Supply chain relationship management - Research Proposal Example

Supply chain relationship management Contents Contents 2 Research Question 2 Research Objective 3 Preliminary Literature review 3 Data Collection 4 Project Plan 4References 4Research QuestionResearch question is finding out the challenges faced by small retail sized business. Research ObjectiveThe objective of the research paper is reviewing the retail supply chain with respect to the current business challenges and trends with focus on small business. This research paper also discusses the interconnectivity of supply chain and retail and the strategies which are taken to maintain a competitive edge.

Small businesses form the basis of the thesis along with the analysis of compatibility for such small businesses and supply chain. Preliminary Literature reviewIn today’s economy retail activities are an important part of progress of an economy. There are many ways of identifying the benefits the retail industry has on the society. The first benefit is that it results in job creation. Such kind of jobs results in various roles for the employees like managers, sales, distributors, warehousing etc.

There are mainly two classification of retailing depending on the identification of products. It was necessary to allow grouping of the products on the basis of the forecast methods, replenishment methods, planning system etc. The two classifications are Functional or staple products and Innovative Products. There are many challenges in retail supply chain. One challenge is that it can be very costly if the supply chain is not properly designed. There are many other glitches which are both external and internal to the business.

Another major problem facing them is Suppler Reliability. If any supplier fails to do any of his function then there will be no product for them to sell (Coyle, Langley, Gibson, Novack and Bardi, 2008, p. 211). This can result in result in loss of consumers, lost profits and declining sales turnover. Hence in the process of selection of supplier it is very important to choose any reliable supplier. In today’s scenario, potential markets and outsourcing can have a major impact on the way a retail supply chain is structured.

Presence of low cost for innovative products from Asian and China countries has resulted in paradigm shift to global manufacturing from local manufacturing. Hence this affects the supply chain in terms of cost and complexity. Bullying happens in retail sector where the companies like Wal-Mart have been accused of bullying small retail outlets. Retail stores are now taking full potential of the technology by carrying out many of their activities online. Hence such devices have increased the efficiency of small and medium retail business.

But the main point of contention is that it could take forever for the company to generate returns on their investment (Mentzer, 2001, p. 186).Data CollectionThe data collection technique is the most important step in a research. There are basically two types of data, qualitative and quantitative. The data collection technique used in this research report is Questionnaires Survey. The respondents used to obtain information from were small and medium retail companies. Data was gathered from the respondents using ordinal scale which are used to rank the alternatives in order of their magnitude.

Project PlanThe first step is to get the questionnaire filled by the respondents. Then analysis needs to be done on those data. This will help them to find out the problems faced by the small and medium sized business. After finding the problems the strategies employed by the firms needs to be found out and see the effects of those strategies on the firms. References Coyle, J., Langley, C., Gibson, B., Novack, R. and Bardi, E. 2008. Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective. Mason: Cengage Learning.

Mentzer, J.T. 2001. Supply Chain Management. New York: Sage.