Today's E-Business Activity

Collaborative Manufacturing And Commerce

The need for coordinating distributed manufacturing operations is greater than ever. Whether driven by the disappearance of inventory buffers as supply chain improvements kick in, because acquisitions need to be brought into the fold, or because of global expansion and competition, manufacturers are increasingly seeking solutions to the problem of managing distributed or networked operations. Manufacturers are feeling pressure today for a number of reasons. As supply chain improvements wring buffer inventory out of the supply chain, manufacturing is increasingly on the critical path to customer satisfaction. In order to perform, operations personnel must see all relevant demand information in time for efficient response. Enterprise level systems and managers need manufacturing data in real time. Regulatory compliance requires documented, reliable processes. Lack of collaboration across organizational and business boundaries can lead to redundancy and higher costs.

In particular, today’s e-business leaders have woken up to the Internet’s potential for synchronizing operations   with customers, suppliers and business partners. Using Internet technologies, they are closely integrating the way they develop new products, manage and distribute inventory, market and sell, and manufacture goods.

This kind of e-business activity is increasingly referred to as Collaborative Commerce. Leading companies such as Dell Computer, Wal-Mart, Daimler-Chrysler, Nestle and CIGNA have launched Collaborative Commerce initiatives with great expectations — and, often, eye-opening results. From an extensive survey of 162 North American companies, we found that the business benefits of collaboration increase significantly with greater degrees of collaboration. Companies operating at the highest levels of Collaborative Commerce have increased revenue on average 40%, reduced costs 30%, slashed cycle-times by 37% and boosted customer retention...