Instrumento de gestión de la sostenibilidad de proyectos productivos

Even though the interviewees said that there is much potential in web 2.0, and it could really improve supplier and stakeholder communication and collaboration, there are many problems that would have to be solved first. But in the meantime, other new technologies are emerging and affecting purchasing. Web 2.0 is not a set of very new technologies, and first tools appeared before 2010. In this section, interviewees where asked how they see the future of SCM, and how do they see that systems and processes are going to change.

A’s vision about future SCM included deeper collaboration and partnership type relationships. Currently systems are merely tools to get things done, and at the end it all comes to profits and savings. New systems would need more mutual benefits and motivators in order to be more popular among buyers and suppliers. When asked about how the internet will affect purchasing in the future, the answer was that the internet has already affected purchasing greatly. A’s opinion was that the use IoT/Big Data would increase in the future. But for them to become useful and working tools, the basics must be in order. More data is always more data, and the interviewee did not see any disadvantages in that. But the quality of data must first be ensured. Interviewee A shared the view of Schiff (2015), that if data quality is poor, IoT and Big Data is useless. Big Data would also need skilled workers to handle the data and provide sufficient support for decision making.

According to B, future SCM would include more cloud-based services. B thinks that SRM would be moved to systems which would allow the services to be used as data banks, and information could be distributed more efficiently and allow more reciprocal approaches. B’s vision was that internet will transform purchasing to be more automated and manual labour will decrease. As a result of this, work would require more cognitive and problem solving skills. When discussed about future systems, B said that the possibilities of IoT is being studied. These could bring lots of possibilities, but the interviewee was worried about the technical issues, such as are the devices reliable? If the systems are too much dependent of computers, technical issues could cause major problems.

C had very much the same visions as B. The main opinion about future systems included cloud services and making data exchange easier. Suppliers would also be encouraged to share more data. C saw that Big Data could enable more efficient analysis of purchasing data, which could improve of processes further. When discussed about possible advantages and disadvantages, the opinion was that more data is always good up to a certain point, but could this lead to the same situation what is currently happening, that there is too much data and not enough time to process it all?

D did not have much visions about emerging tools and systems, but more visions about procurement and SCM as a whole. The vision about the future was that buyer-supplier relationships would be more partnership like; buyers would have less suppliers, but the relationships would be closer. Suppliers would participate in planning and designing processes, so there would be more integration. When asked about the effects of internet on purchasing, D’s answer was that the company should exploit more internet-based software in different phases of the purchasing process, such as e-auctions and e-sourcing. This gave the image that the company has not adopted that many e-procurement tools, that could help in streamlining processes and making purchasing more efficient.

D’s opinion about IoT in SCM was that it can enable condition monitoring for equipment and machines, which can enable more proactive purchasing to avoid production standstills. This would mean that machine send data about its functioning, and repairs and spare parts purchasing could be done in advance before any disruptions in production. Big Data could enable simulation of different scenarios and production processes. But according to the interviewee, in the end it is a human who makes the decision, which can be based on past experience rather than computational data. Also some purchasing processes cannot be fully automated, as some purchases may only be done by humans. This is because a major part of the procured products are tailor made for the company, and suppliers have to meet strict standards. Purchasing such products always need human interventions and negotiation. But overall the interviewee saw that internet will be a big part of future purchasing, and with IoT will enable better collection of supplier performance and quality, which is essential for negotiations and supplier improvement. Especially quality needs to be measured more, and this data needs to be shared with the supplier.

E’s vision was that supply digitalization will develop further on. The opinion was that internet itself won’t change purchasing that much any more, as the benefits and disadvantages are mostly already acknowledged. Instead, internet would be more of an enabler, and the focus would move more to “full suit”-systems that would include all necessary processes related to purchasing. When asked more about possible new solutions in buyer-supplier collaboration, E had the same vision as D, that the use of IoT would increase in some processes, especially in preventive maintenance. New systems would improve the speed of data exchange, but E wondered would there be too much confidential data transmitted to partners?