Supply chain visibility and integration : the current directions in organisations : a comprehensive literature review and research questions

Senior Managers in industry have recognized whilst there is significant use of supply chain integration (SCI) technology over the last decade, there is apparent lack of supply chain visibility (SCV) across the supply chain (SC). The lack of visibility has also raised the question of information sharing between SC partners, by managers across the globe. The objective of this paper is to review, and report the current directions taken by academia, and practitioners to incorporate SCV into organizations through SCI, and the systematic approach taken to conduct a literature review to establish these directions. A comprehensive literature review structured around following key components: current state of global SC’s ; SC blueprints, processes and strategies; current tools, systems, and techniques applied in supply chains, such as the SCOR model, and the integrated approach; the current SCI practices in industry. This paper concludes that, whilst there is significant breadth of research that has been carried out across the various the aspects of a SC, such as the tools, techniques, systems, current practices used in relation to SCV, SCI, and information sharing between SC partners, however there are limitations in terms of its depth, such as the current level of SCI in industry, and managements’ expectation of integration in industry, raising research questions hence justifying further research. It further adds that whilst SCV, and SCI is given importance by both academia through research publications, and in industry by means of white papers, and industry developed solutions by consultants and managers, there are differing views about SCV and SCI