Identifying Enablers of Supply Chain Alignments.

Literatures on supply chain alignments identifies six main enablers of supply chain management who need to be managed efficiently and effectively to have an aligned supply chain. The six enablers are organizational structure, internal relational behavior, customer relational behavior, top management support system, information sharing and business performance measurement system. The purpose of this paper is to identify the enablers of supply chain alignment and study the relationship between enablers and supply chain alignments. The current research introduced a conceptual model, which has been tested and verified in bakery industries in Jeddah-Saudi Arabia. The data was collected using a questionnaire developed based on the previous literatures. Statistical techniques such as reliability and regression analysis were used to verify the validity of the proposed conceptual model, and to test the suggested hypotheses. According to the results of the study, the organizational structure and top management support are positively related to customer alignment, as well as customer alignment is positively related to shareholder alignment. The findings suggest that the successful implementation of supply chain alignment will contribute to improving supply chain management in an efficient and effective way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]