Global Advanced Research Journal of Management and Business Studies (GARJMBS) ISSN: 2315-5086 April 2012 Vol. 1(3), pp 070-074

Copyright © 2012 Global Advanced Research Journals   

Original Research Articles

Examining supply chain practice in Egyptian SME firms 

Sayed M. ElSayed Elkhouly, Salah El Din Ismail, Gharib Husien, Sarah El Sayed El Shazely, 

Ain Shams University-Egypt, Helwan University 

Corresponding author Email: sayed_elkhouly@yahoo.com 

Accepted 29 March 2012

Abstract

This research examines supply chain management practice in SME firms in Egypt. A well designed survey include several items explaining the main characteristics of supply chain management which distributed to over three hundred executives working in different industry in Egypt. The response rate was over 64% representing all different industries. Statistical analysis was used to analyze the data and test the four major hypotheses in this study. The results indicate significant difference in only one hypothesis. Recommendations of this study include the following first Egyptian manufacturing companies specifically public sector should build strong IT infrastructure in order to facilitate the information sharing internal and external the firms especially, with customers. Second Egyptian manufacturing companies should ensure and facilitate the relationship between suppliers and retailers in order to increase information flow within the supply chain. Third Egyptian manufacturing companies specifically public sector that suffer from a lot of barriers facing application of lean manufacturing system in their companies, so, they should benchmark the successful lean manufacturing systems from private sector in order to enhance their lean abilities and their trading partners abilities also as to enhance performance of supply chain in the public sector manufacturing companies. 

Keywords: Supply chain, SME and Firm.