Using Information Management Architecture to Support Flexible Supply Chain Management

Integration between the members in complex network of the supply chain group has been an issue for flexible supply chain management. Restructuring of pre-planned activities across the group to react to known deviation may not be possible. The authors decided to introduce an Information Management Architecture (IMA) as the intermediary process which can provide semi-automated assistance for tighter integration. The IMA sits between the RFID infrastructure and the existing supply chain systems and continuously monitors the current activities and wraps services from existing systems to increase the flexibility for immediate process restructuring. A comparison was made between two types of deviations that occurred at the early and final stages of a customization process with and without IMA support. The results showed that the IMA was more stable compared to other supports and significantly performed better in completing joint tasks.