Barriers of supply chain management implementation in manufacturing companies: a comparison between Iranian and Malaysian companies

Supply chain management (SCM) not only supports a company's goals and information sharing, but also supports a company in meeting and satisfying customer needs better than its competitors. Managers are faced with many barriers in implementing SCM. Implementing SCM in a developing country, such as Iran or Malaysia, is still considered to be a major challenge due to several barriers. It is essential for all managers to understand these barriers and try to minimize them and improve competition strength. This article presents the SCM implementation barriers between Iranian and Malaysian companies and suggests significant variations between these two countries regarding the barriers faced. This article also compares and highlights the results obtained from a literature study. A survey questionnaire and structure interviews were used to gather the data needed. The questionnaire was distributed to 600 automotive companies in Iran and Malaysia and a total of 132 replies were usable. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. The survey revealed that both Iranian and Malaysian companies suffer from a lack of expertise and lack of awareness about SCM, which are major limitations to implementing SCM. However, Iranian companies showed that lack of information and awareness about SCM is another major barrier as compared to Malaysian companies. The follow-up interviews were conducted with 10 Iranian and five Malaysian managements to investigate proper methods to counter these obstacles. The findings of this research provide invaluable information to all researchers who investigate the barriers of SCM implementation and to company managements who desire to implement SCM and to assist the development of an effective strategic plan as well as to design programs to overcome the SCM barriers.