The new supply chain's frontier : information management

The purpose of this paper is to understand the key issues faced by supply chain (SC), current strategies and trends of this field. understand IT technical issues and implication for business performance and how IT can foster IM and help sort out the SC problems. Studies from different and recognised authors are reviewed. compiled and analysed in two aspects. First, a detailed picture of SC trends, issues and strategies is depicted. After, main concerns about IT, such as its goals, importance, pitfalls, and features are presented. Moreover, current applications of IT in SC and critical problems and competitive advantages in the IT implementation in the supply chain management's competitive priorities are detailed. SC's new configuration and reality have increased the level of uncertainties and risks present in supply chain activities. Some strategies to mitigate these problems have undermined the SC efficiency. Therefore, a new strategy that uses IT to make SC more robust and resilient should be developed. As a holistic problem, a modelling approach (SDDES) should be used as a tool to support this study. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved