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Analyse a given situation and define the problem/determine a research question

2. Critically review existing knowledge in the area
3. Design and implement a research and problem solving process identifying appropriate data collection and analysis techniques.
4. Present research findings and problem solutions
5. Analyse a given situation and define the problem/determine a research question
6. Present research findings and problem solutions

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Answer:

Introduction 

The aspect of Enterprise Resource Planning is having a steadfast growth in those segments of business where the businesses are starving towards making improvements in their operations that are depending upon their supply chain management. Enterprise Resource Planning is regarded as an extension of the Market Resource Planning. For surviving in the current fast-paced environment, companies are required to speed up the process regarding quality as well as flexibility and also undertaking the process of cost reduction. For achieving such a purpose, there is the requirement for accessing the information that are considered having accuracy as well as significance, within and outside the company. For achieving this purpose, tools regarding information technology as well as information systems and efficient use of information technology is considered being essential. ERP is playing a significant role regarding Vendor Managed Inventory. This is a method in which the manufacturer will be generating order regarding the manufacturer depending upon the demand that will be created by the distributor through the use of ERP. There has been various researches in the field of ERP as well as its benefits regarding its implementation.

Research Problems, Aims and Objectives 

Research Problem

The research problem will be including the aspect of finding out the impact of enterprise resource planning to support supply chain management as well as finding out the impact of enterprise planning method on the decisions of the organization.

Research Aims

The aim of this research is associated with solving real problems with the implementation of ERP and in due course, creating analytical tools in respect of these methods. With the advancement of globalization, there has been the emergence of the ERP software as a key interest area regarding various organizations of business. Since, organizations are increasingly interested in the implementation of the ERP methods into the organizations, there has been the increase in the appropriate implementation of the same as well.

"text-align: justify;">The overall system methods as well as organization of data integration is always essential tools in respect of supply chain management as well as precondition in respect of the implementation of its methods. To apply in respect of supply chain processes that will model in the layer of analytics, and which will be interacting with ERP, will be causing the implementation of the standard methods as well as collaboration of supply chain. This research will be trying to explore the ways by which the transparency of the information will be impacting the process of enterprise business and as a result, do the reduction of the cost of operation. This research will be aiming towards the aspect of studying about the influence of ERP regarding the decision making relating to ERP and the precise role of ERP towards the implementation of the standard methods of supply chain as well as SCM association.

Research Objectives

The research objectives will be associated with the aspect of analyzing the role of enterprise resource planning in enhancing the organization operational aspects. Also, analyzing the role of enterprise resource planning towards enhancing the operational aspect being out-bounded by the company. There is the requirement for analyzing the assistance of enterprise resource planning regarding the operational aspects associated with the supply chain management. Moreover, there is the requirement for analyzing the role of Enterprise Resource Planning regarding the aspect of making decisions in the Supply Chain Management (Williams, 2013).

Literature Review 

The aspect of Enterprise Resource Planning is having a steadfast growth in those segments of business where the businesses are starving towards making improvements in their operations that are depending upon their supply chain management. Enterprise Resource Planning is regarded as an extension of the Market Resource Planning. For surviving in the current fast-paced environment, companies are required to speed up the process regarding quality as well as flexibility and also undertaking the process of cost reduction (Tatoglu, 2016). For achieving such a purpose, there is the requirement for accessing the information that are considered having accuracy as well as significance, within and outside the company. For achieving this purpose, tools regarding information technology as well as information systems and efficient use of information technology is considered being essential.

ERP is playing a significant role regarding Vendor Managed Inventory. This is a method in which the manufacturer will be generating order regarding the manufacturer depending upon the demand that will be created by the distributor through the use of ERP. There has been various researches in the field of ERP as well as its benefits regarding its implementation (Hazen, 2014). The focus of the research will be associated with the aspect of bringing out how significant it is to do the integration of ERP in to the overall process so that the process will be able to do the yielding of long-term benefits in the long run. Another significant focus is associated with the aspect of bringing out the beneficial aspects regarding ERP towards cost reduction at the time of ordering particularly in respect of VMI (Rushton, 2014).

In respect of the framework of the research, it can be stated that this study is associated with the aspect of bringing out the significance regarding the unknown factors of ERP methods that will be inheriting the positive aspects as well as negative aspects.

Research Methodology and Data Collection Method

Research Approach

The present research study will be using the deductive research approach since the primary methodology relating to the research is associated with the aspect of deducting the outcomes from the literatures that are available relating to the influence of Enterprise Resource Planning on the Supply Chain Management. The research study will be assisting in drawing the empirical outcomes, which will be contributing towards future studies and also the literatures that are available regarding the present genre of the study. The study of the research will be increasing focused upon the deduction of the outcomes rather than the induction of the new outcomes that is depending upon the assumptions (Wang, 2016). The research study will be having a specific focus on the individual literatures depending upon the aspects of Enterprise Resource Planning as well as the Supply Chain Management.

Data Collection

The research methodology will be getting used in respect of the present research that is considered being a deductive research and as a result, there will occur the use of secondary sources. The literature will be depending on the Enterprise Resource Planning, which will be evaluated while the literature that is depending upon the Supply Chain Management will be evaluated. The research study will also be assessing those literatures that are specifically depending upon the interactive studies relating to Enterprise Resource Planning as well as the Supply Chain Management that will also get evaluated (Silvestro, 2014).

Result Analysis

The outcomes will empirically be drawn from the literatures that will get evaluated. The direct outcomes will be drawn in an empirical manner in which the literatures are in a direct manner relating to the subject matter while similar outcomes will be drawn from the outcomes of the different genres through the moulding of the outcomes relating to the studies.

The information structure will be fulfilling the informational requirements relating to the supply chain and will be dealing with the answers to the problems that the supply chain decision-making model will be entailing. The supply chain will be having the involvement of an information framework where every member of the chain will be holding three key processes regarding supply, production as well as distribution. These three corporate methods will be having the integration through the three key logistic modules relating to the ERP process.

For exchanging information at the data stage, there is the requirement for connecting the resources of data that are distributed across the supply chain. Exchange at the data stage will be taking the shape of collecting information from an ERP database for updating another database of ERP. On the other hand, when the exchange of information is at the process stage relating to the aspect that there should occur the interrelation of the methods within the two companies, there should occur the integration of the functional routine of some of the organizational methods (Jenatabadi, 2013). Then, there will occur the interpretation of the information through the system of the supplier.

Findings and Discussions 

The process of supply chain management has supported the organizations in competing in a flexible manner. The significance of a long-term enduring association has been showcased in this work. To co-ordinate, co-operate as well as integrate will be improving the profitability not just to the manufacturer but to the supplier as well (Fernie, 2014).

With the advent of technology, there has occurred the availability of new developed software as well as architectures to manage different operational stages within a supply chain management and one among these technologies is the extensively used Enterprise Resource Planning.

 The influence of ERP method is always the outcomes from the case studies, interviews, as well as surveys from the industries. The organizations will be reporting performance growth in various areas due to the implementation of ERP. The influence of implementing ERP has been segmented into four segments,

• Improving the flow of information across the sub-units, standardization as well as communication of integration facilities and improved co-ordination.
• To enable centralization regarding the activities of the administration like accounts as well as payroll.
• Reducing the cost of information system maintenance as well as increasing the capability to do the deployment of new functionality.
• Enterprise Resource Planning will be providing assistance to move an organization from the processes of business that are considered having inefficiency into the process of accepted practices (Huang, 2015).

There are two major orientations of research within these studies that will be including firstly, in what ways ERP system gets implemented within an organization and secondly, what are the benefits associated with this method to resolve different problems that a company will be encountering. Conceptual studies relating to ERP will be concentrating on the probable impacts that ERP might be having on a company, whereas studies related with methodical orientations did the presumption of ERP as a tool to create a specific output (Oelze, 2016).

ERP assists in integrating the internal methods within a company, and as a result it will be lacking an outlook associated with chain management. Moreover, this integration will be providing the organizations with an instrument in respect of integrating as well as optimizing the supply chain (Denolf, 2015). For the successful integration of the supply chain, there is the requirement of the organizations towards exchanging a significant amount of programming as well as functional information so that through the facilitation of the immediate members accessibility for such information like production planning, material delivery as well as point of sales, the association within supplier-customer will get better (Monczka, 2015).

By implementing the ERP system, a company will be having the ability for functioning as a single entity as well as catering to the overall organizational requirements. The strength of an ERP system is related with the aspect of integrating as well as automating and that is why implementation of ERP will assist in the improvement of being accurate as well as to make better decisions. To integrate ERP systems with decisions support methods will be bearing various advantages, which will include the aspect of improving the clarity as well as information quality, enhancing the understanding as well as the capacity to implement supra-organizational systems of making decisions (Wisner, 2014). There can occur the utilization of the ERP systems for collecting as well as subsequently integrating different, discrepant data from the various divisions of the corporate organization, on the other hand, they might not get used for analyzing these data to make specific decisions within an organization.

Enterprises are required sharing their information with the suppliers and in turn, will be gaining the information that pertains to their customers. Decisions that one of the members of the supply chain will be affecting the others, therefore, they are required sharing the information that pertains to their decisions. However, along with the advantages, there are certain disadvantages as well regarding ERP. It is quite evident that ERP is focusing on the level of production and as a result, they are not having a very strong analyzation (Johnson, 2014). Therefore, it becomes a requirement for having trained professionals towards using the software in the level of planning. Moreover, another disadvantage is that the ERP processes are very costly as well as complex and as a result, it becomes quite tough for doing the implementation on the various systems. As a result, the key requirement of an ERP process is that it is required to get fitted within every other system of information and should be having the flexibility as well as can get changed easily with the changing aspects relating to the processes as well as tools of any layer of a process. It is having the requirement for getting re-engineered in every methods as well as tools within a commerce part and this can be regarded as the biggest disadvantage regarding the systems of ERP (Stadtler, 2015).

The major advantage of ERP is associated with its process of integration as well as centralization. An ERP process will be offering the decision makers the means to do the enhancement of knowledge regarding the process that as a result assists in making authentic decisions in a more rapid manner and also to do the collection of sources for supporting their decisions. It will also assist the managers in handling the problems that are considered being more larger as well as complex (Ross, 2013). ERP also assists in improving the reliability regarding the making of decisions through the participants mutual participation, improving the co-ordination related with the tasks that will be making inter-related making of decisions easy (Kurbel, 2016). Therefore, it assists in improving the satisfaction relating to the decision process relating to the participants.

Conclusions 

To conclude, it can be stated that the strength of an ERP system is related with the aspect of integrating as well as automating and that is why implementation of ERP will assist in the improvement of being accurate as well as to make better decisions. To integrate ERP systems with decisions support methods will be bearing various advantages, which will include the aspect of improving the clarity as well as information quality, enhancing the understanding as well as the capacity to implement supra-organizational systems of making decisions. There can occur the utilization of the ERP systems for collecting as well as subsequently integrating different, discrepant data from the various divisions of the corporate organization, on the other hand, they might not get used for analyzing these data to make specific decisions within an organization. It will also assist the managers in handling the problems that are considered being more larger as well as complex. ERP also assists in improving the reliability regarding the making of decisions through the participants mutual participation, improving the co-ordination related with the tasks that will be making inter-related making of decisions easy.

Reference 

Denolf, J. M., Trienekens, J. H., Wognum, P. N., van der Vorst, J. G., & Omta, S. O. (2015). Towards a framework of critical success factors for implementing supply chain information systems. Computers in Industry, 68, 16-26.

Fernie, J., & Sparks, L. (2014). Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.

Fredendall, L. D., & Hill, E. (2016). Basics of supply chain management. CRC Press.

Hazen, B. T., Boone, C. A., Ezell, J. D., & Jones-Farmer, L. A. (2014). Data quality for data science, predictive analytics, and big data in supply chain management: An introduction to the problem and suggestions for research and applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 154, 72-80.

Heizer, J. (2016). Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.

Huang, Y. Y., & Handfield, R. B. (2015). Measuring the benefits of ERP on supply management maturity model: a “big data” method. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 35(1), 2-25.

Jenatabadi, H. S., Huang, H., Ismail, N. A., & Satar, N. B. M. (2013). Impact of supply chain management on the relationship between enterprise resource planning system and organizational performance. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(19), 107.

Johnson, P. F. (2014). Purchasing and supply management. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Kurbel, K. E. (2016). Enterprise resource planning and supply chain management. SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN AN.

Monczka, R. M., Handfield, R. B., Giunipero, L. C., & Patterson, J. L. (2015). Purchasing and supply chain management. Cengage Learning.

Oelze, N., Hoejmose, S. U., Habisch, A., & Millington, A. (2016). Sustainable development in supply chain management: The role of organizational learning for policy implementation. Business Strategy and the Environment, 25(4), 241-260.

Ross, D. F. (2013). Competing through supply chain management: creating market-winning strategies through supply chain partnerships. Springer Science & Business Media.

Rushton, A., Croucher, P., & Baker, P. (2014). The handbook of logistics and distribution management: Understanding the supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers.

Silvestro, R., & Lustrato, P. (2014). Integrating financial and physical supply chains: the role of banks in enabling supply chain integration. International journal of operations & production management, 34(3), 298-324.

Sindi, S., & Roe, M. (2017). The Evolution of Supply Chains and Logistics. In Strategic Supply Chain Management (pp. 7-25). Springer International Publishing.

Stadtler, H. (2015). Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Tatoglu, E., Bayraktar, E., Golgeci, I., Koh, S. L., Demirbag, M., & Zaim, S. (2016). How do supply chain management and information systems practices influence operational performance? Evidence from emerging country SMEs. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 19(3), 181-199.

Wang, G., Gunasekaran, A., Ngai, E. W., & Papadopoulos, T. (2016). Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 176, 98-110.

Williams, B. D., Roh, J., Tokar, T., & Swink, M. (2013). Leveraging supply chain visibility for responsiveness: The moderating role of internal integration. Journal of Operations Management, 31(7), 543-554.

Wisner, J. D., Tan, K. C., & Leong, G. K. (2014). Principles of supply chain management: A balanced approach. Cengage Learning.