Special Delivery: How chemical companies are using IT to ship smarter

摘要

Over the past five years or so,as the principles of supply chain management (SCM) became embedded in the chemical industry, the information technology (IT) department has moved to the forefront of industry investment and innovation. A none-too-subtle expansion of the services available from each link along the chain has also occurred. Thus, industry executives can choose among logistics providers, carriers, software vendors, Internet-based dot-coms and even control equipment vendors for solutions. "The various SCM concepts get very fuzzy around die edges," said one vendor of IT services for chemical shipping.