| Companies facing global competitive advantage seek ways to improve efficiencies in production, marketing, and delivery. Obstacles to meeting these goals are obvious, as in an information sharing, or hidden deeply within the dynamics of communication among companies. These problems in communication lead to dysfunction or even dissolution of partnerships that otherwise prove beneficial. Dysfunction in order-to-delivery times and processes lead to inefficiencies and inconsistency in supply chain performance and integration. Communication and information sharing gaps develop in each supply chain segment and the supply chain network, causing delays. Industry practice observation reveals communication and information sharing gaps affect manufacturers and warehousing and distribution suppliers within the supply chain. Such gaps also affect the logistical and transportation facets connecting each segment to the end-user customer. This lack of integration creates obstacles to effective communication and information sharing in the supply chain. This research study explored opportunities to create an integrated and efficient supply chain network. The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure the communication and informational sharing gaps that create obstacles to full integration of global industry supply chain networks using the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) elements of trust, collaboration, information sharing, logistic improvements and supply chain performance. The data collection instrument was a Likert survey comprised of the Measurement Model for Web-enabled Supply Chain Integration developed by McLaren (Appendices B and C). Participants were selected for their experience in supply chain. Diversity among the candidates included supervisors, managers and executive level experts of the supply chain business in order to meet both the population and confidence levels of the research. This study found communication and informational sharing gaps create obstacles to full integration of global industry supply chain networks. By utilizing the SCOR elements of trust, collaboration, information sharing, logistic improvements and supply chain performance those gaps could be more effectively measured, analyzed and improved. This study was very specific and as a result has limitations. The study did not consider the computer language differences, incompatibility of manual processes, unions, anti-trust regulations or confidentiality issues or how proprietary differences handicap various aspects of the supply chain. |
