The use of Information Systems within Supply Chain Management to address transport optimisation issues

Abstract

Supply chain management has grown substantially over the number of years with constant changes and trends occurring to fit the growing global supply chain needs. It has been the key to business success as both a negative and positive impact which will resonate throughout the organisation and affect the performance thereof. The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry involves an increasingly high-volume of products having to be delivered at fast rates to meet high consumer demands. Ways in which these demands need to be met must be considered to remain competitive. The nature of the FMCG industry assisted in understanding issues that FMCG companies are facing in relation to optimising the road transport management processes and the manner in which the optimisation of the delivery of goods to meet customer volumes and demands are affected. The focus of the research report was to identify the various transport optimisation issues within the FMCG supply chain industry and further addressed the purpose of information systems and whether it can be implemented to minimise the identified issues. Recommendations on addressing these issues and the impact of information systems on customer service levels within the organisation were further detailed in the research. Many companies are still stuck in the era of manually completing work tasks and processes and the sustainability of this can be questioned. The data analysis involved a comparison between the use of manual-based processes followed by companies and then focused primarily on the use of information systems as a more productive and sustainable solution to address the optimisation issues found. This aided in identifying the differences between the two processes and ultimately being able to determine whether the use of information systems can assist in the optimisation of road transport within the FMCG industry. After the data was analysed, it was identified that there are a number of transport issues affecting the optimisation of businesses. It also identified statistics relating to an IS already implemented and the financial benefits thereof compared to manual-based processes.