Aligning Product Strategy to Supply Chain Practices

Read this article. The authors study whether organizational products are aligned with optimal supply chain types. Besides the product, what other aspects must be analyzed when selecting a specific type of supply chain?

Abstract

External factors such as blurring market boundaries, escalating customer diversity and increasing global competitive threats have forced businesses to build strategies around key products and formulate market-driven strategies that are integrated with relationship and supply chain strategies to deliver superior customer value. Indeed, in the modern era of supply chain management, organisations are getting more integrated with their suppliers and customers as a way to manage the total supply chain. The purpose of this research was to determine if product strategies and supply chain practices of small craft business are aligned. Personal in-depth interviews were conducted with nine craft businesses operating in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The findings revealed that craft businesses struggle to match their product strategies with their supply chain strategies. Craft businesses also exhibited some inbound supply chain weaknesses.

Source: Craig Voortman and K. Mercy Makhitha, https://jtscm.co.za/index.php/jtscm/article/view/126/257#8
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.