Are the Current Supply Chain Management Practices Enough for Innovation?

  • SumraShaikh, Muhammad Saeed Shahbaz , Prince Kumar , SamiullahSohu

Abstract

This study focuses on the automobile manufacturing industry in Pakistan. Pakistan’s main GDP contribution still comes from the manufacturing sector. A recent drop-down is the sale of the automobile sector has led us to find out the reasons for this unusual drop which previously shows very impressive growth. This is a matter of huge concern as most of the workforce in Pakistan is dependent on the manufacturing industry, and almost half the Pakistani population lives in rural areas. “Pakistan’s economy is highly affected by the government tough policies which adversely affect the manufacturing sector especially the organizations which are export-based manufacturing organizations and the investor is shifting their business to the low-cost countries to remain competitive. In order to ensure they remain competitive, Pakistani firms need to better manage their supply chains and bring innovation in their industries. The aim of this paper is to find out the impact of SCM practices on a firm's innovation performance in the Pakistani automobile industry. The research is quantitative in nature, 350 questionnaire is distributed among the professionals of automobile industry and the users to confirming the facts that Supply chain practices i.e Leadership, customer focus, information analysis, internal lean practices, and supplier relationship has significant impact on product innovation in automobile industry, The result of the study shows that Customer focus, internal lean practices, quality information analysis and supplier relationship have a positive impact on product innovation whereas leadership does not contribute positively to product innovation the final analysis and will be useful for the automobiles industry, Pakistan automobile manufacturing association, researchers and for the overall industry that SCM practices enhance the organization performance and product innovation. This research is only focused on passenger cars due to the limited time frame and budget whereas the future researcher can widen their scope and can consider the entire automobile industry.

Published
2020-07-01