"Module 4 Workbook2 Information sharing and supply chain management[This page should take about 15 minutes to complete] Introductionflickrphoto shared by CTSI-Global under a Creative Commons ( BY-SA ) licenseInformation, along with materials and money, must readily flow across the supply chain toenable the planning, execution, and evaluation of key functions. For example, timely,accurate information regarding consumer demand for GoPro cameras is needed by HarveyNorman to manage its inventory and order additional products. In turn, the Harvey Normanorder information can be used by GoPro to acquire needed components from suppliers tosupport production. If each organisation in the supply chain had to operate without this demand information, it would be very difficult to maintain a proper flow of the rightquantities of the right components and models. This could lead to a shortage of hot sellersand an overage of unwanted cameras. Fortunately, supply chain information technologies canmitigate these problems. Correctly applied, these tools facilitate timely, cost-efficientinformation sharing between manufacturers, retailers, and logistics services providers,effective execution of the supply chain processes discussed throughout this workbook, andsatisfaction of customer requirements. Recognising the potential of technology, organisationshave invested vast sums of money to effectively collect, analyse, and deploy supply chaininformation.Gartner estimates that sales of supply chain management and procurement softwareapplications totalled US $9.9 billion in 2014. That represents a 10.8% annual growth rate, ledby double digit gains from SAP and Manhattan Associates. As supply chains become moreglobal, complex, and data-driven, information technologies must rapidly evolve. Companiesneed modern tools to help them capture, analyse, and use real-time information. In their questto create value through technology, CEOs of transportation and logistics companies areespecially focused on mobile capabilities, data analytics, and cyber security. The executivesrealise that digital technology investments must be well-planned and be accompanied bymeasurements of success to drive competitive advantage. As you will learn throughout thisModule, effective technologies for the management of information flows is vital for creatingresponsive supply chains with synchronised processes to meet customer requirements.Traditional versus enriched supply chainsThe significance of an issue such as information sharing and its mounting relevance foreffective supply chains management can be better understood when traditional versus (information-enriched) supply chains are defined, understood and compared. This was donealmost 20 years ago by Mason-Jones and Towill (1997) who used simulation models todemonstrate and benchmark the expected benefits of taking a holistic view of supply chaininformation flow in terms of ‘information enrichment’.This figure (see Figure 2, 'Supply chain information and material flows', in Mason-Jonesand Towill, 1997, p. 140) presents the distinction between the ‘traditional’ supply chain andthe so-called ‘enriched’ supply chain in their approaches to information usage. In thetraditional supply chain the retailer is the only player who has direct sight of consumerdemand; all other members only have the orders from their immediate customer, (i.e. thewarehouse only has sight of the distributor’s orders). Therefore, in the traditional model themarket information is distorted initially by the retailer and further distorted with eachsuccessive link in the chainHowever, in the information enriched supply chain each player, no matter how far upstream,receives the marketplace data directly. The enrichment mechanism can be, for example, anelectronic point of sales (POS) link. So rather than each player traditionally making an orderdecision based purely on the internal chain order data, they can now make an informedjudgement based on actual market demand as well. The figure (see Figure 2 in Mason-Jonesand Towill, 1997, p. 140) also presents the factory order rate response to a step up in marketdemand for both the traditional and enriched models. The factory in the traditional supplychain cannot even begin to compete with the information enriched factory both in terms ofresponse overshoot and recovery time. "