The role of information technology on supply chain integration and its impact on the performance : a quantitative study in brazilian manufacturing companies.

The aim of this study is to analyze through a quantitative study in large and medium manufacturing firms the degree of integration of the supply chain enabled by IT and its impact on company performance. This study proposes to use a structural equation model (SEM) as an estimating model of impacts of IT on supply chain performance. Results indicated that, in general, companies are fostering integration, but, in special, external integration (customers and suppliers) is still low in Brazilian companies and few companies are applying IT tools synchronized with internal integration. Technologies enable extensive sharing and integration of data among trading partners, but at the same time it is necessary to reorganize processes and concepts to fully leverage the potential of such integratio