Developing a smartphone app to enhance Oxfam's supply chain visibility

Abstract

This paper reports on the development of a smartphone app designed to give drivers and managers in a charity organisation greater visibility of transport, donation bank and shop stock in time and space. Trials of the app with samples of drivers and shop managers across three counties in the UK showed that users' understanding of vehicle activity and how time was utilised in the business was enhanced. The app also informed their decision-making, aided some collaboration and helped in their understanding of donation bank and shop performance, with one region altering their collection schedules. The quality of 3G signal was an issue in certain areas which impeded performance and the rules by which the messaging platform should be used in such a tool need careful consideration.

Characterizing supply chain visibility – a literature review

“…Automational characteristics refer to the ability to capture and transfer the necessary information in a timely manner by using ICT in diverse forms and methods. Existing the SCV literature addresses the automational characteristics of SCV as a function of using technologies to capture the granular details of information related to the flow of products along the SC (Delen et al, 2007;Francis, 2008;Griffiths et al, 2009;Musa et al, 2014;Papert et al, 2016;Rai et al, 2012) and to coordinate the flow of information between partners in the SC (Barratt and Barratt, 2011;Bartlett et al, 2007;Cherrett et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2011). Automational characteristics relate to inter-organizational information system (IOIS) visibility (Goswami et al, 2013;Kim et al, 2011), which emphasizes the role of the information system as an integral part of SCV with the intention to improve the visibility across organizational boundaries.…”

“…The capability of a supply chain actor (or player) to have an access to or to provide the required timely information/knowledge," "which can be accessed via IT system" "Timeliness is an important factor for inventory visibility," "The capability to provide or access information must be measured using a timeliness metric" (p. 579) technologies used to capture the information The extent to which firms use technologies to capture information on events, status of stocks, flows of shipments, and exceptions e.g. shipment delay (Cherrett et al, 2015;Delen et al, 2007;Francis, 2008;Goel, 2010;Papert et al, 2016;Pfahl and Moxham, 2014;Musa et al, 2014;Rai et al, 2012;Yu and Goh, 2014;Zhou and Benton, 2007) The extent to which firms use technologies to capture demand information e.g. sales data (POS or forecast), sell-through data or replenishment data, and stock withdrawals (Barratt and Oke, 2007;Bottani et al, 2010;Kaipia and Hartiala, 2006;Vigtil, 2007;Williams et al, 2013) Automated information transfer/ integration Level of IOIS systems used to transfer/integrate information The percentage of information provided in electrical format (Zhou and Benton, 2007) The extent to which the buyers and suppliers information is visible through inter-organizational information systems (Barratt and Oke, 2007;Bartlett et al, 2007;Brusset, 2016;<...>…”

“…The extent of order status tracking or sharing through automated tracking system or through a web portal (Kim et al, 2011) The extent of delivery information tracking/sharing through automated tracking system, smartphone The timeliness and accuracy of order status shared between the supplier and manufacturer (Caridi et al, 2014;Lee et al, 2014) The timeliness and accuracy of delivery information (e.g. (Cherrett et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2011) manufacturer (Caridi et al, 2014;Rai et al, 2012) and volume flexibility (Balasubramanian et al, 2002;Nooraie and Parast, 2015;Yu and Goh, 2014) The extent of delivery information captured in real time using RFID or mobile technology (Cherrett et al, 2015;Delen et al, 2007;Musa et al, 2014;Papert et al, 2016;Rai et al, 2012) The extent of delivery information tracking or sharing through automated tracking system or through a web portal (Cherrett et al, 2015;Goel, 2010;Rai et al, 2012) Detail of delivery information (e.g. lead time at distribution center, lead time during journey, lead time of an item at a store) shared between manufacturer and retailers (Delen et al, 2007;…”

“…lead time at distribution center, lead time during journey, lead time of an item at a store) shared between manufacturer and retailers (Delen et al, 2007;Lee and Rim, 2016) The extent of information on the status of stocks and the flows of shipments (Francis, 2008;Pfahl and Moxham, 2014;Rai et al, 2012) The extent of instantly updated status about the state of products during transportation, between terminal operator, logistics service provider and transport manager, e.g. departure/arrival schedules, delay (Cherrett et al, 2015;Goel, 2010;Nooraie and Parast, 2015) Monitoring the delivery schedules by updating the changes (quantity, delivery date) made by manufacturer and retailer (Cherrett et al, 2015) Using real-time product movement to analyze the flow of materials between the distribution center and the retail stores (Cherrett et al, 2015;Delen et al, 2007) Cascading alerts on exceptions that have occurred or are expected to occur i.e. shipment delay or damage (Cherrett et al, 2015;Delen et al, 2007;Musa et al, 2014;Rai et al, 2012) Using updated status about the delay in departure and arrival schedules to determine shipments and routes (Goel, 2010) Outbound logistics Shorter lead time, improved delivery schedule adherence, increased ontime delivery, and insight into the backroom process of moving freight to the sales floor…”

“…departure/arrival schedules, delay (Cherrett et al, 2015;Goel, 2010;Nooraie and Parast, 2015) Monitoring the delivery schedules by updating the changes (quantity, delivery date) made by manufacturer and retailer (Cherrett et al, 2015) Using real-time product movement to analyze the flow of materials between the distribution center and the retail stores (Cherrett et al, 2015;Delen et al, 2007) Cascading alerts on exceptions that have occurred or are expected to occur i.e. shipment delay or damage (Cherrett et al, 2015;Delen et al, 2007;Musa et al, 2014;Rai et al, 2012) Using updated status about the delay in departure and arrival schedules to determine shipments and routes (Goel, 2010) Outbound logistics Shorter lead time, improved delivery schedule adherence, increased ontime delivery, and insight into the backroom process of moving freight to the sales floor…”