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Introduction
Supply chain visibility (SCV) is a commonly used term in the supply chain management (SCM) and logistics communities. Most vendors of SCM software, third party logistics providers (3PLs), transportation companies and others claim to have or to provide SCV capability. However, achieving SCV remains an important issue, consistently ranking near the top of surveys of SCM professionals uncovered in this research. What causes this difference in perception? It is due, in part, to miscommunication about SCV, a concept critically important for effective SCM, for logistics efficiencies and for customer satisfaction. Lacking heretofore has been a precise definition of SCV which captures its salient characteristics. This paper proposes such a definition for SCV, and explains its implications and its relationship to other definitions: What are the attributes of other definitions proffered for SCV and how does the new definition compare? How can the new definition be used by both practitioners and vendors to clarify the understanding of SCV and to help them achieve it?
Use of the term SCV
The use of the term SCV is ubiquitous; a recent internet search (www.google.com, January 8, 2007) returned over 348,000 entries. A cursory review of these entries shows that most of the links are to vendors of SCM software, to 3PLs, and to others touting the SCV capabilities of their software and/or the services they provide. A search of an extensive collection of databases, ABI/PROQUEST, containing articles from academic journals, newspaper and trade publications, was also completed. The databases contained in the search are extensive, covering:
- regional and local business publications;
- more than 1,800 worldwide business periodicals, and information on more than 60,000 companies;
- more than 750 business periodicals and newsletters with a trade or industry focus;
- academic dissertations and theses; and
- in-depth coverage of 195 countries, highlighting over 250 global economic.
This search, conducted on January 8, 2007, yielded the results shown in the Table I [Figure omitted. See Article Image.].
Table I [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] illustrates that the term is most commonly used in magazines, trade journals and newspapers with relatively few academic journal references. As with the internet search of the term "supply chain visibility," any sample of these sources confirms that most of the entries are...