Linking ERP and SCM systems

摘要

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply chain management (SCM) systems have been growing in popularity across various segments of the electronic industry over the past few years. New initiatives in resources planning, electronic commerce and extended supply chain are fuelling the trend among corporations toward integrating strategic business applications. ERP systems assist enterprises in automating and integrating corporate cross-functions. SCM systems support information flow from various players in the supply side, reducing transaction cost and facilitating supplier-customer interactions. Given the popularity and importance of ERP and SCM systems, this research aims to examine and compare these two systems from the standpoint of organisational and technological implementation and explores the trend and opportunity of their system integration. Furthermore, the authors present and analyse two potential approaches to linking FRP and SCM systems, which indeed promote their integration. This article is concluded with the challenges and implications of the ERP and SCM system integration.