Original Research

The alignment of product strategy to supply chain practices of craft businesses in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Craig Voortman, K. Mercy Makhitha
Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management | Vol 8, No 1 | a126 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/jtscm.v8i1.126 | © 2014 Craig Voortman, K. Mercy Makhitha | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 28 October 2013 | Published: 21 November 2014

About the author(s)

Craig Voortman, Department of Transport and Supply Chain Management, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
K. Mercy Makhitha, Department of Logistics, Vaal University of Technology, South Africa

Abstract

External factors such as blurring market boundaries, escalating customer diversity and increasing global competitive threats have forced businesses to build strategies around key products and formulate market-driven strategies that are integrated with relationship and supply chain strategies to deliver superior customer value. Indeed, in the modern era of supply chain management, organisations are getting more integrated with their suppliers and customers as a way to manage the total supply chain. The purpose of this research was to determine if product strategies and supply chain practices of small craft business are aligned. Personal in-depth interviews were conducted with nine craft businesses operating in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The findings revealed that craft businesses struggle to match their product strategies with their supply chain strategies. Craft businesses also exhibited some inbound supply chain weaknesses.

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