Inventory Management and organizational applications: The adoption of computerized paperless operations to reduce trading costs and facilitate

the new business processes. In the manufacturing industry they are known as just-in-time inventory systems , in retail industry they are quick response programs and in transportation industry they are consignment tracking systems.

Just in time manufacturing :It is viewed as integrated management systems consisting of a number of different management practices dependent on the characteristics of specific plants. The following management practices associated with JIT systems are : Focused factory , reduced setup times, group technology , total productive maintenance ,uniform workload . JIT purchasing, total quality control. To achieve JIT savings

many large corporations have installed private communication networks.

Quick Response Retailing : Quick response is a version of JIT purchasing tailored for retailing. To reduce the risk of out of stock retailers are implementing the QR systems. It provides for a flexible response to product ordering and lowers costly inventory levels. QR retailing focuses on market responsiveness while maintaining low level of stocks. It creates a closed loop encompassing the retailer , vendor , consumer chain, and as consumers make purchases the vendor automatically orders new deliveries from the retailers through its computer network. figure below gives the various steps of QR chain.

Supply Chain management : Supply chain management (SCM) is also called extending which means integrating the internal and external partners on the supply and process chain to get raw materials to the manufacturer and finished products to the consumer. Most of the companies fails because lack of integration due to fragmented supply chain management. Supply Chain management ( SCM ) have various functions: 1.Supply chain management: The goal is to reduce the num the number of suppliers and get them to become partners in business in a win / win relationship. 2.Invetory management : Its goal is to shorten the order-ship-bill cycle. 3. Distribution management: Its goal is to move documents related to shipping. 4.Payment management : The goal is to link the company and the suppliers and distributors so that the payment can be sent and received electronically. 5. Financial management : The goal is to enable global companies to mange their Money in various foreign exchange accounts. 6. Sales for productivity : its goal is to improve the communication and flow of information among the sales , customer and production functions.