Materials management is a key sector in the larger category of enterprise resource management.
Speed and Flexibility Because customers can order products faster, they expect fulfillment to be equally fast. However, conversion to Internet-based materials systems may not happen in Internet time. Implementation will require new skill sets, such as administering bigger networks and coping with firewalls, and users may have to reengineer their materials management business processes. One has only to look at Boston's street system to understand the folly of paving cow paths. Manufacturers and distributors need to streamline materials management to avoid increasing their overhead or losing their customers because of unacceptable delays, she added.