Page 383 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

370 11 Electronic Commerce Payment Systems and Order Fulfillment

Innovative E-Fulfillment Strategies Some software vendors have offerings in all three areas.
Others provide one or two. Whether a company should buy
Several innovative e-fulfillment strategies exist. For exam- all three from the same vendor is an open question—there
ple, supply chain partners can transmit information flows are pros and cons both way.
and hold off shipping physical goods until a point in time Regardless, it is a multi-year undertaking to implement
when they can make more direct shipments. An example of even one of these systems because they each touch so many
logistics postponement is merge-in-transit. areas of a company’s operations, as well as a company’s
Merge-in-transit is a model in which components for a other information systems (e.g., their sales systems, cus-
product need to arrive from two or more physical locations. tomer systems, finance systems, merchandising systems,
For example, in shipping a desktop PC, the monitor may manufacturing systems). Even when many of these other
come from the East Coast of the United States and the CPU systems are managed by a single enterprise resource plan-
from the West Coast. Instead of shipping the components to ning system (ERP) that can be more easily integrated with a
a central location and then shipping both together to the cus- SCSOR, WMS, or TMS, it is still a long, time consuming
tomer, the components are shipped directly to the customer and expensive undertaking.
and merged into one shipment by the local deliverer (so the
customer gets all the parts in one delivery), reducing unnec-
essary transportation. SECTION 11.10 REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What are some general ways that order fulfillment can
Supply Chain Planning and Execution Software be improved?
2. What is a warehouse management system? List some of
Order fulfillment is only one segment of the overall supply its key functions.
chain planning and execution processes carried out by orga- 3. List solutions for improved delivery.
nizations. Many companies—off-line, online, and hybrid— 4. What is Amazon Prime Air?
rely on commercial enterprise software systems to support 5. How are robots being used in order fulfillment?
these processes, rather than building the capabilities in 6. How does mass customization impact order fulfillment?
house. In this case there are usually three systems involved. 7. What are some of the options for handling returns?
First, there are systems that support the SC planning 8. How does B2B order fulfillment differ from B2C order
aspects—like demand planning, fulfillment, inventory opti- fulfillment?
mization, etc. In the software market these are now called 9. Give an example of how e-marketplaces are used to alle-
Supply Chain Planning Systems of Record (SCP SOR). viate problems with B2B order fulfillment.
Next, there are systems that support supply chain execution. 10. What are the major enterprise software systems used to
Some of these deal with warehouse management, appropri- support supply chain planning and execution?
ately named Warehouse Management Systems (WMS),
which we discussed earlier. Others deal with various aspects
of transportation and shipping management, also appropri- MANAGERIAL ISSUES
ately named Transportation Management Systems (TMS).
While there are other major aspects of supply chain planning Some managerial issues related to this chapter are as follows:
and execution (e.g., procurement), these three systems cover
much of the supply chain landscape. A detailed description 1. How will you address the omni-channel imperative?
of the capabilities of each of these systems, as well as the Today, most “brick and mortar” retailers have multiple
software companies selling them, can be found in the associ- sales channels—stores and branches, catalogs, call cen-
ated Gartner Magic Quadrant report including: ters, kiosks, vending machines, websites, and mobile
apps. Historically, these channels have been managed as
• SCP SOR—Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain silos with separate personnel, practices, and information
Planning System of Record (gartner.com/doc/reprints?id= systems (both front office and back) with the lead channel
1-2VC3GOR&ct=160105&st=sb) getting preferential treatment. In the past this was suffi-
• WMS—Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Man- cient because the customers were less demanding. This
agement Systems (gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-2WV2Y has changed. Customers expect a seamless experience
CO&ct=160122&st=sb) across all these channels. They want to buy what they
• TMS—Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Transportation Man- want, where they want, receive it when and where they
agement Systems (gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1- 2WTC want, and return it where they want. To meet these expec-
5VO&ct=160121&st=sb) tations retailers will have to accept orders and payments