The Identification of Enterprise System Limitations within Manufacturing Supply Chains

This primary purpose of this paper is to develop improved insights into common enterprise systems limitations, with specific regard to industrial supply chain management co-ordination and control. Enterprise or ERP systems are now routinely used within many SMEs and can be seen to offer many distinct functional advantages, but barriers to holistic business support and market growth still remain. Contemporary academic research and industrial advancement has been placed upon incremental improvements of existing frameworks to deliver novel ERPII or next-generation solutions based upon extended-enterprise or networked supply chain models. However, indications from these efforts reveal that as SMEs shift towards more agile and customer-focused strategies, there has to additionally exist, a reassessment of how internal reference frameworks and process systems are supported and implemented within the new solutions. Results collated from case studies and industrial surveys offer new recommendations and principles for ERP solution designers, researchers and practitioners alike.