Supply Chain Management Proposal: Automation Thesis

Though it is not entirely necessary for the approach taken to be a novel one, the research here will consider that there are yet undetermined impacts on the merchant of such a system. Thus, a second part of this methodology will be focused upon once the literature review has provided us with sufficient data to surmise a framework for the automated system. As this automation would impact the ordering systems used by merchants outside of Imperial Tobacco, it will be important to gather feedback from such vendors. They will be asked through survey to cite pros and cons to the prospect of automated online ordering, which would likely be effective once a merchant signed to the program reached a certain inventory minimum.

As to current and unresolved issues on the subject, the input of merchants should supplement the literature review in order to demonstrate a clear course of action that will be most beneficial to all parties involved. Namely, though we are already moved forward by the hypothesis that this automation would improve the company's ability to remain in stock where desired while also giving it more clear predictors of purchasing pattern to the extent of assisting the company in making long-term consumption projections, the input of merchants will have the capacity of helping to identify heretofore unseen challenges in the project such as the cultural resistance of merchants to a new program, the economic costs to Imperial Tobacco of the project implementation and the overall value gained in time-management for internal human and computer resources upon which the transition will depend.

Ultimately, the research here proposed will be driven by an interest in improving operational effectiveness through technological rather than strategic reconsideration of the supply chain.