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Upstream supply chain – The B2B Company

Downstream supply chain – The B2B Company

B2B

retailer

or

exchange

Distributor

Distributor

Manufacturer

The

B2B

Company

Activity 6.1

A supply chain for a typical B2B company

Purpose

To examine the nature of a B2B supply chain and its potential for modification through 

restructuring and information systems as part of digital business development.

Questions

1 

Referring to Chapter 2 and the section on disintermediation and reintermediation, 

discuss the opportunities for a B2B company to restructure its supply chain as part 

of the move to digital business, and the benefits this may bring.

2 

How can information systems be used to accomplish the changes you have iden‑

tified in question 1?

Answers to activities can be found at www.pearsoned.co.uk/chaffey

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Chapter 6  Supply chain management

Case Study 6.1

Shell Chemicals redefines its customers’ supply chains

This case illustrates the evolution of a typical digital 

business application for supply chain management 

within one company. Shell Chemicals originally intro-

duced SIMON, a bespoke system to manage their 

customers’ inventory based on data shared by its cus-

tomers about their usage and forecast demand for 

chemicals. SIMON was then used for upstream sup-

ply chain management. Ultimately, Shell Chemicals 

switched to using the Elemica marketplace portal for 

supply chain management since this was thought to 

be more  cost-  effective than maintaining an in-house 

system.