Issues in Supply Chain Implementation: A Comparative Perspective

The current global market forces compel most companies to create an international supply chain. Most of these companies have examined the problems and issues that they encounter during the implementation of this international supply chain. These problems are related to the attitude and culture of people around the world or rooted in the nature of the supply chain. Thus, this study compares the implementation of supply chain management (SCM) in two different countries with different cultures and attitudes. This study highlights the similarities of the problems and benefits of SCM implementation in the two countries. This study identifies the characteristics that are not related to attitude and culture and are rooted in the nature of SCM. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to 600 automotive companies in Malaysia and Iran. Several interviews were conducted to find solutions to the problems. Limited information and the lack of expert employees were identified as the most serious problems, whereas the improvement of warehouse management was identified as an important benefit of SCM implementation. Benchmarking and training courses were the important solutions to these problems. These results reveal that most issues in SCM implementation are rooted in its nature.