Information Infrastructure for Managing Convergent Selling Chain Network

Fierce competition in today’s global markets, the introduction of products with shorter life cycles and the heightened expectations of customers have forced business enterprises to invest in and focus attention on their supply chains. These evidences, together with continuing advances in communications and transportation technologies (e.g., mobile communication, Internet, and etc.), have motivated the continuous evolution of the supply chain and of the techniques to manage it (Simchi-Levi et al.,2004). According to the model of Slack et al. (2010), a supply chain or network may be considered a set of linked processes connecting downstream customers to upstream suppliers, factories, distribution centres and retailers. The upstream supply network (buy side also called manufacturing network) comprises companies that supply raw materials, manufacturing firms who convert the materials into parts and components and producers (focal firm) that build finished products. The downstream supply network (sell side also called distribution supply chain network or selling chain network) is the chain of organizations or intermediaries. Through this network, a good or service passes from the place of production or manufacture, until it reaches the end consumer. Typically, a distribution channel includes wholesalers, retailers, distributors and final point of sales (FPS). The research focus of this paper is the development of an information infrastructure for managing convergent distribution supply chains network. The scope of this information infrastructure consists in several distribution chains that converge into a single outlet, in which the products offered to the final consumer are constructed with Make to Order logic.