Impact Of Internet-Based E-Commerce On Manufacturing And Business Operations - Research Paper Example

? Topic:  Impact of Internet/E-commerce on Operations Management Submitted Submitted by: Submitted on: 7 June Summary Of: Impact Of Internet-Based E-Commerce On Manufacturing And Business Operations. Fawzy Soliman And Ergun Gide; School Of Management; University Of Technology, Sydney, Australia E-Commerce is the new talk of the town. May it be a simple online purchasing by a customer in order to buy a credit voucher or may it be extensive data interchange of a company that has embedded internet based transactions into its operations, e-commerce does it all. The evolution of e-commerce has evolved a new era of business process giving completely new meaning to the conduction of businesses. In comparison to the EDI or electronic data interchange technique that was prevalent in businesses before the introduction of e-commerce the latter’s incorporation within businesses has been extremely widespread. The reason businesses have opted for internet based commerce is that they want to cut costs, improve productivity, reduce order processing time, and improve information flow both within and outside the organization. This involves marketing techniques as well. Moreover, if a business wants to solidify its grounds and wants to survive the ever growing advancements in today’s world it is essential that it incorporates e-commerce into it. Major businesses that have already switched a major part of their business volume to internet based commerce include banks, airline companies, media and publishing companies and retailers. Commonly defined as “The process of converting digital inputs into value added outputs”, e-commerce has become the backbone of industry in the present times. Modes of payment over the internet may be online cheques, smart cards, electronic cheques or encrypted credit cards. Certain businesses have had immense benefits by incorporating e-commerce. These include fertilizer producers, bakeries and ornament manufacturers only to name a few. The future of e-commerce and its implementation into the business world is projected at manifolds increase in the years to come. A series of international development is expected to bring a decline in the seriousness of the ‘security’ issue that is the only major problem associated with transactions and interactions related to internet based commerce. Summary of: E-commerce and its impact on operations management A. Gunasekarana,*, H.B. Marrib, R.E. McGaugheyc, M.D. Nebhwanib The revolutionizing internet based commerce has been proving itself as the most promising application of information technology. Termed as the second internet revolution, e-commerce can be seen just about anywhere over the internet. One of the key manners in which e-commerce is effective is the marketing and attaining of goods over the internet. Opening of new horizons and that too globally is one of the feathers e-commerce has in its cap. It also enables the reduction of costs incurred and that of the processing time involved within processes. Thus, eventually resulting in the overall attainment of profits and generation of increased revenue. E-Commerce incorporates a number of technologies that include e-mail, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), application of e-commerce in operations (manufacturing and services). Internet enables B2B and Business to consumer transactions. Organizations that have newly evolved find it easier to implement the standards of e-commerce as compared to those that already have old business processes running and functional. The main theme of manufacturing systems has changed from mass production to demand driven with the introduction of e-commerce. Reduction of procurement and development cycles, simplification of procedures, incorporation of men into profitable positions rather than at mere data handling positions, accessibility to world wide markets, improvement in time of response generation and also in the relationship with customers are just a few benefits that e-commerce has rendered to the world of business. Marketing horizons that evolve with increasing influence of e-commerce include advent of new sales channels, direct savings, reduced cycle time, customer service efficiency etc. Several computer based applications have effected production for the good. Various design software including CAD improve the quality of product designs. CRM currently implemented world over is a marketing software that performs research on customer requirement facilitating better product design. This internet based software produces information that is continuously refined by inputs from current and old customers. Conclusively, it is essential that businesses focus on implementation of e-commerce and should make ends meet in order to establish the e-commerce infrastructure. Summary of: THE BUSINESS IMPACTS OF B-TO-B E-COMMERCE IN MANUFACTURING SMEs Louis-A. Lefebvre, Elie Elia, Harold Boeck, Elisabeth Lefebvre The transition towards e-commerce is a norm for big organization these days, but the small and medium enterprises are still in an intermediate phase. The research in this paper is conducted to assess the impacts of e-commerce phenomenon on the SMEs. According to the worldwide standards the organizations with less or equal to 500 employees are considered as SMEs. For this research the SMEs are selected from a province of Canada. The respondents to the data collection activity were all CEOs of the respective SMEs. These firms are all active manufacturing firms. The major areas that are focused for the assessment were product development, engineering and design; procurement and purchasing; production and operations; sales, marketing and after-sales service; and distribution and logistics. These areas are believed to be at core of any manufacturing organization. Although the study is conducted to frame out the positive impacts of e-commerce on the local SMEs, however the potential threats such as the penetration of foreign manufacturers into the business due to reduction in the barriers poses a great threat to the local SMEs and induce a highly competitive environment. Thus the study not only focuses on the analysis but highlights the weaknesses and proposes solutions too. The healthy trend that is figured out in this report is the continual of e-commerce practices after its adaption by the CEOs. They don’t want to let it go after witnessing its advantages. The data collection method was an online questionnaire. Beside the basic concrete factors like volume of business, company size, import or export volume etc, thirty six well thought of and rigorously worked out factors have also been streamlined to assess the penetration and impacts of B to B ecommerce practices. These factors are concluded by the business professionals and the data is derived from the respective organizational literatures and validated by the focus groups. The data for the basic variables was original and unformulated. The analysis of the data describes the percentage contribution of e-commerce activities with proper categorization of the business processes. The penetration of B to B e-commerce is also quantified. The correlation between positive business growth and the application of B to B ecommerce procedures is also highlighted. Moreover the factorized futuristic measures of the impacts are also concluded. The overall research sees positive impacts of e-commerce adaption for SMEs and suggests the positive measure for avoidance of weaknesses in certain areas. Summary of: Changes in Operations Management due to Internet based Production Concepts — An Institution Economical Perspective Thorsten Blecker A significant increase in productivity of manufacturing by a business organization has resulted with the involvement of informational technology concepts. The e-commerce in an organization is linked to both the external network and the internal network. The external network referred to in this case is the internet and the internal network being an intranet that interlink the information systems within an organization. Emphasizing the importance of internet technologies in e-commerce it is observed that the base level of detailed data is also linked via Ethernet network to information systems within the organization. Resultant is effective communication between ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) particularly PPC (Product Planning and Control), MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) and EAI (Enterprise Application Integration.). Internet based FAN (Field Area Networks) connect every information system within an organization to the automation and control level of assembly line. Introduction of e-commerce results in a comprehensive optimization of the supply chain within an organization. A strong connection between outsourcing and in housing is emphasized upon. Web integrated manufacturing involves the process been whereby internet technologies have been embedded into manufacturing. Examples include Java, Jini, Soap and agent based terms. Web application is termed as the essential element of Web-Integrated Manufacturing which is termed as a well founded guiding area for the evolution, organization, planning and control of production systems. Production concepts that involve the use of internet lead to production systems that are cost effective. The reason behind their cost effectiveness majorly is that the internet based production concepts are flexible and can also be reconfigured. The operations subsystem of a production system incorporates information systems, ‘machines’ and ‘facilities’, ‘materials flow systems’ and ‘employees and workplaces’. Each of these parts, when embedded with application of e-commerce specifically internet based production concepts, results in enhancement of local data processing capabilities, just to name a few. According to the economic perspective, the contractual relationships between actors are essential and affect the institutions economic approach towards internet based production concepts within an organization. Summary of: E-Commerce and its Impact in Logistic Management: A State of Art Hussain Bux Marri, Zahir Irani, Angappa Gunasekaran, Supply chain process within an organization encapsulates logistics management as one of its integral parts. The introduction of e-commerce into logistic management boosts the business process at an exceptional rate. Mainly all the information and material flow within an organization is handled by logistics. It all the production details from the availability of raw materials to the production, its sale, after sale and so on. Recent years have led to an increased emphasis on logistics. This is owing to the rising technological influence in every organizations structure that has expanded global horizons. E-commerce has begun to dominate all commercial processes. B2C and B2B e-commerce have specially benefitted organizations in terms of enhancing their growth manifolds. When internet communication technologies such as EDI(electronic Data Interchange), email and the world wide web are used within logistic management the term coined for the latter is ‘e-logistics’. Benefits of e-commerce in logistic management include shortening of procedures, enhanced, quick and efficient communication and exchange of information, reduction in the production and purchase processes and enhancement in customer service etc. Internet based logistic processes integrates the effective interaction of the business production processes with the interacting communities and intermediaries. This in turn results in the facilitation of interactions with customers, suppliers and partners. Lack in the know how of internet based e-commerce capabilities, reliability and security are some concerning issues regarding e-logistics. Apprehensions about the above mentioned concerning issues may sometimes interrupt sales and sharing of production details in foreign countries. This helps preventing logistical problems. E-COMMERCE IN THE READER’S VIEWS E-Commerce is the use of internet and internet based technologies in all business processes. It has extensive uses and implementation details. It overrides the use all prior technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange. From the collection of raw data to each detail of the business and sales processes to even the eventual after sales services e-commerce expands its horizons over an entire organization benefiting it on the whole. Exemplary enhancement in sales leads to encouragement to increase the potential to increase the over all logistics of an organization. E-commerce addresses many problems associated with businesses that were all associated with the pre-technology era. Introduction of the internet technology has revolutionized business processes by enhancing procurement, communication, interaction within organization, production, reduction in costs, increase in efficiency and an eventual increase in sales. Increased brand awareness and customer loyalty and increase in potential profits of an organization are also termed as benefits associated with implementation of internet technologies within a business. Up to date customer feedback enables updated revolutions in business processes. Issues that need to be addressed while implementing e-commerce are security. Strengthening of this issue would in turn enhance customer reliability with businesses. Nonetheless it can be said that the key to the survival of every business in the technological world of today is its embedding e-commerce into its business processes. REFERENCES: Soliman Fawzy; Gide Ergun; n.d.; Impact Of Internet-Based E-Commerce On Manufacturing And Business Operations. Print. Gunasekaran A.; Marri B.H.; McGaughey R. E.; Nedhwani M.B.;(2002).E-Commerce and its impacts on operations management. Print. Lefebvre A. Louis; Elie Elia; Boeck Harold; Lefebvre Elisabeth (2005). The business impacts of B-to-B E-Commerce in Manufacturing SMEs. Print Blecker Thorsten;(2003). Changes in Operations Management due to Internet Based Production Concepts – An Institution Economical Perspective. Print. Marri Hussain; Irani Zahir; Gunasekaran Angappa; (2006). E-Commerce and its Impact in Logistic Management: A State of Art. Print. Read More