The dramatic shifts of the last two decades have put huge pressure on companies seeking to maintain a competitive edge. Advances in technology, especially in information technology, together with globalization and reduced time horizons, are driving these changes and exerting competitive pressures on business strategic management and supply chain management. Integrating intra and inter-organizational activities has emerged as the key challenge for most businesses and supply chain executives seeking an edge within the market.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) system is meant to facilitate inter-enterprise cooperation as well as collaboration with customers, suppliers, and business partners. And yet despite the enormous potential of such a system to bring benefits and competitive advantages, its management and implementation remain a sizable challenge for most organizations. It is not hard to see why this is the case; the 21 st century has brought a number of novel changes into the modern-day business environment. As a result of globalization and the proliferation of multinationals, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and business partnerships have become commonplace. Accompanying these changes has been a merging of old business practices with the new to produce practices like Agile manufacturing, Just In Time, and Lean Management (Hussain & Nassar, 2010) . The information technology revolution has also led to dramatic reductions in the costs of communication, paramount to any business transactions, leading to coordination changes in the supply chain. All these factors have contributed to the now pervasive problems of integrating the supply chain network.
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A supply chain is made up of all stages, direct or indirect, involved in fulfilling the customer request. It includes suppliers, manufacturers, transporters, retail, warehouses, customer, and third party logistics providers. The primary objective of a supply chain is to increase the overall generated value rather than profit in the specific supply chain (Carter, 2009) . Important to note about supply chains is that they include collaboration and coordination with channel partners who may consist of intermediaries, suppliers, third party service providers, and customers.
The concept of integrating supply chain systems can be traced to the 1980s and 1990s when customer and supplier integrative systems gained fresh impetus. Businesses started developing close organic linkages with clients, commonly termed strategic customers, and more stress was put on improving relations with suppliers (Hussain & Nassar, 2010) . The principal driver behind such collaborative efforts was the desire to extend control of operations across the whole supply process and, therefore, replacing vertical and market integration as ways of managing the flow process. Most definitions of integration today put as much effort on the internal processes of the firm as they do on the external and, therefore, underscore the wholeness of the entire system.
Alignment and linkage are key issues in supply chain integration. The former ensures there is consistency in the pursuit of shared goals, vision, purpose and objectives across organizations, processes, and functions within the supply chain. The latter, on the other hand, speaks to the information sharing necessary for planning, decision-making, and interaction of people within the supply chain. Linkage ensures that requisite information is available and that different entities and functions within the supply chain make decisions based on similar insights. Alignments and linkages, however, do not take place independently (Carter, 2009) . In many ways, they represent aspects of the business strategy , which the supply chain management is just but a component.
A business strategy details the techniques a firm intends to employ to compete in the market. A firm will typically compete through differentiation or low-cost production. Supply chains have the potential to contribute to both of these goals. Different business strategies will, however, require their supply chains and supply chain decisions. Thus, a business strategy that is based on innovation in speed will need its supply chain management that is distinct from say a business strategy that is based on the low cost of production (Carter, 2009) . It is , therefore, paramount that the strategies adopted and the supply chain decisions made reflect the overall approach of the enterprise.
Supply chain strategy decisions have to do with handling supply chain management decisions relative to the product service design, business strategy, and the physical supply design. In doing so, it is crucial that the right infrastructure, in the form of people, technology, relationships, procedures, and control systems is in place to facilitate linkages and alignments. According to Carter (2009), four factors are especially crucial when developing a supply chain strategy.
First, there is a need to align the supply chain strategy with the overall vision. This consideration demands that the supply chain is in furtherance of the business strategy and the long-term goals of the organization. This is especially important given the potential of the supply chain to run counter to set goals. Second, proper consideration needs to be paid to the outsourcing and insourcing strategy. These relate to the firm's value proposition and its competitive edge. A well-crafted supply chain strategy will seek to reinforce areas of advantage while sealing areas of relative weakness. The third is the issue of supply chain segmentation. It entails the supply chain design, cash flows, information flows, and physical structure. Segmentation seeks to capture the entirety of the supply chains to support all market segments. Fourth is a concern for product service and design. Product designs will have far-reaching impacts on such things as manufacturing efficiencies, customer service levels, and distribution system requirements, all of which will have a bearing on supply chain strategy decisions.
After developing supply chain strategy, attention needs to be diverted to supply chain execution process, which is the operationalization of the strategies developed. The execution phase is in many ways the linking of demand and supply requirements with a view of ensuring value for customers. It entails the forecasting of demand, order promising, material planning, operations planning, and supply management. The principal issue here is linkage- ensuring communication and sharing of information in multi-level decision making processes with a view to ensuring consistency and meeting the expectations of the customer.
The final stage of integration is to identify and develop supply chain enablers. While enablers do not facilitate linkage on their own, the presence does aid in the process. They include such things as Trust. Indeed, having confidence in other people is at the heart of tearing down organizational and functional barriers that inhibit genuine integration. In the absence of trust, people lose their willingness to collaborate and, therefore, this undermines the consistent and aligned decision-making of a robustly integrated supply chain. Communications and E systems are also an important enabler. It includes the latest technological systems that enable data collection, sharing of information and experiences, and teamwork. Such systems are often related to data availability, timeliness, and accuracy. Proper structural organization and people also enhance integration through the creation of functioning reporting structures, team membership, interactions, and sharing of roles and responsibilities. Such structures are important in overcoming hurdles and creating an indirect network of alignment and linkages. Similarly, the wrong structure excludes key stakeholders, inhibits collaborative effort, and stands in the way of information flow. Creating an effective structure requires not just a careful assessment of organizational needs and design, but also building on the capabilities and skills of people within the supply chain. Metrics and Reward systems are also vital in influencing behavior within and between organizations. Organizational strategy and philosophy notwithstanding, people largely respond to metric and rewards (Carter, 2009) . Thus customer-centric metrics that are consistent and aligned across various functional groups and organizations will stimulate behavior and decisions within the supply chain that is aligned and consistent.
Customer Loyalty
Proper supply chain integration, however, does not guarantee a loyal customer, and therefore, companies are moving a level higher to supply chain maturation, enterprise to enterprise. However, before attempting customer loyalty, it is important to ensure that the supply chain is properly consolidated. A properly integrated supply chain has employee loyalty as a perquisite. There are at least three levels of supply chain maturation that help determine not just how to achieve genuine customer loyalty but also crucially when to achieve it; the micro, the macro, and the enterprise to enterprise level. The attributes, the goals, and benefits at each level increase in complexity as the supply chain mature (Dicello, 2000) . Since the top level of the enterprise to enterprise supply chain is where genuine customer loyalty is likely to exist, strategies at previous levels should be geared towards this end.
The micro supply chain represents the organization’s initial attempt at improving her supply chains. Emphasis is on improving the functions of demand, supply, manufacturing, transportation, and distribution within the supply chain of the company. The goals here can be to increase the performance of an identified aspect of the business such as reducing miles, idle capacity, and safety stock. Benchmarking, software implementation and project planning are some of the critical aspect attributes focused on at this stage.
Most companies struggle to move from the micro-level to the macro-level of the supply chain. This level represents a major increase in complexity and rewards. The primary goal is the optimization of efficiency and performance between various business functions. Benefits accrued at this level are micro and higher level like increasing returns per share, returns on the asset, market share, and working capital while simultaneously improving the rate of production, capital expenditure and product development time. The key attributes here revolve around process changes, re-engineering, integration, and managerial changes.
Entry into the enterprise to enterprise level is a result of the consolidation of macro-level attainments. The principal challenge here is the integration of the integration of the firm’s supply challenge with that of business partners, customers, and vendors to satisfy shared needs. Goals here are measured by being able to effectively prioritize the customer and the market, striking long-term deals, and sharing information and prices while at the same time reducing the risk of competitive losses and that of introducing new products and services. The main attribute here is how the company is able to use the supply chain to differentiate itself and buy an advantage over the enterprise to enterprise supply chains while earning and solidifying customer loyalty. The important benefit of reaching this level of the supply chain is that customers are not just satisfied but also loyal. The difference is significant; while customer satisfaction is momentarily attitude, typically in response to written and verbal surveys, loyalty is real behavior that leads to cycles of buying over a period of time (Dicello, 2000) . In brief, therefore, customer loyalty is significant in maintaining long repeated business and sustained sales.
Conclusion
Supply chain integration is an elaborate process that takes stages. It has been argued that such a process will often require putting dollars, expertise and time. As a sequential process, it demands integration of internal systems before focus can be directed to external ones. Alignment and linkages are the key issues involved in supply chain integration with their management influencing the overall effectiveness of the chain. Nevertheless, the supply chain does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it must also align itself with the overall vision and business strategy of the firm. With successful integration, numerous benefits accrue to the firm including a competitive edge, reduced cost of production, worker satisfaction amongst others. More crucially, customer satisfaction, the elixir of modern-day business, shifts to become customer loyalty.
References
Carter, P. (2009). Supply Chain Integration: Challenges and Good Practices. Http://www.supplychainbrain.com/content/nc/technology-solutions/rfid-wireless-bar-code-voice/single-article-page/article/supply-chain-integration-challenges-and-good-practices/. N.p., 27 May 2009. Web. 26 July 2015 .
Dicello, R. (2000). Is Your Supply Chain Achieving Customer Loyalty. Http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/is-your-supply-chain-achieving-customer-loyalty/. N.p., Apr. 2000. Web. 26 July 2015.
Hussain, A. A., & Nassar, M. O. (2010). A Broader view of the Supply Chain Integration. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 1 (1).
Poirier, C., Quinn, F., & Swink, M. (2009). Diagnosing Greatness: Ten Traits of the Best Supply Chains.Ft. Lauderdale. Ross Publishing Inc , ProQuest ebrary.
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