Communicating Along the Supply Chain: A Survey of Manufacturers’ Investment and Usage Plans for Information Technologies

In order to survive and thrive in today’s global economy, firms of all sizes must be able to use information as a competitive weapon. Manufacturing firms must be able to receive and process customer orders, schedule shop orders, and place purchase orders efficiently to be effective members of their supply chain. Information technology can be used to facilitate the exchange of order information between business functions and supply chain members. Two information technologies that are used for this information exchange are enterprise resource planning (ERP) and electronic commerce (e‐commerce). This article discusses the results of a survey of Midwestern manufacturers on their current and future use of and investment in information technology to support their supply chain activities. The results of the study show that there is a difference in the use of and investment in information technology between small/medium manufacturers and large manufacturers. Large manufacturers are placing more emphasis on supply chain technologies than small manufacturers. Manufacturers’ investment in information technologies for the supply chain were found to lag those for the manufacturing/operations function. The results also show that use of e‐commerce is greater than the use of ERP.