The evolution of companies from focusing on supply chain management to building effective e-business trade networks has made it necessary to seek management methods for constantly and rapidly changing demand. As more and more companies face the challenge of complex needs management, this implies the necessity of searching for tools and techniques to identify and analyze the actual motives behind customer needs (the term “customer” is defined here as the person responsible for the purchasing decision). Supply chain management is a linear partnership system using classic methods of needs analysis and forecasting. This technology was very effective in the past and may be continued in certain companies, but the growing number of business environment requirements needs stronger processes for accurate needs planning. Identifying and analyzing needs requires access to better data and techniques. The primary platform for e-business is the Internet, which allows companies to share data and increase their efficiency. Enterprises have long realized that automatically obtaining accurate data about items would be a blessing for business. Billions of dollars have been invested worldwide in barcode technology. Business efficiency on the Web can only be ensured by full automation of item flow tracking, and the barcode only allows for the identification of a product with a visible label and only as a unit from a given class of items, often a very large set of products.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2003.