| dc.description.abstract | Ever since the 1950s, manufacturing enterprises have been using computers to support the flow of materials throughout their business units. Improving logistics performance through applications of ICT4 systems has never been straightforward or easy. This has become especially evident during the last decades where several manufacturing companies has got their competitive abilities reduced for a shorter- or longer period after they have applied ICT systems to support their logistics processes. In extreme cases, such efforts have even driven companies into bankruptcy.
Simultaneously, there have been documented several cases were manufacturing companies have gained increased logistics performance through applications of ICT systems. While it is as good as impossible for a company to survive in most businesses today without an extensive use of ICT systems to support their logistics processes.
This means that applications of ICT systems for logistics within manufacturing companies may work as a two-edged sword. On one hand, applications of ICT systems for logistics are crucial, and often strictly necessary, for the survival of the manufacturing company. On the other hand, if the ICT systems are applied in the wrong manner they will have a negative impact on the company’s logistics performance, and in worst case they may even lead the company into bankruptcy. Therefore, the aim this research has been to propose an answer to how logistics performance can be improved through applications of ICT systems.
This problem has been approached by suggesting that the impact of applications of ICT systems for logistics has become too comprehensive to be seen in isolation. If logistics performance should be increased, the applications of ICT systems must be considered as an integrated part of the individual company’s logistics mission, simultaneous as the impact the rest of the organisation has on these applications are taken into consideration. Therefore, this research project has tried to suggest an alternative perspective on the role of applications of ICT systems for logistics.
First in this thesis, three current perspectives on the role of applications of ICT systems for logistics are proposed and discussed:
• The Manufacturing perspective that illustrates the role of applications of ICT system for logistics through various manufacturing planning and control concepts.
• The Supply Chain Management perspective that illustrates the role of applications of ICT system for logistics through the concept of Supply Chain Management.
• The Supply Chain Software Package perspective that illustrates the role of applications of ICT system for logistics through the inherent properties of currently available logistics software packages.
Both the Manufacturing- and the Supply Chain Software Package perspective refer to specific ICT system designs and/or -software packages. It is not given that these software packages will fit the specific requirements needed to fulfil the logistics mission of each individual company. It is neither not certain that the organisation will use these ICT systems according to their original intentions. Therefore, this research suggests that these two perspectives do not look at the role of applications of ICT systems for logistics as an integrated part of the logistics mission of the individual company, simultaneously as they ignores the impact the organisation has on these applications of ICT systems.
The Supply Chain Management perspective presents applications of ICT systems for logistics only through the function they should fulfil within the supply chain and does not refer to any specific software design or – packages. Therefore, this research proposes that the Supply Chain Perspective presents applications of ICT systems as an integrated part of the individual company’s logistics mission. However, the Supply Chain Management perspective presupposes (or do not discuss) that the ICT systems will be applied according to their original intentions, and therefore it does not consider the impact the organisation has on these.
Therefore, this research suggests that an alternative perspective on the role of applications of ICT system for logistics is needed. This perspective should both present the role applications of ICT systems for logistics as an integrated part of the individual company’s logistics mission, and account for the impact the organisation has on the applications of ICT systems.
In this research, such an alternative perspective is formed by a logistics concept known as “Demand Chain Management” and a theory termed “Actor-Network Theory”. Demand Chain Management is used to provide a base of logistics thinking into the perspective, while Actor-Network Theory is applied to explain the relations between the technology (the ICT systems) and the surrounding organisation. These two are combined to make up the Demand Transfer perspective that regards the logistics organisation as a set of interrelating demand transfers (and - transformations) that follows both predetermined and unplanned pathways throughout a logistics network. In this perspective, the role of applications of ICT systems for logistics is seen as one actor among others that lays these pathways for transferring the demand within the logistics network.
By using the Demand Transfer perspective, this research has suggested six conceptual guidelines for how logistics performance can be improved through applications of ICT systems:
1. Information is just a mean, not a purpose in itself.
2. Think total network, but do improvements within your own domain.
3. Applications of ICT systems for logistics should contribute in fulfilling the customers demand.
4. Separate real- and anticipated demand.
5. Seek simplification and reduction of the total demand transferring network.
6. When improving logistics performance through applications of ICT systems; stay close to the actual demand transfers.
This research concludes with that the Demand Transfer perspective is tailored towards studies of how applications of ICT can be used to improve logistics performance and therefore it must be seen an alternative to the other perspectives presented in this research, and not a substitute for these. In addition, the Demand Transfer does not describe anything that is new. It rather draws the attention to something that always have been there, and that – either directly or indirectly – have been used to improve logistics performance throughout all times. Nevertheless, this research points out that the Demand Transfer perspective separates itself from current thinking within this field in two basic ways:
1. Logistics thinking: The Demand Transfer perspective does not look at the material- and the information flows as two individual flows, but as elements integrated within the demand transferring network.
2. The place of the ICT systems for logistics within the organisation: The Demand Transfer perspective looks at applications of ICT systems for logistics as a part of a larger, patterned, network that are continuously being negotiated between it own constituent parts. | nb_NO |
