Facilitation of Supply Chain Decision Processes in SMEs, Using Information Systems

This article discusses how Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) apply information systems (IS) to facilitate decisions concerning their supply chains. In the collective decision—making environment of the Supply Chain, SMEs have to strike a balance between inventory reduction to minimise working capital costs and maintaining sufficient inventory to cater for demand fluctuation. These decisions take on an additional level of complexity for food SMEs, where the products have finite shelf lives and are subject to strict traceability requirements. Nevertheless, some of the smaller SMEs have proven successful in using IS to facilitate critical decisions to minimise inventory and therefore operating costs, while still retaining the ability to cope with demand fluctuation.