ASSESSING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN ETHIOPIAN LEATHER INDUSTRIES: THE CASE OF BATU TANNERY PLC

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess supply chain management practices (supply chain integration, strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship management, information sharing, and operations management) of Batu tannery plc. The study used descriptive research designs. In this study, census survey was adopted for quantitative and qualitative research approach. Primary type of data was collected with the help of questionnaires with structured questions distributed to tannery’s internal departments and an interview with marketing manager of the supplier and procurement mangers of tannery’s customers was conducted with unstructured question. SPSS was used to analyze data from the questionnaires quantitatively and narrative method was used to analyze data gathered from interview. In order to examine the variables, frequency, percentage and mean were used. The research came up with the following findings. The data analysis from questionnaire showed that the case company has adopted most of supply chain management practices at the highest level and two of the proposed practices were the least implemented, these practices were information sharing and customer relationship management. Based on the findings, the following recommendations have been drawn in this study; Batu tannery should continuously seek for effective implementation of information sharing into their supply chain activities with suppliers and customers, and their internal operations, should build and continuously improve their employees’ skills and capability in facing changing competitive environment, tannery was also advised to view supply chain management as a strategic activity, rather than just mere operational activity. And they were recommended to engage in employment of appropriate professionals with the expertise requisite to manage the chain at every stage of the process. And finally, tannery was recommended to involve its supplier in its production and new product development