The thesis aims to investigate the essential characteristics of a Supply Chain platform for sharing information. The starting theoretical basis was the analysis of the literature relating to the Supply Chain, with a focus on issues concerning the Supply Chain Finance. To this latter argument literature, it has some shortcomings, particularly about information sharing systems within a complex Supply Chain. Analysis of literature - The work started from the analysis of the existing literature, starting from the definition of Supply Chain, analyzing it per the characteristics described in the most important contributions to the literature. Then they discussed topics related to Supply Chain Finance and how companies of all sizes can manage their debts and their inventories to optimize working capital in the single enterprise and across the Supply Chain. A further strand of depth involved the exchange of information that takes place within the Supply Chain and which technologies they are based. Objectives - After analyzing the literature highlighting gaps and leveraging consolidated results, three research questions were formulated: (1) determining what information was considered useful for evaluating the health of a business; (2) what were the characteristics of a sector platform able to collect and share the relevant information; (3) how a sector platform could affect some business processes. Methodology - To answer the above questions have been collected a long series of information from different and heterogeneous sources: literature and contributions of academics, focus groups organized by the Observatory Supply Chain Finance at Politecnico di Milano, editorial contributions from industry experts, websites of companies that offer some services of Supply Chain Finance and interviews. Model development - The main source for the collection of information has been participating in a series of focus groups in which experts: credit managers, technology providers, information providers and financial institutions have discussed over the main features of a Supply Chain platform. First, it was assessed from the regulatory point of view that they were the legal requirements. The second area of concern was what were the information deemed useful to share. Finally, incentives put in place to facilitate the accession of many companies were assessed. The second step was to map some processes that involved various actors in a Supply Chain and assess how would change with the introduction of a Supply Chain platform. The object of analysis processes was as follows: evaluation of a new customer, order and invoicing cycle, finally credit management. These processes have been mapped to have an estimate on their operating costs. For credit management, an assessment of the financial impact was made considering two tools: Factoring and Invoice Auction. Conclusions - It is the confidentiality of data is a key element to consider even more than the issue of privacy. As for the data to share, a fundamental element is formed by the usual vendor rating that is compiled by many companies and is never shared with partners. Information providers and financial institutions can obtain information about certain company customers to produce more accurate and complete reports. About the impact on operating costs there was a large decrease, due to the automation of some tasks; the same result for the financial costs of credit management which have decreased due to reduced information asymmetry between the parties.
Il lavoro di tesi si pone l’obiettivo di indagare le caratteristiche essenziali di una piattaforma di filiera per la condivisione di informazioni. La base teorica di partenza è stata l’analisi della letteratura relativa alla Supply Chain, con un approfondimento sulle tematiche concernenti la Supply Chain Finance. Per quest’ultimo argomento la letteratura presenta alcune lacune, in particolare riguardo a sistemi di condivisione di informazioni all’interno di una filiera complessa. Analisi della letteratura - Il lavoro è partito dall’analisi della letteratura esistente partendo dalla definizione di Supply Chain, analizzandola secondo le caratteristiche descritte nei più importanti contributi presenti in letteratura. Successivamente sono stati approfonditi i temi legati alla Supply Chain Finance e tutti gli strumenti grazie ai quali aziende di tutte le dimensioni possono gestire i propri crediti e le proprie scorte per ottimizzare il capitale circolante nella singola impresa e nell’intera filiera. Un ulteriore filone di approfondimento ha riguardato lo scambio di informazioni che avviene all’interno della filiera e quali tecnologie ne sono alla base. Obiettivi – Dopo aver analizzato la letteratura evidenziando lacune e sfruttando risultati consolidati, sono state formulate tre domande di ricerca: (1) relativa a quali informazioni fossero ritenute utili per valutare lo stato di salute di un’impresa; (2) quali fossero le caratteristiche di una piattaforma di filiera capace di raccogliere e condividere le informazioni rilevanti; (3) come una piattaforma di filiera potesse condizionare alcuni processi aziendali. Metodologia – Per rispondere alle precedenti domande sono state raccolte una lunga serie di informazioni da fonti diverse ed eterogenee: letteratura e contributi di accademici, focus group organizzati dall’Osservatorio Supply Chain Finance del Politecnico di Milano, contributi editoriali di esperti del settore, siti internet di compagnie che offrono alcuni servizi di Supply Chain Finance e alcune interviste. Sviluppo del modello – La fonte principale per la raccolta delle informazioni è stata la partecipazione ad una serie di focus group in cui esperti: credit manager, provider tecnologici, information provider e istituti di credito si sono misurati su quale fossero le caratteristiche principali di una piattaforma di filiera. Innanzitutto è stato valutato dal punto di vista normativo quale fossero i requisiti di legge. Il secondo filone di discussione ha riguardato quali fossero le informazioni ritenute di utili da condividere. Infine sono stati valutati gli incentivi messi in campo per agevolare l’adesione di un numero cospicuo di aziende. Il secondo passo è stato quello di mappare alcuni processi che coinvolgessero vari attori di una filiera e valutare come cambiassero con l’introduzione di una piattaforma di filiera. I processi oggetto di analisi sono stati i seguenti: valutazione di un nuovo cliente, processo di ordine e fatturazione, infine gestione del credito. Questi processi sono stati mappati per avere una valutazione su quale fosse il loro costo operativo. Per la gestione del credito è stata fatta una valutazione sull’impatto finanziario valutando due strumenti di Supply Chain Finance: il Factoring e l’Invoice Auction. Conclusioni – Si è visto come la riservatezza dei dati forniti sia un elemento fondamentale da considerare ancor più che il tema della privacy. Per quanto riguarda i dati da condividere un elemento fondamentale è formato da l’usuale vendor rating che viene compilato da tante aziende e che non viene mai condiviso con i partner. Information provider e istituzioni finanziarie possono ottenere dati sui clienti di una certa impresa per produrre report più accurati e completi. Da un punto di vista delle conseguenze sui costi operativi si è osservata una forte diminuzione, grazie all’automatizzazione di alcune attività; stesso risultato per i costi finanziari della gestione del credito che sono diminuiti grazie alla riduzione nell’asimmetria informativa tra le parti.
A supply chain platform for information sharing within the supply chain. Opportunities and consequences from a credit manager perspective
CIVIDINI, ALESSANDRO
2015/2016
Abstract
The thesis aims to investigate the essential characteristics of a Supply Chain platform for sharing information. The starting theoretical basis was the analysis of the literature relating to the Supply Chain, with a focus on issues concerning the Supply Chain Finance. To this latter argument literature, it has some shortcomings, particularly about information sharing systems within a complex Supply Chain. Analysis of literature - The work started from the analysis of the existing literature, starting from the definition of Supply Chain, analyzing it per the characteristics described in the most important contributions to the literature. Then they discussed topics related to Supply Chain Finance and how companies of all sizes can manage their debts and their inventories to optimize working capital in the single enterprise and across the Supply Chain. A further strand of depth involved the exchange of information that takes place within the Supply Chain and which technologies they are based. Objectives - After analyzing the literature highlighting gaps and leveraging consolidated results, three research questions were formulated: (1) determining what information was considered useful for evaluating the health of a business; (2) what were the characteristics of a sector platform able to collect and share the relevant information; (3) how a sector platform could affect some business processes. Methodology - To answer the above questions have been collected a long series of information from different and heterogeneous sources: literature and contributions of academics, focus groups organized by the Observatory Supply Chain Finance at Politecnico di Milano, editorial contributions from industry experts, websites of companies that offer some services of Supply Chain Finance and interviews. Model development - The main source for the collection of information has been participating in a series of focus groups in which experts: credit managers, technology providers, information providers and financial institutions have discussed over the main features of a Supply Chain platform. First, it was assessed from the regulatory point of view that they were the legal requirements. The second area of concern was what were the information deemed useful to share. Finally, incentives put in place to facilitate the accession of many companies were assessed. The second step was to map some processes that involved various actors in a Supply Chain and assess how would change with the introduction of a Supply Chain platform. The object of analysis processes was as follows: evaluation of a new customer, order and invoicing cycle, finally credit management. These processes have been mapped to have an estimate on their operating costs. For credit management, an assessment of the financial impact was made considering two tools: Factoring and Invoice Auction. Conclusions - It is the confidentiality of data is a key element to consider even more than the issue of privacy. As for the data to share, a fundamental element is formed by the usual vendor rating that is compiled by many companies and is never shared with partners. Information providers and financial institutions can obtain information about certain company customers to produce more accurate and complete reports. About the impact on operating costs there was a large decrease, due to the automation of some tasks; the same result for the financial costs of credit management which have decreased due to reduced information asymmetry between the parties.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/133505