Barriers to the Implementation of an Efficient Supply Chain Management System in Retail

Barriers to the Implementation of an Efficient Supply Chain
Management System in Retail
Case Study of 3 UAE Retail Organizations
Student Name: Ghazal Khan
Student ID: ONL1021805A01
Professor Name: Mr. Vivek Mohan

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.........................................................................................................
1.1 Research background........................................................................................................
1.2 Background of the companies...........................................................................................
1.3 Problem statement.............................................................................................................
1.4 Purpose of study................................................................................................................
1.5 Research aim.....................................................................................................................
1.6 Objectives.........................................................................................................................
1.7 Research questions ...........................................................................................................
1.8 Research structure.............................................................................................................
1.9 Conceptual framework .....................................................................................................
Chapter 2: Literature Review........................................................................
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................
2.2 Supply chain management .......................................................................
2.3 Objectives of Strategic Supply Chain Management..........................................
2.4 Integrated Supply Chain Management.........................................................
2.5 Technological Advancement....................................................................
2.6 Supply chain improvements in the retail sector in the UAE.................................
2.7 ‘Barriers to supply chain’ specific to the UAE...............................................
2.8 Green Supply Chain Management.............................................................
2.9 Conclusion......................................................................................................................

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Supply chain management is the backbone of any business irrespective of the operating
market and industry. Therefore, strategic supply chain management can boost the productivity of any
business while keeping the total investment under control.
In retail sector the supply chain is the biggest part of the business, because of 2 phases
product line structure namely inbound and outbound logistics (Bryman and Bell 2015).
At the same time, as an advanced way of Strategic Supply Chain Management (SSCM),
Integrated Supply Chain Management (ISCM) also includes the selection of partnership, product
segmentation, testing parameters, inventory management and other initial phase of development
cycle. Because of direct dependence on inbound product units, the market demand also highly
influences the implementation of integrated operation within existing supply chain management.
At the same time, a retail company has to take care of their inventory management and
information handling measures that can create challenges in the intermediate phase of product cycle
(Chatterjee 2016). Apart from that, external factors like geographical position, scope of
transportation, technological advancement, and socio-cultural influence in market, political and legal
interaction can create significant barrier in the supply chain management of any company, especially
in retail sector.
1.2 Background of the companies
Comparative analysis can help to explore the different sections of the supply chain
management and their potential improvement plan. For the comparative analysis of the supply chain
management system in UAE for retails sector.
Three retail companies have been chosen namely Al Hokair Fashion Retail, Bin Hendi
Enterprises LLC, Landmark Group.
Al Hokair Fashion Retail is a largest franchise retailer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
MENA, UAE and other central Asian countries. The company was established in 1990 and is
currently retailing various fashion products of different fashion brands. The company has worldwide
base of suppliers who provides wide variety of cosmetics, footwear, bags and garments (Touzani,
Hirschman and Salah 2016).
Bin Hendi Enterprises LLC was established in 1974 and has brought many premium level
brands to the market of Middle East. However, the current operational market of this company is