Issues With Information Flow Within Supply Chain Management: A Research Essay.

Purpose & Problem Statements

Purpose Statement  - Example 1

The purpose of this research study is to:
investigate database configuration vulnerabilities and assess real and potential damage the vulnerabilities cause in terms of lost productivity, revenue, and reputation

provide a better understanding of information privacy get people’s opinions on information privacy to think about the negative effects that plastic has on the environment.

Purpose Statement - Example 2

The purpose of the study is to examine factors that contribute to users and developers misunderstanding requirements of software products. To limit the scope of the study, software products are confined to information systems created in-house by an organization to be used within the organization. The findings of the study will lay a theoretical foundation for future research, allowing for the creation of more effective and efficient techniques for understanding requirements. By studying what influences developers and users misunderstanding requirements, software project managers can begin seeking ways to minimize these influences, therefore minimizing misunderstandings. The result is expected to ultimately enable the creation of software that better solves the intended problem, meets the expectations of its users, decreases development costs, and provides better schedule control.

A Problem Statement:

Identifies an existing issue

Is the heart of the research

Questions and possibly hypotheses come from the problem statement.

Problem Statement - Example 1

Approximately 2.5 million individuals use mobile devices to perform online banking transactions (fakename, 2017; Hiddenname, 2016); however, and estimated 1.75 million do so without using any type of security on their mobile devices.  This leaves a large number of users vulnerable to security breaches and financial loss.  Studying the reasons why people who use unsecure mobile devices to perform online banking should provide insight into reducing the number of unsecure mobile devices used for banking, 

Problem Statement - Example 2

Fileless malware is an advanced volatile threat (AVT) that often goes undetected because it resides in volatile memory and after it attacks, most (if not all) traces or artifacts of the malware are removed (FalseCite, 2016).  The occurrences of fileless malware has risen by 45% over the last three years and has resulted in over ten million dollars in loss and access to sensitive information (NoCite, 2017).  Identifying fileless malware awareness levels and identifying ways to improve awareness of fileless malware could reduce the occurrences of this AVT.

Problem Statement - Example 3

The following is an excerpt from Carcillo’s (2013) dissertation statement of the problem:
Studying the relationship between project management maturity and IT/IS project efficiency and effectiveness should provide insight into improving the poor success rate of projects.  Information system (IS) and information technology (IT) projects have a very poor rate of success .

Problem Statement - Example 4

The U.S. Tolling Industry, including the Delaware River and Bay Authority, does not have a published, standard analysis methodology for determining internal, toll collection operating performance inhibiting organizational transparency, public accountability, and decision-making

Problem Statement - Example 5

The United States (US) Toll Collection Industry contains approximately 460 public and private tolling facilities generating over $30 billion in annual revenue.  Revenue generated by these toll facilities supports the expansion, operation, and maintenance approximately 5,400 miles of US’s transportation infrastructure.  However, the Toll Collection Industry does not have a standard, analysis methodology for determining the internal, operating performance of its toll operations.

Research Question

A question that, if successfully answered, would potentially solve your stated organizational problem

Research question is essentially a restatement of your problem statement in the form of a question

However, the nature of the question provides valuable additional information regarding the specific focus of your research relative to the stated problem

Must be clearly related to the problem statement

Must be structured such that it clearly summarizes the focus of your research effort

Does the problem actually exist?

What is causing the problem?

What are the consequences arising from the existence of the problem?

How can we potentially solve the problem or mitigate the consequences of the problem?

How would we potentially benefit from solving the problem or be harmed by not solving the problem?

The problem statement within the supply chain management is the short description of the issues that needs to be addressed to improve the level of efficiency. In order to conduct essential qualitative research on supply chain management, it is essential to identify the exact issues within the logistics operations.

In order to deal with the challenges of modern business, it is essential to mobilize the suppliers and producer better quality of customer service. Sufficient amount of information are also necessary for smooth function of the operations. This is highly necessary in order to gain significant competitive advantage. Nevertheless, due to lack of information flow within the operation system, the supply chain is not able to meet up the fast growing requirements. The overall cost of the customer service goes up due to poor level of communication within the supply and distribution channels.

From the analysis of Madenas et al., (2014), it is clear that the manufacturing phase, product development and product lifecycle are largely separated. The service phase also requires different level of information from the supply chain. Nevertheless, due to lack of information flow within the system of supply chain management, the overall operation is not able to flow smoothly. Different and separate level of information is required in each phase of the product lifecycle, which is mainly due to the rising complexities of modern business. Hence, lack of information flow can be a major problem within the operation department.

Within the definition of supply chain management the component of information flow plays a significant role within the entire system. According to Stadtler (2015), this information serves as the important link between all types of stage within the supply chain. This can help them to achieve better level of coordination within the delivery chain, thereby maximizing the level of profitability. It is also necessary to have accurate level of information that can help to increase the level of reliability. There is high chance of erratic shifts that are usually associated with that of the lack of information.

Proper flow of information can also help to deal with the issues of variability that occurs due to diverse range of orders from the distributors. There is also variability within the demand level of the customer. Without the proper and accurate flow of information, it is not possible to deal with the major challenges that are associated with the supply chain and thereby not able to provide the proper flow of information.

Purpose Statement - Example 1

With the increase in the rate of customer demand, this has raised the level of demand in the functioning of the supply chain. Hence, it is necessary to have advanced level of information that has the capability to increase the needs of the growing demand. The lack of technological infrastructure in the current days is believed to be one of the major issues that are preventing the smooth function of the supply chain management (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014).

In the due course, it is essential for the future research work to focus on the issues related to that of lack of information within the operational system of supply chain. It is therefore essential to deal with the challenges. In the given regards, it is also essential to deal with the challenges by implementing the advanced level of technology. The future research will also focus on the practical application of the use of technology that includes Radio Frequency Information Distribution (RFID) (Madenas et al., 2014).

The research question is set up in order to address an issue that is specific to a subject. The primary step of the research is to set particular research questions. This will ensure that the purpose of the research is fulfilled. Specifying the research problems will help to deal with the issues related to the subject of the research. In both quantitative and qualitative research, setting up of particular research question is also quite necessary as it can help the investigators to understand the research issues. The specific objectives of the research are also set according to the purpose of the research (Dine et al., 2015).

In order to set up a specific research problem statement, it is essential to highlight upon the background of the research topic. This will help the investigators to understand the reason for the research problem. One of the essential characteristics of the good research problem is that it can help to provide the pathway for dealing with the research problem (Hund et al., 2015). It is also important to highlight upon the current solution and the reason for the same to ineffective under the current situation. The major variables within the research domain also have to be discussed within the problem statement. This is necessary owing to the fact that the future research will help to establish following link within the existing variables. The research problem will ultimately aim to generalize the research issues that are causing lack of understanding to the general public.

In case of the issue within the information flow of supply chain management, the research problem statement can help to highlight upon the need of data that can enhance the operation management. It will also help the researchers to focus upon the improvement of technology that is needed to understand the different levels of information needed in the operations of supply chain. The existing knowledge gap related to information technology in supply chain can help to understand the drawbacks of the past relevant research work.

Reference

Dine, C. J., McGaghie, W. C., Bordage, G., & Shea, J. A. (2015). Problem statement, conceptual framework, and research question. Review Criteria for Research Manuscripts, 19.

Hund, M., Behrisch, M., Färber, I., Sedlmair, M., Schreck, T., Seidl, T., & Keim, D. (2015, October). Subspace nearest neighbor search-problem statement, approaches, and discussion. In International Conference on Similarity Search and Applications (pp. 307-313). Springer, Cham.

Madenas, N., Tiwari, A., Turner, C. J., & Woodward, J. (2014). Information flow in supply chain management: A review across the product lifecycle. CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology, 7(4), 335-346.

Pagell, M., & Shevchenko, A. (2014). Why research in sustainable supply chain management should have no future. Journal of supply chain management, 50(1), 44-55.

Stadtler, H. (2015). Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.