Effect of Supply Chain Robustness on Its Performance (Published)
Although the research in supply chain robustness in its early stages, it is expanding rapidly this is due to Companies can mitigate and reduce the risk of unexpected and destructive events and be able to resume business quickly and The difficulty of predicting environmental factors surrounding companies has made it necessary to develop a disaster recovery plan as it is impossible for companies to resume business after a major crisis. In fact, about 80% of companies are suffering from their business interruption and do not have a clear disaster management plan coming out of the market and customers expect to receive information 24/7/365. This means that if the company has problems in the technological infrastructure and cannot resume its business as soon as it loses its customers and customers will turn to other competitors. Based on extant supply chain robustness, supply chain management and supply chain performance literature, a conceptual model was developed and validated. A questionnaire survey instrument was developed and administered among supply chain managers to collect data. Data was collected from 90 organizations belonging to different nodes of Egyptian automotive industry. Study employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for data analysis. Further, to test the hypotheses and to fit the theoretical model, Structural equation modeling techniques were employed. Result of this study indicates that Supply chain robustness have a positive impact on supply chain performance. Where the explanatory power of supply chain performance of supply chain operations is 61.5%. Despite the importance and benefits of supply chain robustness (Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery Plan), Which can be explained as follow: (i) Confronting the errors caused by the human element, which are among the most difficult errors, which may result in the deletion of data owned by the company, whether by mistake or deliberately. (ii) The existence of disaster management that contributes to the development of an efficient team that can devise non-traditional means that increase efficiency and limit the negative effects to a minimum. (iii) Prevent disasters by removing their causes or reducing their effects by preparing the necessary measures and using appropriate techniques and precautions. (iv) Designing an effective organizational pattern in order to face the crisis when it occurs, reduce its effects and work to restore balance and activity to the organization after the crisis ends. (v) Reduce the physical and moral effects of the crisis. (vi) Save time, effort and cost in order to achieve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization’s performance and not waste these resources in dealing with crises. (vii) Secure equipment and property to help avoid crises. And minimize the chances of production interruption. (viii) Reduce problems of low morale of employees. (ix) Decrease losses and accelerate the return to the normal state of work. but business continuity management and disaster recovery plan were not among the interests of researchers in supply chain management. Research in this field is very deficient and in its early stages. It is necessary to study the effect of business continuity management and disaster recovery plan on supply chain performance. This study is one of the first attempts to support the theory of supply chain disaster management, pre-crisis preparedness, recovery and return to work normally after crises. The aim of this study is to develop a conceptual and practical framework to help supply chains be more prepared for emergencies.
Keywords: Business Continuity Management, Disaster Recovery Plan, Egyptian automotive industry., Supply Chain Robustness, Supply chain performance
Impact of innovation on the supply chain performance: Case of the automotive industry in Morocco (Published)
In Through the Looking-Glass famous incident from the book of Alice in Wonderland, known as the Red Queen’s race, it involves the Red Queen and where Alice is constantly running, but remaining in the same point. The Red Queen said: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”This story is used in real life to illustrate the idea of running after capital and market share accumulation in order to maintain relative economic position. This idea cannot represent better the main purpose of our study: “The innovation and its impact on supply chain performance and competitiveness”.In this paper, we attempt to corroborate, based on an empirical study of Moroccan multinational firms specifically in the automotive industry, the relationship between the supply chain innovation and performance through the Supply Chain Integration.
Keywords: Competitiveness, Innovation, Supply Chain Integration, Supply chain performance
THE IMPACT OF SUPPLY CHAIN COLLABORATION PRACTICE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF STEEL MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN KENYA (Published)
The main purpose of this study was to assess the impact of supply chain collaboration practice on the performance of Steel Manufacturing Companies in Kenya which are the key contributors to the economic development of the country. The metrics for measuring the company’s performance were the quality of product and customer satisfaction. The descriptive research design was used in the formulation of knowledge on the impact of supply chain collaboration practice on the performance of Steel manufacturing Companies in Kenya and provided solutions to areas that needed improvement. Structured questionnaires and oral interviews research techniques was used to get primary data from the senior managers in production department, marketing department, Information Technology department and Supply chain department while scheduled interviews was used for firm’s procurement managers and observation checklists was used for comparison of records. Both quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used during data presentation using inferential statistics to draw conclusions from the nominal measurement scale. Purposive sampling technique was used to identify and select eligible participants for the study. The null hypothesis formulated was that there is significant relationship between supply chain collaboration practice and the performance of steel manufacturing Companies in Kenya. The sample size was determined using Cochran sampling frame for large population. The Spearman’s Coefficient of correlation was used to measure the degree of association between the pair of rankings N objects and the null hypothesis was tested by use of F- ratio using a two way Fisher’s Analysis of Variance [ANOVA] on assumption of the homogeneity of the variance of the sample that is normally distributed at 95% confidence interval. The study revealed that supply chain collaboration practice statistically significantly predicted the performance of Steel Manufacturing Companies in Kenya, F (1, 242) = 41.319, p < .05, R2 = .146. The analysis further revealed that there is a significant and a moderate positive correlation between supply chain collaboration practice and the performance of Steel Manufacturing companies in Kenya (r =0.382, p ˂ 0.01). The study recommends that the Steel manufacturing companies in Kenya to incorporate supply chain collaboration practice in their business operations for them to realize improved performance.
Keywords: Steel Manufacturing Companies in Kenya, Supply chain collaboration, Supply chain performance