The Effects of Agility in the Supply Chain of Distribution Network of Saudi Arabia’s Automotive Market
(A Case Study of Dealerships)
Keywords:
Agile supply chains, automotive distribution networks, speed, operational costs, flexibility, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Researchers have defined agility as one of the fundamental tools companies need in their supply chain networks to maintain a competitive advantage in the modern-day business environment. Agility holds a key position in the automotive industry. Despite its importance, there is limited evidence about the impact of agility in the distribution networks of auto dealerships in developing countries. The purpose of this research project was to identify the effects of achieving agile supply chains in the distribution networks of Saudi Arabia’s auto dealerships. 37 supply chain managers and experts in three largest auto dealerships in Saudi Arabia were sampled for the study and five-point Likert Scale questionnaires administered for each one of them. The resulting Likert data was analyzed for reliability using Cronbach's methods and hypotheses tested using Chi-Square method for ordinal data. The research found that agility increases the speed at which auto dealers deliver products to customers and promotes the rate at which they respond to changing customer and market demands. The results also show that agility in supply chains do not necessarily directly linked to the level of customer satisfaction and reduced operational costs. The research confirms the importance of adopting agile supply chains in the distribution networks of auto dealers in Saudi Arabia as a way of increasing the speed of service delivery and adaptability to changing customer and marketing demands.
References
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39. Tarokh, M.J., Ghahremanloo, H. and Karami, M., 2007, August. Agility in auto dealers SCM. In 2007 IEEE International Conference on Service Operations and Logistics, and Informatics (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
40. Tausif, M. & Haque , M., 2018. Market dynamics and future prospects of the automobile industry in Saudi Arabia. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 16(4), pp. 245-258.
41. Taylor, O. and Demirbas, A., 2016. Forecasting and analysis of energy consumption for transportation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 11(12), pp.1150-1157.
42. Towill, D.R. and McCullen, P., 1999. The impact of agile manufacturing on supply chain dynamics. The international journal of Logistics Management, 10(1), pp.83-96.
43. Tseng, Y. and Lin, C. (2011), “Enhancing Enterprise Agility by Deploying Agile Drivers, Capabilities and Providers”, Information Sciences, Vol. 81, No. 17, pp. 3693-3708.
44. Um, J. 2017. The impact of supply chain agility on business performance in a high level customization environment. Operations management research, 10(1-2), 10-19.
45. Vickery, S. N., Calantone, R., & Dröge, C. 1999. Supply chain flexibility: an empirical study. Journal of supply chain management, 35(2), 16-24.
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2. Al-Sadoum, A., 2017. The Role of Technology in Agile Supply Chain Networks , s.l.: OilandGas.
3. Ambe, I.M., 2009, July. Agile supply chain: a strategy for competitive advantage. In The Proceedings Of 5 Th International Strategic Management Conference (p. 659).
4. Aryal, A., Liao, Y., Nattuthurai, P. and Li, B., 2018. The emerging big data analytics and IoT in supply chain management: a systematic review. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.Heikkilä, J., 2002. From supply to demand chain management: efficiency and customer satisfaction. Journal of operations management, 20(6), pp.747-767.
5. Ambe, I.M., and Badenhorst-Weiss, J.A., 2011. An automotive supply chain model for a demand-driven environment. Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management, 5(1), pp.1-22.
6. Braese, N., 2005. The dynamics of supply chains in the automotive industry (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
7. Barve, A. 2011. Impact of supply chains agility on customer satisfaction. In 2010 international conference on e-business, management and economics, IPEDR (Vol. 3, pp. 325-329). IACSIT Press Hong Kong.
8. Ben Ruben, R., Prasanth, A.S., Ramesh, R. and Narendran, S.A.P. 2013. Implementation Study on Applying Agile Supply Chain Paradigm in the Manufacturing of a Conventional Automobile Horn in an Indian Company.
9. Carbonero, F., Ernst, E. and Weber, E., 2018. Robots worldwide: The impact of automation on employment and trade. ILO Research Department Working Paper, (36).
10. Chopra, S. (2003). Designing the distribution network in a supply chain. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 39(2), pp.123-140.
11. Christopher, M., Harrison, A. and van Hoek, R., 2016. Creating the agile supply chain: issues and challenges. In Developments in logistics and supply chain management (pp. 61-68). Palgrave Macmillan, London
12. Conboy, K. 2009. “Agility from First Principles: Reconstructing the Concept of Agility in Information Systems Development”, Information Systems Research, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 329-354.
13. Creswell, J.W. 2009. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications
14. DHL Saudi Arabia, 2015. NEW ENGINE GROWTH FOR AUTOMOTIVE, s.l.: DHL, Inc..
15. Dove R. 1994. “Tools for Analyzing and Constructing Agility”, in Proceedings of the Third Annual Agility Forum Conference/Workshop.
16. Gligor, D.M., 2013. The concept of supply chain agility: Conceptualization, antecedents, and the impact on firm performance.
17. Taylor, O. and Demirbas, A., 2016. Forecasting and analysis of energy consumption for transportation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 11(12), pp.1150-1157.
18. González-Benito, J., Lannelongue, G. and Alfaro-Tanco, J.A., 2019. Study of supply-chain management in the automotive industry: a bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Production Research, 51(13), pp.3849-3863.
19. Grigore, S.D., 2007. Supply chain flexibility. Romanian economic and business review, 2(1), p.66
20. Harrison, A., Christopher, M and van Hoek, R., 1999. “Creating the agile supply chain”, working paper, School of Management, Cranfield University
21. Howard, M., Miemczyk, J. & Graves, A. 2006. Automotive supplier parks: an imperative for build-to-order? Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. (12):91-104
22. Imran, A. S. & Rizwan A. S., 2013. Is Supply Chain Management Important To Implement In Manufacturing Industries of Saudi Arabia? 5(27). Pp 58-65
23. Kawa, A. and Maryniak, A., 2019. Lean and agile supply chains of e-commerce: empirical research. Journal of Information and Telecommunication, 3(2), pp.235-247.
24. Kawulich, B. B. (2005, May). Participant observation as a data collection method. In Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research (Vol. 6, No. 2).
25. Khan K, A., Bakkappa, B., Metri, B.A. and Sahay, B.S., 2009. Impact of agile supply chains' delivery practices on firms' performance: cluster analysis and validation. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 14(1), pp.41-48.
26. Khastoo, M. & Raad , A., 2017. Investigate the effect of agility capabilities in the Automotive Industry Supply Chain Network (Case Study: Sapko Parts Auto Supply). International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 12(7), pp. 1655-1677.
27. LaLonde, B.J. and Pohlen, T.L., 1996. Issues in supply chain costing. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 7(1), pp.1-12.
28. Mallett, R., Hagen-Zanker, J., Slater, R. and Duvendack, M., 2012. The benefits and challenges of using systematic reviews in international development research. Journal of development effectiveness, 4(3), pp.445-455.
29. Manders, J., 2010. Supply Chain Flexibility aspects and their impact on customer satisfaction (Master's thesis, Open Universiteit Nederland).
30. Mohammad Lou, Akbar. 2016. Developing lean and agile automotive suppliers manufactures supply chain.
31. Mohammadlou, A., Barzamini, S. and Khazir, M., 2016. Developing lean and agile automotive suppliers manufactures supply chain.
32. Navid, B. and Ismaeli, S., 2012. Analyzing effective elements in agile supply chain. Management Science Letters, 2(1), pp.369-378.
33. Power, D.J., Sohal, A.S. and Rahman, S.U., 2001. Critical success factors in agile supply chain management-An empirical study. International journal of physical distribution & logistics management, 31(4), pp.247-265.
34. Rahman, M.S., 2017. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches and Methods in Language" Testing and Assessment" Research: A Literature Review. Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), pp.102-112.
35. Randheer , K., Trabulsi , H., Ajmi, H. & Jasser, H., 2017. Emerging Industry: A Case of Automobile Manufacturing in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Marketing Research and Case Studies , Volume 2017, pp. 14-17.
36. Saad, M. and Patel, B., 2006. An investigation of supply chain performance measurement in the Indian automotive sector. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 13(1/2), pp.36-53.
37. Saranga, H., Mukherji, A. and Shah, J., 2015. Inventory trends in emerging market supply chains: Evidence from the Indian automotive industry. IIMB Management Review, 27(1), pp.6-18.
38. Saudi Arabia Country Commercial Guide, 2018. Saudi Arabia - Automotive MarketSaudi Arabia - Automotive Market. Saudi Arabia - Automotive Market. Available at: https://www.export.gov/article?id=Saudi-Arabia-Automotive-Market [Accessed July 4, 2019].
39. Tarokh, M.J., Ghahremanloo, H. and Karami, M., 2007, August. Agility in auto dealers SCM. In 2007 IEEE International Conference on Service Operations and Logistics, and Informatics (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
40. Tausif, M. & Haque , M., 2018. Market dynamics and future prospects of the automobile industry in Saudi Arabia. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 16(4), pp. 245-258.
41. Taylor, O. and Demirbas, A., 2016. Forecasting and analysis of energy consumption for transportation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 11(12), pp.1150-1157.
42. Towill, D.R. and McCullen, P., 1999. The impact of agile manufacturing on supply chain dynamics. The international journal of Logistics Management, 10(1), pp.83-96.
43. Tseng, Y. and Lin, C. (2011), “Enhancing Enterprise Agility by Deploying Agile Drivers, Capabilities and Providers”, Information Sciences, Vol. 81, No. 17, pp. 3693-3708.
44. Um, J. 2017. The impact of supply chain agility on business performance in a high level customization environment. Operations management research, 10(1-2), 10-19.
45. Vickery, S. N., Calantone, R., & Dröge, C. 1999. Supply chain flexibility: an empirical study. Journal of supply chain management, 35(2), 16-24.
46. Whitten, G. D., Green Jr, K. W., & Zelbst, P. J. 2012. Triple-a supply chain performance. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 32(1), 28–48. doi:10.1108/01443571211195727
47. Wu, Y. and Angelis, J.J., 2007, May. Information technology and supply chain agility in Chinese automotive industry. In POMS 18th Annual Conference Dallas, Texas, USA May (Vol. 4).
48. Zhang, Q., Vonderembse, M. A. and Lim, J.-S. (2002), "Product development flexibility: testing relationships among competence, capability and customer satisfaction", (Arkansas State University and The University of Toledo).
Published
2021-06-24
How to Cite
Abdulaziz Alageel. (2021). The Effects of Agility in the Supply Chain of Distribution Network of Saudi Arabia’s Automotive Market: (A Case Study of Dealerships). Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, (68), 98-121. https://doi.org/10.33193/JALHSS.68.2021.502
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