argued that if business success is to be achieved, optimization of
business processes across the value-added chain must be accompanied by modern processing technology
for optimization of enterprise-wide information management (Buck-Emden & Galimow, 1996).

BENEFITS OF SCM AND E-SCM

There are many benefits to SCM and E-SCM such as the flow of information in real-time in every
aspect of the business. Supply chain systems configure value for those that organize the networks. Value
is the additional revenue over and above the costs of building the network. Co-creating value and sharing
the benefits appropriately to encourage effective participation is a key challenge for any supply system.
Tony Hines defines value as follows: Ultimately it is the customer who pays the price for service
delivered that confirms value and not the producer who simply adds cost until that point (Hines, T.
2004). Hence, SCM and E-SCM adds value to the business by enabling the business to save money
through lower costs at various stages of the supply chain. Like for instance, SCM would effectively
enable accuracy in the inventory of items which in turn improves resource utilization. Also another
benefit would be time effectiveness, since there would be real-time information accessible which would
help in making decisions more accurate and appropriate in response to timely issues (Gimenez &
Laorenco, 2004). Additionally, E-SCM improves in-company cooperation and collaboration since
everyone would be on the same page, which leads to improved value chain management that would help
in sales and customer relations since everyone works towards achieving the same goals to satisfy each
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customer. There are also human resource management benefits with E-SCM. With centralized
information within the company, it would be easier to track employees hours worked and compliance to
company standards. E-SCM ensures that everything is transparent to everyone in the company; therefore,
improving the companys working standards.
Lancaster et al. (2006), has a list of the most common benefits of utilizing E-SCM as below as
summarized below:

Speed and the ability to communicate electronic channels decreases costs of

communication, carrying inventory and providing customer service
Collaboration minimizes the bullwhip effect which is the distortion of demand forecasts
along a supply chain as a result of inaccuracies or inadequacies of information on hand
Ability to build long-term relationships along the supply chain - organizations increase
the availability of information with each other, enabling them to align their strategies and
goals, making supply chains committed to the end consumer; it also moves to stabilize
processes, since organizations can focus on their core competencies, while outsourcing their
remaining needs to trusted and reliable partners
Improved customer relationships - eliminates stock outs and encourages customer driven
demand as well as efciency in tracking of deliveries
Decreased costs through the sharing of information in the supply chain, a pull-based
demand inventory system is created leading to lower warehouse and facility costs and more
reliable operations

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are changing the ways many businesses and
governmental organizations carry out their business processes by providing a means of connecting all the
various departments together thus resulting in more accurate information for the company. ERP systems
provide an organization with a single platform system responsible for the coordination and integration of
key-business processes. ERP systems ensure the smooth flow of information within various levels of the
organization thus leading to more focused and precise decisions for the company.
Before the ERP systems implementation, organizations had several different information
systems in place supporting various activities like Finance, HR, Logistics, Supply Chain, etc. without the
integration of activities individually.
These systems existed separately and did not support
interconnectivity. With the implementation of ERP systems, all these systems mentioned above along
with various other systems become integrated and it creates a backbone for the organization by providing
a means of connecting all the different departments through a single system that is efficient enough to
integrate all the relevant information together and is able to present meaningful on-time data and results
for the business.
ERP systems are considered the system of records by many companies and offer persistence of
almost 25 years. ERP systems mostly cost around $10 to $100 Million and sometimes even more. ERP
systems are widely being used globally and according to a study by (Gartner, 2010), ERP systems have a
market of $21.2 Billion in software revenue & a growth of 5.5%. ERP software has the 3rd largest
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market share, just behind Database and Operating Systems. ERP systems main worldwide usage is in
North America and Western Europe where its overall market share is 80% while the 20% is for the rest of
the world (Gartner, 2010). The potential markets for the ERP systems exist in Asia Pacific, Latin America,
Middle East and Eastern Europe.
ERP systems not only integrate the various individual systems within an organization but also
provide an integrated system capable of supporting various web services, integrated supply chain, ecommerce and mobile support etc. According to a research conducted by Meta Group, as much as 70%
of the US federal, local and state government agencies have implemented ERP solutions based on the
same reasons as businesses; i.e., to integrate the organization-wide information and lead to more useful
decisions. Many ERP vendors see this as an opportunity, as in the coming future, other countries too
would be following the same path as the US model by installing various ERP to replace their traditional
legacy systems throughout the local and federal departments in order to increase efficiency and
productivity.
ERP systems are not just limited to large firms but also are very useful for the small organizations.
According to the data provided by SAP (the largest vendor of ERP systems worldwide), the company
generated 90% of their revenues from large multinational organizations but in late 90's & early 2000, 50%
of their revenues came from smaller and mid-size companies.
IMPACT OF ERP SYSTEMS
Impact on Competition Behavior
The ERP systems these days differentiate many organizations from each other due to the
competitive advantage gained through the successful implementation of ERP systems. Organizations can
now look at their competitor companies and try to learn from their implementations and come up with a
better ERP solution for themselves. This makes them not only competitive in the market but also
innovative at the same. These firms are able to secure a much better position in the market compared to
the reference group based on the experience gained from other companies and design solutions that result
in producing more efficiently at a lower cost.
Impact on Business Partner Requirements
During the implementation of ERP systems organizations need to stay ahead. They need to focus
on the smooth organization-wide implementation and be ready to face the challenges as every firm is
resistant to change. At this point, an organization must become quick in collecting, analyzing,
disseminating information as its going through a change process and there can be a certain situation inside
the firm that a business partner may need to adhere to the change process or quit as there is no turning
back and conflicts can arise that can create a problem for the whole company.
Impact on the Nature of Consulting Firms
ERP systems have enabled many firms to increase their efficiency by integrating the processes
and sharing information at all functional levels within the organization ultimately leading to more useful
information for the decision makers. Most multinational firms these days have either implemented the
ERP systems or are in the process of implementing it because they have realized that in order to stay
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competitive or survive in the market they have to implement such a system. ERP systems have replaced
various existing legacy systems such as the ones for Finance, HR, Logistics, Supply Chain, etc. by a
single system capable of running all the functions of the different systems more efficiently at less cost and
thus changing the way organizations used to deal with processes as the information from top to bottom is
shared through a single system also capable of performing various web services at the same time.
Impact on Nature of Information Systems Function
ERP systems are outsourced from different vendors who are also responsible for the maintenance
and update activities thus, skipping the part of designing & developing as the organization can rely on
various ERP vendors that already have a suitable ERP system in place that just needs modification in
order to meet the company requirement and move on with the implementation stage. The firms nowadays,
don't need to hire system analysts and programmers as the whole system is outsourced from ERP vendors
and these systems can be run by almost all employees with some training thats all, while previously the
such employees needed to be hired that were specialists in system design etc. Now the companies can
focus on its core processes instead of getting too much involved in developing systems that meet their
requirements as it puts together a list of its requirements to the ERP vendors and it is up to them to design
& develop such systems.
Impact on the Nature of Jobs in all Functions
ERP implementation can create and at the same time remove the jobs within in a company as it
integrates all the relevant information and changes the way of doing things thu,s eliminating certain HR
involved processes as they are automated within the system. At the same time ERP systems, can also
create a certain position within a company that is unique in terms of its nature as the company can
redefine its goals through an ERP implementation by offering something more to its customers thus
involving more HR at the same time.
Advantages of ERP systems
Enterprise Resource Planning systems have changed the nature of the business by transforming
the ways in which the business operates. These systems have integrated all the different processes within
organizations and provided a platform for information sharing at all levels. The following are a few
advantages of ERP systems:

ERP systems have enabled companies specially the manufacturing industry to cut their extra
inventory by providing them with all the necessary information required to forecast the demand
and manage the whole process in a more efficient manner.
ERP systems have also enabled firms to reduce HR cost as most of the processes are automated
through these systems and the ERP vendors are mainly responsible for the maintenance of these
systems so the company doesn't need to hire programming specialists, etc. to develop or maintain
their systems.
ERP systems have replaced the legacy systems that existed separately like Finance, HR, Logistics,
etc. by having a single integrated system capable of performing all the activities of these various
individual legacy systems more efficiently at less cost.
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ERP vendors provide organizations with a flexible solution based on their needs. That means,
they provide specifically customized systems based on the organization requirements thus,
ultimately leads to a more efficient process delivery and at the same time let the company gain a
competitive edge over the reference group.
The implementation of these systems leads to new innovative production standards that set apart a
company from its competitors which is why every organization aims to get an ERP solution that
is better than its reference group in order to stay competitive.
As all the information flows within the ERP systems so it is easy for a company to plan for the
future based on its current performance. These systems enable the decision makers to make quick
decisions based on accurate information as the whole information from various departments lie
within the same system.
ERP solution enable a company to improve customer satisfaction by on time delivery, increase
quality and shorten delivery times providing the company with all the integrated information
from various levels.
Organizations these days have realized that in order to stay competitive they have to implement
ERP systems in order to get an edge over the market by offering more at the very less cost.

SUPPLY CHAIN IN ERP SYSTEMS

A successful organization must be able to manage the integration of its business, technologies,
processes, departments and people within the enterprise itself and across extended enterprises (Awad &
Nassar, 2010). The integration inside any business organization includes not only integrating ERP
systems with legacy systems to ensure an effective and efficient communications between these systems,
but also include the integration of ERP systems with SCM systems and linking it with CRM systems to
encourage the cooperation and collaboration across the entire value chain (Awad & Nassar, 2010). Due
to the rapid evolution in information and communication technologies (ICT), the traditional supply chain
management processes have been enhanced to be integrated with different business processes for the
purpose of increase the overall value of the chain, reduce cost, improve production process and compete
with different business environments.
As discussed in the earlier sections of this document, ERP effectively integrates all the
information which is required for the business to operate including finance, accounting, production,
human resources, quality management, sales and marketing. We can see that ERP is an integrated
information system which integrates the internal working process of the organization, standardize the
internal procedures for data processing and combines all the operations data which are generated by
multiple departments or functions (Adaileh & Abu-alganam, 2010) . On the other hand, Supply Chain
Management (SCM) is the management of upstream and downstream to increase the value of the chain. It
looks at the business as a chain of well integrated and connected entities which will add more value,
reduce inventory, reduce lead time and reduce cost. The following table illustrates comparison between
ERP and SCM which will help to understand how to build relationship and integrate these two systems
(Tarn & Beaumont, 2002)

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Objective

Focus

Goal

Function

Customer
Relationships
Scope

SCM

ERP

Integrating and optimizing internal

business processes of a single organization
as well as the interaction of the
organization with its business partners
across the entire supply chain
Optimizing information flow, physical
distribution flow, and cash flow over the
entire supply chain
Constraint-based tool providing reasonable
and feasible business plans based on the
availability of the required key resources
Manufacturing management, inventory
management, logistics management, and
supply-chain planning
Involvement of external parties in process
improvement, anticipating customers need
and demand
Coordinating and integrating all interorganizational activities

Integrating and optimizing internal

business processes within the boundary of
a single organization

Optimizing information flow and physical

distribution flow within a single
organization
Non-constraint-based tools providing
business plans without the consideration of
the availability of key resources
Manufacturing management, financial
management, and human resource
management
Reacting to customer demand, but there is
no involvement of external parties in
process improvement.
Coordination and integrating all activities
within a single organization

Table 1: ERP vs. SCM (source: (Tarn et al., 2002))

The rapid enhancement and the

development in ICT opened the door for
globalization where companies are seeking to
expand their activities outside of their original
areas looking for more opportunities all over the
world (Tarn et al., 2002). In order to adopt with
globalization, companies are required to build
integrated information systems which allow the
transmission
of
data
across
different
geographical area. This will allow the
companys different departments, applications
and functions to cooperate and communicate in
more effective and efficient ways. Furthermore,
companies have to make sure that all its business
process and functions are integrated and work
together before extended the integration to other

companies (Tarn et al., 2002). For example, the

company has to make sure that its business
process such as logistics and distribution
functions are well integrated with supply
management manufacturing and information
technologies before integrating with external
companies (Tarn et al., 2002). In order to face
the global business environment and different
challenges, companies are seeking to integrate
its business process together using technology
solutions. For this reason, companies all over the
world are seeking to link its ERP, SCM and
CRM together and share part of the information
with their suppliers and customers to increase
the overall value of the chain.

Traditional supply chain management

systems are designed to take data from
organization legacy systems and then data will

go under certain processes to be evaluated to

make different decisions and forecasting
customer demand (Kkay, 2011). At that

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time, SCM systems were standalone software

provided by limited number of vendors. Since
different companies started using ERP systems,
SCM system started directly relying on ERP and
CRM to get the information about customers and
the focal company. SCM system needs the
information in CRM systems to make decision
about customers demands and future
forecasting. Furthermore, an SCM system needs
to be connected with all the departments and
units in the company by relying on ERP systems
to do this function (Kkay, 2011).
Integration Methods
The integration of SCM and ERP
combines business processes with state of the art

technology
solutions
to
increase
the
communication and cooperation between the
organization different departments and functions.
Since both ERP and SCM rely on similar
frameworks ( e.g. intranet, extranet and EDI), it
is said that ERP is the backbone of SCM (Tarn
et al., 2002). For this reasons, most ERP
vendors such as SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and i2
have enhanced their ERP systems to be
integrated with different SCM systems and also
by adding SCM capabilities (modules) to
increase efficiency, productivity and value to the
end customer (Tarn et al., 2002). The following
figure illustrates a general framework of how
ERP, SCM, BI and CRM can be integrated to
increase the communication and cooperation
between suppliers, partners and customers.

Figure 1: ERP, SCM, BI & CRM Integration

The increasing demands of using SCM

systems within the ERP systems forces top ERP
vendors to realize the need to integrate their
ERP systems with an SCM solution (Tarn et al.,
2002) or to create their own version or module
of SCM. For the process of integrating ERP
systems with SCM systems, vendors follow
three different methods of integrations which are
(Tarn et al., 2002):
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The notion of conformity which

emphasizes on the idea that all
supply chain members use the
same system. This method is
impractical in large scale
supply chain and some issues of
security and trust may appear.

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Developing
a
middleware
between applications which
could be very expensive and
require more time and effort,
but it is very practical. In this
method, programmers and
developers are asked to link
different systems together to
ensure an efficient and effective
communication
and
transmission of data.
SIS which is a specialized
integration
software
programmed to integrate SCM
software with ERP systems.

At the beginning, the worlds top ERP

vendors such as SAP, Oracle, i2 and PeopleSoft
focused their intentions and efforts to find
solutions so their ERP systems can be integrated
with other SCM software. For example, an
application link enabler (ALE- middleware)
used in order for I2 Rhythm Supply chain suite
to communicate with SAP R/3 ERP suite (Tarn
et al., 2002). Later, the rapid development and
growth in SCM systems and the high demand of
linking and integrating it with ERP systems have
awaken ERP vendors to add more sophisticated
SCM capabilities to their ERP packages. Some
of the leading ERP vendors such as SAP or
Oracle had partnerships with the SCM vendors
for the purpose of adding SCM capabilities to
their systems. Thus, the leading ERP vendor
SAP added SCM module to its systems and

name it as SAPSCM as a part of SAP

Business suite (SAP Website, 2012). Following
SAPs example, Oracle also added SCM
modular to its ERP system and named it as
Oracle Supply Chain Management as a part of
Oracles E-Business Suite (Oracle Website,
2012). Other ERP vendors are doing the same by
adding SCM modules to their system or by
providing easy and efficient tools to integrate
their systems with SCM systems from different
vendors.
SAPSCM (SAP Business Suite)
SAP Supply Chain Management is a
part of overall SAP Business Suite which was
developed to help organizations to perform its
essential business process in more efficient and
reliable ways (SAP Website, 2012) supporting
integrating with SAP and non-SAP software.
The SAP Business Suite contains different
systems which are well integrated with each
other and can be used with different software
vendors. The business suite as illustrated in
Figure 2 includes: SAP Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP), SAP Customer Relationship
Management
(CRM),
SAP
Supplier
Relationship Management (SRM), SAP Supply
Chain Management (SCM) and SAP Product
Lifecycle Management (PLM).

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Figure 2: SAP Business Suite (source: (SAP Website, 2012))

0.5

SAP SCM provides different solutions

which enable business to carry out supply chain
planning and generating high efficiency business
processes with different partners and suppliers.
It enables business to respond to demand using a
supply
network
where
distribution,
transportation and logistics are well integrated
into real-time planning processes (SAP Website,
2012). The following figure illustrates the

solution map for SAP SCM which includes the

general features and more detail services which
the system can provide. This can include:

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Order Fulfilment
Procurement
Transportation
Warehousing
Manufacturing

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Figure 3: SAP SCM Solutions Map (source: (SAP Website, 2012))

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Oracle Supply Chain Management (Oracle EBusiness Suite)

Oracle Supply Chain Management
module is part of Oracle E-Business Suite which
include different kind of modules to support
organizations in streamline their business
processes and connecting them with different
supplier, distributors, partners and customers
(Oracle Website, 2012). Following the same
idea of SAP Business Suite, Oracle E-business
Suite is one of the comprehensive suites that
integrated global business applications in order
to provide the most complete, integrated
business intelligence portfolio, the most
adaptable global business platform and the most
customer focused application strategy (Oracle
Website, 2012).

Oracle E-business suite includes

Customer Relationship Management (CRM),
Financial Management, Human Resources
Management, Supply Chain Management
(SCM), Advanced Procurement, Customer
Service
Management,
Project
Portfolio
Management, Value Chain Planning and Value
Chain Execution (logistics). As a part of suite,
Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a
comprehensive suite of applications with open
and flexible architectures (Oracle Website,
2012). It can be integrated with Oracle or NonOracle software which allows businesses to
transform their operations across the demand
and supply in order to deliver operational and
innovation excellence. The following figure
illustrates the architecture of Oracle Supply
Chain Management:

Figure 4: Oracle SCM (source: (Oracle Website, 2012))

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ERP systems can provide 3 types

functionality (H.A. Akkermans et al., 2003):

IMPORTANCE OF ERP ON SUPPLY

CHAIN
Recent communication and information
technologies are essential in managing supply
chain. It is useful to facilitate the integration of
upstream and downstream activities and provide
several stakeholders to collaborate with each
other. These technologies include information
systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning
systems (ERP), Transportation Management
System (TMS) and Warehouse Management
Systems (WMS). Moreover, it also includes
communication systems such as radio frequency
identification tags (RFID) and global positioning
systems (GPS). These technologies also include
optimization software. These software are
designed to develop better management of
inventories, best delivery routes, and configure
the whole logistic network such as the number
and location of production and distribution units.
Simply, the use of technologies enables visibility
for product along the chain while also providing
greater connectivity to partners and facilitating
integration and cooperation. (Roy, 2010)
ERP can be seen as the logical extension
of MRP systems of 1970s and MRP II systems
of 1980s from a technical viewpoint. The impact
of ERP on supply chain is very significant,
according to the American production and
inventory control society (APICS), sales of
MRP software and implementation support
exceeded $1 billion in United States by 1989.
On the other hand, worldwide sale of ERP
packages together with implementation support
exceeded $15 billion and had an annual growth
rate of 30%.
ERP system primarily supports the
management and administration of resources
within a single organization. Organizations can
be multi-sited. The resources include materials
production capacity, capital and human labor.

of

Transaction Processing Engine: it integrates

management of data throughout the enterprise.
Workflow Management Functions: it controls
the numerous process flows that exist in the
organization such as purchasing process or order
to cash process.
Decision Support Functions: it assist the
creation of plan or in deciding the on the
acceptance of a specific customer order.

IMPACT OF ERP ON SUPPLY CHAIN

On June 30, 1999 the Delphi research
study conducted a workshop having 140
respondents. Participants are accommodated in a
room
that
enabled
GDSS-supported
conferencing in both plenary and subgroups
formation. The goal of the workshop was to:
1. Identify key SCM trends
2. Assess the expected business impact of these
SCM trends
3. Assess the expected ERP support for these
SCM Trends
4. Identify key limitations (if any) in current
ERP systems for effective SCM support
To achieve these results, an eight step
workshop script was developed. The eight steps
include: Define SCM and ERP, Generate SCM
trends, Group SCM trends, Prioritize SCM
trends, Assess SCM trends on business impact
and ERP support, Select 5 SCM trends for
subgroup discussion, Identify ERP limitations
and Cluster ERP limitations.
After prioritizing SCM trends in step 4,
the respondents were asked to plot top 12 trends
on 2 dimensions in step 5: the expected business
impact of each trend and the ratio which ERP

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could support or hinder these trends. These

assessments were then aggregated. The first
observation made by researchers is that the
respondents were not overly optimistic about the
contribution of ERP in future SCM development.
Only 3 or 4 out of 12 key SCM trends are
perceived as being supported by ERP. The
panel extracted the conclusion that the link
between strategic SCM-ERP is negative because
for implementing ERP organizations has to
change or transform their processes or in some
cases transform whole business strategies.
However, technical SCM-ERP link is positive.
The issue required to address is to have IT tools
that will integrate supply chain partners.
Secondly, the strategic issue of the mass
customization, global IT and standardization
plays a vital role on whether ERP and SCM can
successfully co-exist.
ERP vs. SCM Systems
According to the study by K.B.
Hendricks et al., the primary benefit of SCM
systems is better operational and business
planning. The ERP systems and MRP II of the
90s usually included only unrefined capacity
planning logic and basic fixed capacity planning
logic to key work centers (Vollmann et al.,
2005). But the recent SCM systems provide the
capability of real-time planning and allow an
organization to react instantly to cope up with
supply and demand changes. The coordination
and communication of information, planning
and flow of material among supply chain
partners can lessen the Bullwhip effect (Lee et
al., 1997).
Although ERP systems provide a great
deal of planning capabilities, various material,
capacity and demand constraints are all
considered separately on the other side. The
leading edge SCM products are able to consider
all the constraints simultaneously and perform
real-time simulations of adjustments in the

constraints. Moreover, ERP systems find

difficulties in adding this more dynamic
functionality because they are mainly focus on
transactions processing also doing more jobs
than SCM. Therefore, getting answers from
already loaded ERP might take hours whereas is
a matter of seconds or minutes to get the same
answers from separate SCM systems (ERIC,
1998). The leading SCM solutions like
Manugistics and I2 have many other
improvements when compared with ERP.
Manugistics
described
themselves
as
Navigating your way through mountains of
supply chain information is made easier with
Supply Chain Navigator's state-of-the-art
graphical user interface. This intuitive GUI gives
you complete visibility into the inner-workings
of the supply chain - through demand, supply,
manufacturing scheduling, and transportation all at your fingertips. SAP has added similar
functionalities with collaboration with I2 as a
separate module of SAP. (ERIC, 1998)
Thus, from the review of SCM and ERP
literature above, it can be said that ERP and
SCM systems can work together to deliver a
more complete solution to an organization.
While ERP can be used to manage transactions
and workflows, adding an SCM solution on the
other hand, enables an organization to monitor
and analyze real-time data that can facilitate
better collaboration and decision making. With
the advent of middleware technologies, it is now
more than ever easier to integrate these systems
together. Adding in other enterprise solutions
such as BI and CRM will allow organizations to
have a complete solution that can help them
obtain competitive advantage. Therefore, in
conclusion, ERP is an essential piece to
successful SCM because this is where internal
data and processes can be optimized to further
benefit the overall supply chain.

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Case Study
As discussed in the earlier sections of
this document, it can be seen that ERP systems
are indeed considered to be an integral
component to successfully implementing
effective supply chain management in modern
organizations. In fact, the top two ERP vendors
namely, SAP and Oracle have included a special
SCM module in the enterprise system solutions
they sell to provide organizations with a set of
specialized tools that enable them to better
monitor, implement, collaborate and decide on
supply chain related matters. SAPs SCM for
example, can help organizations change a linear
or sequential supply chain to become a more
responsive supply network that allows
communities of customer-centric, demanddriven partners to share knowledge, intelligently
adapt to changing market conditions, and
actively take initiative to respond to shorter, less
predictable lifecycles (SAP Website, 2012).
Oracles E-Business Suite also has an SCM
module that enables an organization to anticipate
market requirements and risks, adjust and
innovate to respond to unpredictable market
conditions, as well as align operations across
networks worldwide (Oracle Website, 2012).
Consequently, Oracle also claims that
organizations are able to carry out lean and
demand driven principles to effectively manage
their international supply chains that are
continuously becoming more complex over time
(Oracle Website 2012).
For this research report, the group
reviewed
a
successful
real-world
implementation of ERP and enterprise solutions
for each of these two vendors mentioned above
to demonstrate the significance of what
Enterprise Systems can bring to an
organizations supply chain if implemented
properly.

Welch Foods Inc. (Oracle E-Business Suite)

Welch Foods Inc. is a American
consumer goods company based in Concordia,
Massachusetts that is owned by a cooperative of
grape growers called the National Grape
Cooperative Association. Since its founding in
1869, the company has continuously been
successful and has now grown into a business
that is comprised of approximately 1,090
farmers in the US. Its key products include the
grape and other fruit juices, jelly, snacks and
other fruit-based food products. As of 2011, the
company employs over 952 employees and had
an annual revenue of US$640.9 million while
selling its products in more than 50 countries
globally. (Welch Foods Inc. Annual Report,
2011)
Prior to implementing Oracles EBusiness Suite, Welch was encountering several
challenges as listed below (Oracle Customer
Snapshot, 2010):

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Welch wanted to formulate better

decisions with regards to product mix,
production, and marketing in order to
match product offerings with emerging
continually changing dietary trends and
customer demands.
They wanted to standardize their
production processes and better keep
track of all their inventories.
To improve its IT scalability and
manageability, Welch wanted to
implement an integrated ERP suite as
well as a comprehensive tool set to
support new processes developed by
their Demand Planning and Sales &
Operations Planning team.
They needed to adapt sales planning to
improve forecasting for food product
sales and optimize the companys
supply chain to ensure that it is not overproducing and over-stocking on
products.

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In order to address these challenges

mentioned above, Welch hired Oracle
consultancy partner Fujitsu Consulting Inc. to
implement a wide range of Oracle E-Business
Suites modules to allow the company to achieve
an ERP solution that is capable of handling the
supply chain management needs. Through the
help of Fujitsu Consulting, Welch was able to
implement
Oracles
Demantra
Demand
Management, Demantra Real-time Sales &
Operations Planning, and Oracle SCM
Applications which took just 16 weeks to go live.
Fujitsu also helped them implement Oracle EBusiness Suite that allowed Welch to streamline
processes in 5 important areas of their business
(Oracle Customer Snapshot, 2010):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Order to Cash
Plan to Produce
Procure to Pay
Demand Generation
Financial Management

Having the E-Business Suite ERP in

place enabled Welch to have a centralized single
source of information on production costs in
addition to customer and product profitability.
Thus, this allowed them to have the means to
carry out more effective decision-making with
regards to product offerings and campaigns that
they must implement. E-Business Suites also
enabled a centralized procurement system for
allowing maintenance in various plants to
optimize supplier relationships by using volume
purchasing. Lastly, the ERP solution allowed
the company to aggregate various views of
demand and analyze those views to create a
single consensus forecast. As a result of this
initiative Welch was able to gain the following
benefits from implementing Oracles ERP and
SCM solution (Oracle Customer Snapshot,
2010):

Reduction of yearly forecast errors by

approximately 20%

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Reduced inventory through improved

forecast accuracy; removed about US$8
10M of products from circulation to
prevent losses and reduce costs for
warehouse space
Reduced number of sales to discount
retailers by 60%; helping to decrease
losses by approximately US$1.5M
Decreased the quantity of over-age
products on shelves which resulted in
savings of about US$400K through the
significant reduction in the need to
dispose excess products are too old to
meet the companys quality/freshness
standards
Improved order fulfillment capabilities
by attaining a 99.6% order fill rate score
Efficiency improved as a result of
decrease in the need to ship products
between distribution sites for order
fulfillment
Conformed to various FDA tracking
requirements for lots and sublots back to
specific customers as Welch is now
capable of collecting data for recalls
within an hour
Inventory accuracy increased to 99.916%
and completed a comprehensive
physical inventory of raw materials,
supplies, ingredients and finished goods
with minimal labor and work hours
required (e.g. 15 people in 6 hours at
largest production site)
Improved planning and sales as well as
operations processes by increasing the
refresh of S&OP plans and financial
outlook statements to monthly, instead
of the previous capability of only 2
times/year; giving the company more
opportunities to frequently evaluate and
adjust its business plan
Enabled employees to perform benefits
and expenses claims online leading to
the elimination of printed paystubs

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AstraZeneca (mySAP SCM)

AstraZeneca is one of the top 5
pharmaceutical firms in the world right now.
The company was formed in April 1999 from
the merger of the Swedish pharmaceutical
company Astra with the UK based company
Zeneca. Its research and development unit is
primarily based in Germany. Their site in
Wedel, Germany is integrated in the
AstraZeneca worldwide supply chain network
and is responsible for packaging and distributing
about 75% of all their products for the Germanspeaking market in Europe (SAP Case Study,
2005).
Manufacturing complexity in the
pharmaceutical industry is increasing as a result
of the continually increasing number of new
medical product while on the other hand, batch
sizes are on the decline.
Pharmaceutical
manufacturers are consequently focusing more
on production costs and service levels. In 2003,
the companys objective was to improve their
efficiency levels through production unit
specialization and the implementation of SCM
best practices. They decided to implement a
make to demand based process approach in
their packaging plants, meaning, their
production will no longer be driven by mediumterm forecasts but by daily sales requirements
instead. (SAP Case Study, 2005)
Driven by their strategic goals to
enhance delivery performance, achieve marketdriven planning and consumption-based
procurement, decrease lead time, as well as
improve effectiveness and information exchange
between sites in supply chain through supply
chain transparency, AstraZeneca decided to
integrate SAP Advanced Planning and
Optimization (APO) and mySAP SCM into their
existing SAP R/3 ERP implementation. The
following changes were done to the Wedel

facilitys supply chain system (SAP Case Study,

2005):

A distributed control system based on

bar codes was implemented to regulate
the entire materials movement process,
from staging at the production lines to
delivery and storage in the high-rise
warehouse. This process control system
was also integrated with SAP R/3 and
production planning via a bidirectional
communication system.
Implemented a dynamic, demand-based
production planning system including
simultaneous material and capacity
planning as well as sequence
optimization.
Revision and consolidation of SAP
R/3s master data in a Good
Manufacturing
Practice
based
production environment. These data
about customers, products, employees,
materials, suppliers, etc. which are nontransactional in nature had to be
modified to adapt to their demanddriven SCM approach.
Modeled planning scenarios with the
production planning and detailed
scheduling functions of SAP APO
while also reviewing various planning
concepts related to the companys new
demand-driven SCM philosophy.
Training and coaching was provided for
staff involved in the project to better
understand the new approach and to
adapt to the change.

After 6 months of development in

partnership with SAPs consultants, AstraZeneca
went live with their new ERP-SCM-APO
package. The following improvements below
were achieved (SAP Case Study, 2005):

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Figure 5: KPIs and Improvements after SAP (source: (SAP Study, 2005))

Finally,

the

integrated

ERP-SCM

integrated process that the company achieved is

illustrated in the succeeding diagram (SAP Case

Study, 2005):

Figure 5: SAP ERP-SCM Integrated Process (source: (SAP Study, 2005))

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CONCLUSION
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Systems as defined by the Aberdeen Group is a
system with an integrated suite of modules that
make up the operational and transactional
system of record upon which a business is based
upon. The main goal in the move from
traditional management information systems to
ERP solutions is to achieve a level of integration
in the enterprise system where redundancies are
eliminated, data is shared across different
modules of the system, integrity of information
is improved and aggregation of data across the
enterprise is possible to come up with
comprehensive reports needed by management
for better decision making strategies. Supply
Chain Management (SCM) is a total systems
approach to managing the entire flow of
information, materials, and services from rawmaterial suppliers through factories and
warehouses to the end customer (Ruhi, 2011).
According to Gartner, ERP systems
have a crucial role in centralizing transaction
data. SCM systems on the other hand, are
gaining importance as organizations attempt to
respond faster to changing market conditions
(Gartner Website, 2012). While ERP systems
provide organizations with capabilities in
planning, the different material, capacity, and
demand constraints are not-integrated with one
another. Adding SCM into an ERP solution
enables an organization to integrate these
various constraints and through the tools

provided by the SCM system, they can better

monitor, collaborate and make decisions based
on the information collected by the system from
their supply chain. All of this results in the
organization being able to continuously improve
their supply chain so that they can gain
competitive advantage.
Thus, in conclusion, the group believes
that the various components of the enterprise
systems such as ERP, CRM, BI, SCM, etc. are
individually beneficial when implemented.
However, when used effectively in combination,
these integrated enterprise systems can enable
organizations to be more competitive than others
who have not successfully done so. This is
because once integrated, the organization has at
their hands all the valuable information they
need to make strategic decisions. Through their
Business Intelligence and Decision Support
Solutions, companies can aggregate and mine
these data for management to come up with
solutions that will improve their supply chain,
satisfy their customers as well improve their
overall process efficiency and effectiveness also.
Lastly, with the advent of middleware
technologies and the concept of ServiceOriented Architecture (SOA), now more than
ever, it is easier to integrate these various
systems together to come up with a complete
enterprise system solution. Therefore, it can be
expected that in the future, ERP and SCM
systems will continue to work together to help
organizations optimize their processes and better
keep track of all their activities, transactions and
inventory.

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