hrough negotiation rather than central management and control. The interdependence of multistage processes also requires real-time cooperation in operation and decision-making across different tasks, functional areas, and organizThe new vision of IT.

Today, business competition is no longer company vs. company but supply chain vs. supply chain. A supply chain is a network of suppliers, factories, warehouses, distribution centers and retailers, through which raw materials are acquired, transformed, produced and delivered to the customer. A supply chain is a dynamic process and involves the constant flow of information, materials, and funds across multiple functional areas both within and between chain members. Member enterprises in the chain need to cooperate with their business partners in order to meet customers’ needs and to maximize their profit. Managing multiparty collaboration in a supply chain, however, is a very difficult task because there are so many parties involved in the supply chain operation, each with its own resources and objectives. There is no single authority over all the chain members. Cooperation is through negotiation rather than central management and control. The interdependence of multistage processes also requires real-time cooperation in operation and decision-making across different tasks, functional areas, and organiza

ugh which raw materials are acquired, transformed, produced and delivered to the customer. A supply chain is a dynamic process and involves the constant flow of information, materials, and funds across multiple functional areas both within and between chain members. Member enterprises in the chain need to cooperate with their business partners in order to meet customers’ needs and to maximize their profit. Managing multiparty collaboration in a supply chain, however, is a very difficult task because there are so many parties involved in the supply chain operation, each with its own resources and objectives. There is no single authority over all the chain members. Cooperation is through negotiation rather than central management and control. The interdependence of multistage processes also requires real-time cooperation in operation and decision-making across different tasks, functional areas, and organizoth within and between chain members. Member enterprises in the chain need to cooperate with their business partners in order to meet customers’ needs and to maximize their profit. Managing multiparty collaboration in a supply chain, however, is a very difficult task because there are so many parties involved in the supply chain operation, each with its own resources and objectives. There is no single authority over all the chain members. Cooperation is through negotiation rather than central management and control. The interdependence of multistage processes also requires real-time cooperation in operation and decision-making across different tasks, functional areas, and organizin, however, is a very difficult task because there are so many parties involved in the supply chain operation, each with its own resources and objectives. There is no single authority over all the chain members. Cooperation is through negotiation rather than central management and control. The interdependence of multistage processes also requires real-time cooperation in operation and decision-making across different tasks, functional areas, and organizhrough negotiation rather than central management and control. The interdependence of multistage processes also requires real-time cooperation in operation and decision-making across different tasks, functional areas, and organizational boundaries in order to deal with problems and uncertainties. The strategic shift of focus for mass customization, quick response, and high quality service cannot be achieved without more sophisticated cooperation and dynamic formation of supply chains.

The Supply Chain Management (SCM) problem can be defined as the management of relationships across a supply chain to capture the synergy of intra- and inter-company business processes with the aim of optimizing the overall business process of the enterprise (e.g. on-time delivery, quality assurance, and cost minimization). An integrated distributed production-planning system for this supply chain (SC) coordinated and controlled centrally would cause a lot of different problems:

· Centers of control are bottlenecks.
· Centers must have complete knowledge for decision-making.
· Confidential internal information must be provided t