Information Sharing in Supply Chain Management Essay

Information Sharing in Supply Chain Management - Essay Example Globalization and regulator threats in industries have tend to empower the customer a great deal and it is more often than not the customer who dictates terms to the businesses operating in the market place. Under such complex and intriguing scenarios the role of supply chain becomes ever more challenging, decisive and vital for the growth and nurturing of a company (Fisher, 2000). The entrepreneurs, having studied the market trends and being well acquainted with the consumer culture, can determine certain variables that are almost impossible to discover otherwise. The entrepreneurs can determine future demand of a particular product that they are selling to a particular segment. A company that needs to become the top of the mind company for its consumers must lay stark inventory management plans that are based on industry dynamics and reliable data obtained from various sources. Indeed managing inventory requires immense amounts of vigilance. However this vigilance is not to be main tained by the producer alone as this is not pragmatic and on the other hand there are several parties involved in the value chain of every product. The producer, supplier, wholesaler and retailer all need to collaborate with one another and share information regarding the level of inventory that each one is required to hold at every stage in the entire process. This is being done and practiced in almost every company today. For sharing information companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to develop and upgrade their information sharing systems that keep all the involved players in the cycle onboard with minute to minute information regarding inventory levels. This keeps everyone a breast of the levels of inventory required to be maintained at any particular time in the chain (Fisher, 2000). The Value of Information Sharing in Inventory With the introduction of more and more products by the companies and entrance of giant companies that offer products that serve to cater to similar needs and target the same set of consumers have actually helped to make the market place a battle field. Today customers have so many options and choices to choose from. In fact making a buying decision has become a Herculean and specialized task for the customer. Where on one hand intricacies at the end of consumer have increased then on the other the customer has become very powerful as well, and one cannot repudiate the fact that products and brands that do not meet customer expectations are either ousted or kicked out of the market and become forgotten history. Here inventory management becomes a key concept that needs to be discussed and highlighted to limelight. As we talked about the concepts of â€Å"customer expectations† and â€Å"consumer culture† so we also need to understand that they are very closely linked to inventory management. Finding the product on the shelf is one of the most significant customer expectations, significant yet basi c. â€Å"Finding the product on the shelf† implies that the product must be available to the customer at the right place in the right quantity at the right time. This is where Inventory management comes into play. Inventory management has gained more and more significance in organizations during the past decade and this is because of the consumer expectations and strong consumer culture that has risen