Assessing Interoperability in the Retail Industry: The Case of Metro Group
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2007-03-28
Author(s)
Kuerschner, Chris
Thiesse, Frederic
Abstract
A promising strategy for coping with supply chain inefficiencies, cost pressure, and increased customer demand in the retail industry is a close cooperation between the retailers and their business partners. As a consequence, both parties need to develop organisational and operational abilities to seamlessly integrate their business activities. The aim of this paper is to investigate the example of Metro Group in order to make statements on the need for interoperability in the retail supply chain. We apply an existing framework for interoperability assessment and discuss the causes and motives for suboptimal interoperability ratings. Furthermore, we outline areas for improvement for the given cooperation scenario.