Critical Aspects of Information and Communication Technology in Vendor Managed Inventory

The use of Information and communication technology (ICT) in supply chain collaboration has received substantial attention among researchers and practitioners. The multiple aspects of ICT offer a wide selection of research and application arenas. This paper discusses information sharing and takes a particular focus on the level of data integration when ICT is applied to support the replenishment process based on a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) principle, i.e. when the supplier is responsible for the replenishment process on the customer’s behalf [1]. The findings conclude that it is not the capabilities of the computer technology and applications available that limit the level of data integration in the collaboration program. The most important limitation is the decision makers’ competence and confidence in information sharing and computer systems, and the potential benefits these represent. The research methodology applied is a comparative case study where level of data integration and level of data utilization was studied in five cases of VMI collaboration.