Supply chain management is not as easy as it seems. There are several issues confronting with supply chain management strategies. An integrated supply chain method is presented here to improve efficiency through direct collaboration between all trading partners. The discussion will emphasize on the Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR), a co-managed planning processes, and shared information with an ultimate focus on the consumer (Ha & Tang, 2016).

            In supply chain management efficiency is must be required for innovative products. We can bring improvement in the efficiency through direct collaboration between traders or by reducing the extra and irrelevant intermediaries in the supply chain. The fewer intermediaries will reduce obstacles in collaboration of trading partners. Integration and strong connection between selected traders will support the company to cover the targeted segment easily and in a cost-effective way. 

            CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment) is basically known as the comprehensive process in the supply chain management in which company not only pay attention to the planning and forecasting collaboration and integration but also an emphasis on the use of key data points given by the selected suppliers and targeted customers. Basically, the key stakeholders in this process, our customers, suppliers, and overall company. When the company integrates all these stakeholders concerns and requirements, then the company can formulate a single but integrated strategy that covers stake and interest of all these trading partners. In fact, while formulating strategy, an organization need to consider the interest of suppliers also. Long term relationship building strategy of Japanese companies is the evidence of this concept (Johnsen, Howard, & Miemczyk, 2014).

             Somehow, in integrated supply chain main focus should not deviate from the selected segment of customers. Customers should be given key attention and concentration; otherwise, the company cannot get success in the competitive market. Customer oriented companies and customer-focused strategies always result in the benefit of organizations. For an integrated supply chain method to bring improvement in the efficiency, organizations need to have co-managed planning processes and shared information. Suppliers directly interact with the customers (Gunasekaran, et al., 2016). Their interaction with customers and consumers is definitely more than the interaction between a company and its customers. Therefore considering these factor, organizations should give importance to the co-managed planning processes. It needs to include all partners in the supply chain including third-party companies (from which company may purchase materials and other services to ensure organizational operations), suppliers, information system providers (business analytics and consulting agencies), and carriers. The organization can give and take information with trading partners or suppliers; thus benefit will ultimately support the efficient supply chain (Gunasekaran, et al., 2016).

            In the garment or textile industry, supply chain integration can be of different types such as supply chain forward integration, supply chain virtual integration and supply backward chain integration. Organizations have to select one of the most suitable supply chain integration type that relates to its corporate mission, organizational operations, and overall market requirements. While establishing a strategy for supply chain management, we have to take into consideration internal capabilities and factors as well as external market requirements and trends. Only focusing on the customers and competitors is not enough to bring efficiency, particularly in the uncertain environment. Uncertainty of the external environment is itself a threat for organizations. In the presence of uncertainty and unpredictable market, demand organizations can only get an idea about the market and customer demand through paying attention to the integration of trading partners and company. Suppliers and other third parties involved in the trading process can support in collecting information about the uncertain market and thus an organization can establish an integrated and efficient supply chain management strategy (Ha & Tang, 2016).

References of Supply Chain Management Issues

Chan, A. T., Ngai, E. W., & Moon, K. K. (2016). The Effects of Strategic and Manufacturing Flexibilities and Supply Chain Agility on Firm. European Journal of Operational Research, 1-35. doi:: 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.11.006

Chavez, R., Yu, W., Feng, M., & Wiengarten, F. (2014). The Effect of Customer-Centric Green Supply Chain Management on Operational Performance and Customer Satisfaction. 25(3), 205–220.

Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Dubey, R., Wamba, S. F., Childe, S. J., & Akter, S. (2016). Big Data and Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain and Organizational Performance. Journal of Business Research, 70, 308-317.

Ha, A. Y., & Tang, C. S. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of Information Exchange in Supply Chain Management. Springer.

Johnsen, T. E., Howard, M., & Miemczyk, J. (2014). Purchasing and Supply Chain Management: A Sustainability Perspective (illustrated ed.). Routledge.

Paulraj, A., Chen, I. J., & Blome, C. (2017). Motives and Performance Outcomes of Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices: A Multi-theoretical Perspective. 145(2), 239–258.

Ross, D. F. (2016). Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies (2 ed.). CRC Press.