G Narkhede

N.R.Rajhans

Abstract

Since last two decades, academicians and practitioners have paid a massive effort in supply chain management (SCM) due to its proven results like improved quality, cost reduction and overall supply chain efficiency to gain competitive advantage. Large enterprises have already tested rippling effects of SCM, but small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) have underestimate the benefits of SCM due to their insufficient knowledge about SCM. Literature reveals that Indian SMEs could not contribute in the GDP to the extent they could. Therefore, there is a great potential to develop Indian SMEs through effective execution of SCM strategies. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the SCM issues of small and medium size enterprises and to provide insights on how SCM strategies will help in growth of SMEs. This enables SMEs to identify and overcome the possible risk factors in implementing effective and responsive supply chain strategies for improving their performance in terms of cost, quality and service to customer.

Keywords- Small and medium size Enterprises (SMEs), Large Enterprises (LEs), Supply chain management (SCM) and Supply chain efficiency