Maciej Szymczak

Using Smartphones in Supply Chains

Summary Using Smartphones in Supply Chains Mobile phones have settled in our lives for good. The technological development made them actual miniature computers with significant computing capability and many diverse functions, which earned them the name „smartphones”. They create new possibilities of application, also in business environments. As it turns out, already today smartphones are the most popular mobile devices used in supply chain management. Surely, as versatile and multi-functional devices, they will gain even larger share in the implementation of business tasks in the foreseeable future. The purpose of this paper is to describe the potential areas in supply chain management smartphones can be used in, compared to the current trends. The specified examples of application will be used to draw conclusions regarding the expected effects of use and most promising areas of implementation. These deliberations will be put in a wider social context, which is inevitable if we are to treat the consumer as the last link in the supply chain which, owing to the reported demand, is becoming a causative factor in all flows of goods. Streszczenie Wykorzystanie smartfonów w łańcuchach dostaw Telefony komórkowe na dobre zagościły w naszym życiu. Ich rozwój doprowadził do tego, że obecnie stanowią one zminiaturyzowane komputery o sporych możliwościach obliczeniowych i wielu rozmaitych funkcjach, zwane smartfonami. Otwierają się nowe możliwości wykorzystania tych urządzeń - także w biznesie. Jak się okazuje już dzisiaj smartfony cieszą się największą popularnością pośród urządzeń mobilnych wykorzystywanych w zarządzaniu łańcuchem dostaw. Z pewnością jako wszechstronne urządzenia wielofunkcyjne zwiększą one jeszcze swój udział w realizacji zadań biznesowych w tym obszarze w najbliższych latach. Celem artykułu jest charakterystyka potencjalnych obszarów wykorzyst smartfonów w zarządzaniu łańcuchem dostaw na tle aktualnych tendencji. Przywołane przykłady wykorzystania posłużą do sformułowania wniosków na temat spodziewanych efektów implementacji i najbardziej obiecujących obszarów wdrożeń. Rozważaniom będzie towarzyszyć szerszy, społeczny kontekst, co jest nieuniknione jeśli traktować konsumenta jako ostatnie ogniwo łańcucha dostaw, które poprzez zgłaszany popyt staje się czynnikiem sprawczym wszelkich przepływów rzeczowych.

Measuring Performance of Adaptive Supply Chains

In the wake of the intensification of competitive struggle that we can call hyper-competition and in the face of temporary, transient and often unsustainable competitive advantage supply chains have to master their processes in many dimensions at the same time. Excellence is achieved through a shared vision of development and cooperation with up and down-tier supply chain members especially by continuous assessment and improvement the effectiveness and efficiency of the supply chain processes. Typical determinants of the supply chain performance is the triad: level of customer service—time—costs. However, intensive changes taking place in the supply chains surroundings enforce the inclusion of new criteria in supply chain performance measurement. In the chapter the problem of supply chain performance measurement with reference to the concept of adaptive supply chains was considered. The study was based on quantitative research conducted among Polish companies employing 50 or more employees from four sectors of economy: automotive, food, furniture as well as consumer electronics and household appliances. 200 computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) were held. According to the conducted research the scale for measuring the supply chain performance should take into account four factors, namely responsiveness, versatility, velocity, and visibility (3V + R formula).

Innovation, knowledge and information management in supply chains

Abstract In this study the question of innovation and information management in supply chain is addressed. We assume that innovation and information management are interrelated in supply chains and that the relationship is crucial for their success on the market. Considerable attention was given to the issue of outsourcing which is now a commonplace in supply chain management. In particular, we examined how approaches to managing information and knowledge in the supply chain differ according to ICT outsourcing. The deduction is based on a data set of 426 companies located in Poland, representing a variety of industry sectors. Two stages of the research were realised. The rationale behind this was to identify enterprises that utilise a welldeveloped system of information and knowledge management to determine the scope of possible in-depth analyses. This helped to receive valuable responses. We find what information and knowledge management is mainly driven by. We show the similarities and differences in information and knowledge management between entities that use ICT outsourcing and those that do not. We discuss the research results and draw conclusions.