Characterizing supply chain visibility – a literature review

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review that aims to provide insight into the characteristics and effectiveness of supply chain visibility (SCV), as well as to identify metrics that capture these aspects in business processes. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review of the supply chain literature is conducted to identify the characteristics and the effectiveness of SCV. The synthesis of SCV effectiveness and its metrics are based on the process-oriented approach which relates the effectiveness of SCV to improved business performance. Findings This study reveals that the characteristics of SCV can be captured in terms of the accessibility, quality, and usefulness of information. The benefits of SCV are found to extend beyond improvements to operational efficiency of business processes or to the strategic competencies of an organization. Practical implications This study underlines that clear agreements between all players involved in the SC can help to solve problems caused by information completeness (type and amount of information), and unlock the full potential of SCV projects. Originality/value By using a process-oriented approach, this review provides a comprehensive explanation of the functions of SCV, as well as its first-order effects, in terms of automational, informational, and transformational characteristics.

Blockchain Network Model to Improve Supply Chain Visibility based on Smart Contract

“…Supply chain visibility has different definitions in the literature [40]. Visibility in the supply chain refers to the ability of supply chain parties to access timely and accurate key information [7]. In the work of Simatupang and Sridharan [41], the authors defined supply chain visibility as: "The ability to trace the points of origin of materials used in a product".…”

“…In the work of Simatupang and Sridharan [41], the authors defined supply chain visibility as: "The ability to trace the points of origin of materials used in a product". It is widely agreed that the limited visibility that companies have over their supply significantly contributes to lowering the performance of supply chains [3,7,16]. Since poor visibility on supply chains has negative effects such as long lead times [42], counterfeiting [16], stock-outs situations [43], bullwhipeffect [44] and high inventory cost.…”

“…In this case, the limitations of public Blockchain apply to these models such as: technical difficulties faced by miners (the network participants in Blockchain public networks) and the rapidly growth of blocks size. Although number of studies addressed the importance of supply chain visibility, there is a lack of common effective evaluation metrics to measure supply chain visibility [7,43]. Visibility measurement is the degree of information sharing within the supply chain [10].…”

“…However, poor visibility is still a major challenge in complex supply chain network which lowers the supply chains performance [3,8,30]. Additionally, poor visibility has negative effects such as counterfeiting [16], stock-outs [43], and bullwhip-effect [7,44]. Furthermore, this issue is considered as an obstacle to efficient SCPM [8].…”

“…Where demand uncertainties and long lead-times of medical supplies and drugs are critical to the whole process specially in health and food safety issues [6]. Moreover, lack of visibility is still a challenging issue for supply chain executives especially in increasingly complex environment [3,7,8]. Improving the visibility level in the supply chain is essential not only to gain access to key decision-making information [9], but also to facilitate more transparency and traceability within the supply chain network [10].…”