The Prospects of Cloud Computing in Supply Chain Management (A Theoretical Perspective)

Abstract

Today’s world organizations are searching for ways to minimize the cost and maximize the efficiency of each cycle of their supply chain, such as procurement, manufacturing, and distribution, particularly for those that handle multiple supply chains. Cloud computing technology emerges as an effective tool that, according to some researches, contributes to firms’ effectiveness and competiveness by providing the right infrastructure and business solutions for the entire supply chain via the Internet. This study aims to shed more light on the prospects of cloud computing in supply chain management. More specifically, with focus on cloud computing’s suitability and benefits by offering a thorough review and analysis to previous and current research, including all types of published materials that lead to an adequate answer for the main research problem, as follows:What are the prospects and benefits of cloud computing technology in the supply chain of business organizations?This research method relies solely on secondary data, such as research papers, reference materials, conference proceedings, and all types of reliable data that serve the purpose of this paper.The major conclusion of this study is that; Organizations that work in a more turbulent environment are the ones that feel the effect of the cloud computing technology on their supply chain performance compared to those that work in a more stable business environment. Therefore, the degree of importance of cloud computing adoption varies from one sector to another, therefore, cloud computing—if adopted properly—can improve the supply chain performance in terms of cost, quality, speed, and flexibility.