Akademik Arşiv / Academic Archive

As a very recent IT paradigm, Cloud Computing is gaining momentum and receiving more and more interest in literature. With various characteristics such as offering flexibility, cost reductions, platform independence and on-demand service, cloud approach opens up tremendous opportunities from Supply Chain (SC) perspective. However, extant literature reveals that adoption and assimilation of the technology is not mature in SC domain and cloud-based modelling initiatives are only recent. To fill this gap, this study discusses the opportunities of cloud computing from SC perspective and proposes a generic representation based on cloud philosophy. The proposed representation is conceptual, flexible and customizable, utilizing and highlighting the cloud benefits in a multi-partner setting. Therefore, this article is an answer to the research questions: “what are the opportunities of cloud philosophy for SC domain?” and “how can supply chains be represented generically based on cloud technology in multi-actor environment?”. Contribution of this study lies in comprehensive treatment of cloud computing and supply chain intersection as well as the generic representation.

Cloud technology in a multi-enterprise, collaborative context is one of the most promising topics at IT-Supply Chain (SC) intersection. Cloud comes with well-proven advantages and cost savings; enabling collaboration and business intelligence. Cloud transition is still on-going with individual enterprise-level transitions. However, collaborative paradigm dictates that entire network well-being is to be considered over enterprise-level concerns. Thus, handling the transition of a single enterprise is not sufficient for strategic network leverage. Planning and managing across multiple enterprises is required, taking into consideration various cost items and budget constraints. In this study, a multi-period multi-partner cost-optimizing model is developed for network-level management of cloud transition for a SC. The model produces an optimal transition plan, indicating timing of the transition for each partner to obtain the maximum cost savings across network over a specified planning horizon. The model proposed is generic, flexible and customizable for different sectors/settings.