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Business process innovation in the supply chain – a case study of implementing vendor managed inventory

1998; Elsevier BV; Volume: 4; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0969-7012(97)00028-2

1873-6858

Jan Holmström,

Outsourcing and Supply Chain Management

A growing number of international companies operate in a standard business systems environment. This suggests that standard business system solutions, e.g. from SAP R/3, might be adopted rather than introducing new problem specific systems solutions for new business requirements. This could be a cost efficient alternative in a situation when supply chain sophistication and integration demands from customers are increasing. In the Nordic countries vendor managed inventory (VMI) is an example of a new way of doing business that can give pioneers a competitive edge. The vendor in this case is the first supplier to go into a full-scale VMI relationship with the wholesaler – and has, through this, substantially reduced delivery costs to the retail trade. The case VMI implementation demonstrates that it is possible to arrive at a simple but efficient solution in a standard systems environment. The case shows how VMI can be implemented in a SAP R/3 environment based on the EDIFACT inventory report.