Actors in Supply Chains

Internet technology with its standards of exchange has been regarded as a method to reduce the amount of communication interfaces among the partners in supply chains. Since enterprises have a huge amount of relationships to partners fulfilling various tasks and business processes, the usage of the internet and its standards can hardly be considered to be the same interface for each actor. In fact, information in the supply chain is transferred via internet technology but depending on position and objective of each actor. Therefore different kinds of data transfers are required and the formats of exchange also have to vary. In this context we propose an interface classification using the internet in supply chain networks. As a result we are able to classify the actor’s interface and to depict the exchange of information in supply chain using the internet. This will allow a smooth initiation and execution of the informational exchange between the actors in the supply chain.