Supply chain is a set of three or more organizations linked directly by one or more of the upstream or downstream flows of products, services, finances, and information from a source to a customer (Monczka et al., 2020).
In organization, a supply chain is many functional performing, functional activities related to flow products and service, to ensure delivery maximum value to the organization.
Value chains are composed of primary and support activities that can lead to competitive advantage when configured properly (Monczka et al., 2020). At an organizational level, the value chain is broader than the supply chain, because it includes all activities in the form of primary and support them. All personnel within an organization are part of value chain (Monczka et al., 2020).
One example of extended value chain - human resource management. Having the best candidate in the organization, especially at the executive level. Between supplier and buyer, when they build trust relationship by having deep conversations about mutual interests, finding hidden capabilities ultimately benefit both. Both of them would receive acceptable paybacks from their investment (Monczka et al., 2020).
For eliminating waste in the procurement process, there exist several options. Using bot managers, technology will allow purchasers to automate routine buying functions and have more time to perform higher value adding activities that contribute to overall business success. (Monczka et al., 2020).
One good example for bot manager is Domino pizza is using chatbot. The chatbot streamlined the process of ordering a pizza through a chatbot. Users can either click the message button on Domino’s Facebook page or search Domino’s on the messenger application itself. Once there, three options will be displayed. A recent order, easy order and track (Parisi, 2017).
Recent order and Easy order will place an order for whichever dish the customer most recently ordered or their saved preferred order (Parisi, 2017). In this way, Domino Pizza could accumulate customer favoritism by collecting popular ingredients from a database, narrowing down stock diversity. All this reduces inventory levels and cost overtime as the firm adjusts what it keeps in stock and when it orders it.
For the customer, they saved time picking toppings, cheese and dough. Customers could order their favorite pizza from anywhere, mobile phones, smartwatches, even via a smart TV or smart car. Implementing at a consumer level, just in time procurement. Domino Pizza’s chatbot is a good example for product purchasing service.
Another way to eliminate waste in the procurement process is finding and picking products in warehouse after receiving orders. Warehouse execution software (WES) could save time on finding warehouse location, picking products, and executing customer orders. One of the WES I found is PRO WMS. It’s a modular system software, Including all of the features for inventory management, storage and relocation.
There is a good example for using modular software as a leading supplier of ophthalmic lenses, Signet Armorlite. With Signet, One lens can almost instantly be picked from 13,000 stock lines, and a picker scans its barcode into the terminal. The transaction is relayed via radio frequency link to the central computer which confirms the code being processed is correct and automatically initiates a series of follow-up actions. (Pye, 1999). The actions the device is capable of includes printing dispatch notes, labels, accounts entries and electronic re-ordering at any node the company controls.
Regarding above two examples, Domino Pizza using chatbot software and Signet Armorlite using modular system-based warehouse execution software, both can save time on procurement process. Instead of repeating simple operations, both buyer and supplier have more time to perform higher value activities that contribute to overall business success.
The difference between chatbot and WES is chatbot is mainly focused on external customer’s convenience, leading to sales jump, improved customer’s perspective, while implementing just in time procurement from anywhere. Achieving Domino Pizza’s ‘anywhere’ goal. Signet Armorlite utilizing WES seems more focused on internal participants, but eventually, for customers, what they did is just in time delivery.
In other organizations, during the implementation of e-procurement software they faced challenges so complex that users are afraid to use it. Team members bypassed online requisitioning and relied instead on the phone or intracompany mail (Monczka et al., 2020). A company selling high end naval vessels has different needs to snack food seller. A company has to determine the amount of resources to commit to projects such as in Procure-to-pay processes (P2P). Many purchasing organizations are strapped for staff and resources (Monczka et al., 2020).
References
Monczka, R., Handfield, L., Giunipero, L. Patterson, J., (2020). Purchasing & Supply Chain Management, 7th Edition. Cengage
Parisi, D. (2017), Domino’s joins chatbot movement, unveils Facebook Messenger ordering. Retaildive.com. https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/dominos-joins-chatbot-movement-unveils-facebook-messenger-ordering
Pye, A. (1999). Paperless but not people-free. Works Management, 52(1), 38-41. http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/paperless-not-people-free/docview/218737106/se-2?accountid=27203
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