Supply Chain Integration for Sustainability Faces Sustaining ICT Problems

Part IV: ICT and Emerging TechnologiesInternational audienceThis paper is concerned with the role of supply chain management in sustainable operations. It argues that sustainability requires increased supply chain co-ordination using ICT for product life cycle management. Accordingly, the paper researches integration problems in supply chains due to ICT. It addresses the question, why operational decisions are often not based on integrated information in supply chains. It argues that several current information/ communication technologies are essentially heterogeneous. Therefore, it is not easy to integrate these. The paper distinguishes (1) transactional systems (2) real-time monitoring/control systems (3) decision support systems (4) human communication (text, audio, video). Integration problems should be studied by analysing the underlying characteristics of the technology