Impact of information exchange on supply chain strategies

Due to globalisation and the competition faced from Asian countries, there is an emergent need to investigate how to extend the limited capabilities of developing countries in order to survive in the market as well as reach global market. Developing countries play an important role as OEM units to provide global markets with under-brand names. Many difficulties face the industrial zones in these countries in their attempt to reach this target and these prevent them from providing their own brands. For example, many sectors in Egyptian industry are outperformed by Chinese competition and have even lost their domestic market share. Textiles are one of the most affected industries as a result of this competition. The risk of Egyptian fabrics vanishing from global markets is indicated by a huge reduction in export rate after the quota phase-out. Egyptian textile producers rely on global agreements to reach global markets. The period after the Multi-Fibre agreement shows an obvious drop in exportation rates till the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) agreement was issued. Can the same scenario occur after QIZ quota phase-out? What should Egyptian fabric manufacturer do? Since the situation is alarming and may result in exporting the high quality Egyptian cotton to global markets instead of to its domestic manufacturers, the flood of Chinese fabrics in Egyptian Markets requires that the question “how to survive and compete with low-cost Chinese fabrics?” be investigated.
The aim of the research was to investigate the deficiencies experienced by Egyptian firms trying to reach global markets and maintain their domestic market share. The research conducted an exploratory-explanatory empirical study to identify the major issues facing textile fabricators in Egyptian industrial zones. Case studies and a survey outcome were matched to provide validated empirical findings. An Interpretive Structuring Modelling approach was used to indicate the stages of supply chain deficiencies based on the case study findings. The major issues causing supply chain deficiencies are defined from the case study analysis and validated using the survey approach. The outcome of the empirical study indicates that supply chain design, integration and IT infrastructure are considered as major issues that lead to the existing deficiencies of the textile industry supply chain in Egypt despite the low level assigned to their importance. At the same time, production and procurement issues are considered as dependant on poor supply chain design, IT infrastructure and unreliable forecasting despite the high level assigned to their importance.
A stage-based model for supply chain deficiencies in the Egyptian textile sector was highlighted in this study to indicate dependency and driving power among internal deficiencies. A framework, indicates supply chain deficiencies and their leading factors in Egypt, was concluded from this study. The study points out a number of external issues related to the surrounding environment and the government’s role in contributing to the aggravation of the existing deficiencies. The research uses simulation techniques to test the proposed solution that might provide better supply chain performance. A System Dynamic approach is used to model a case study of the investigated industry. Different scenarios of fulfilling local and international orders have been tested. These scenarios are represented in: expansion of production capacity, reduction of inventory levels or reduction of procurement time. Since addressing the internal deficiency, which empirical study respondents’ pointed out as being the most important one, could not provide an adequate solution for the existing deficiencies, supply chain re-structuring to represent a collaborative pattern between partners was, therefore, tested and proved to have a great effect on supply chain performance. A collaborative pattern among supply chain partners indicated its positive impact on supply chain performance. The simulation experiments prove that the individual decisions of supply chain partners cannot bring about improvement to supply chain cost and responsiveness. The negative impact of an unreliable logistic system on supply chain performance was confirmed through the simulation experiments.
The study provides the managerial levels in textile organisations with a solid causal basis for the supply chain deficiencies in the Egyptian textile sector. The outcome of the work can be employed by governmental authorities to address such difficulties and accelerate the growth of this sector globally. The thesis provides the fundamentals for investigating deficiencies in developing countries that might be extended by other researchers to investigate other defective sectors in Egypt and other developing countries.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for PhD degree