The Choice Of Supply Chain Strategy Types (A Critical Review Of Literature)

Abstract

This paper discusses the factors which influence the choice of supply chain strategy type. It is intended to provide an insight into the empirical literature to date relating to the factors which influence the choice of supply chain strategy type in the manufacturing sector. Companies select different supply chain types in order to gain additional operational benefits. This creates a supply chain frontier of physical efficiency and market responsiveness; a concept that deserves further attention by researchers. This forms the basis of this study. The intended research will survey through the factors that influence the choice of supply chain management type in manufacturing. This will cluster the industries in the manufacturing sectors according to their supply chain management type, and then determine the factors that favor these supply chain types. The research will be broken into two: first, data will be collected to first identify the most commonly used types of supply chain management strategies for particular industries in the manufacturing sector. The industries will be sampled to have at least ten from each category in the manufacturing sector to enable good representation and frequency tabling; then secondly a survey will be conducted by visiting all the industries which use common types of supply chain management strategies. This will be aimed at achieving three objectives: to identify the most commonly used types of supply chain management strategies for particular industries in the manufacturing sector; to determine why some supply chain management types are preferred by some industries as opposed to other industries; and lastly, to document the benefits of using given types of supply chain management strategies in the manufacturing sector.