1 Introduction
Nowadays, firms operate in a global business environment which is characterized
by an increasing turbulence and competitiveness. This forces companies to
develop high quality products that meet consumers’ needs, quickly and at lower
costs than competitors. Therefore, on the one hand, this increasing competition has
forced firms to improve their internal operations. Another tendency for businesses
is to concentrate their efforts on their core activities and outsource non-core
activities. This phenomenon causes that variables related to quality, delivery and
price of products, depend not only on the capabilities of a company, but also
largely on the provider network it interacts with (Modi and Mabert 2007). On the
other hand, this increasing competition has driven firms to focus on integrating
their suppliers and customers into the overall value chain processes (Klein 2007;
Prajogo and Olhager 2012). Therefore, the integration among companies of supply
chain is a key factor for competitive position, especially when the environment is
characterized by uncertainty and dynamism (Youssef 1992; Handfiel and Nichols
1999; Frohlich and Westbrook 2001; Sanders 2007, 2012). This integration
involves upstream and downstream relationships. In this sense, Hammer (2001)
argues that successful companies are those that apply this approach in their
business activities by working closely with partners to design and manage processes
that go beyond their organizational boundaries. Harland et al. (2007) state
that in the current environment, in many cases, competition is not a matter of
company competitiveness, but a matter of supply chain competitiveness.
To achieve this integration, sharing relevant information among components of
the supply chain becomes crucial. Besides, in these situations information and
communications technologies in general, and the Internet and the Web in particular,
play a central role by allowing information sharing among suppliers and
customers while facilitating information availability by reducing the bullwhip
effect and improving quality. Thus, integration is a both sided advantage (suppliercustomer)
in a way that suppliers can organize detailed production and customers
are able to respond in time to market needs, reducing uncertainty, inventory levels
and costs (Lee and Whang 1998). Moreover, nowadays many companies have
integrated information and communication technologies (ICT) in their supply
chain, so companies facilitate the alignment of forecasting and scheduling of
operations between partners of supply chain, allowing better inter-firms coordination
(Prajogo and Olhager 2012). Concepts like e-commerce, e-procurement and
e-collaboration are now part of a dynamic supply chain in which the Internet turns
into a natural platform. In fact, the impact of the Internet on supply chain Management
allows sharing a large amount of information along the Supply Chain in
real time, including operations, logistics and strategic planning data. This circumstance
provides firms with more visibility, improves production planning,
inventory management, and distribution (Devaraj et al. 2007; Sanders 2007). The
purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it intends to provide an extensive theoretical
framework on Supply Chain Management process integration.