Supply Chain Management: Improving Competitive Advantage in Smes

The changes within supply chain management are examined, as well as the obstacles and opportunities that those changes create for competitive advantage among small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Large organizations focus strategically on specific competences (such as communication and flexibility) of their supply chains as a source of competitive advantage. The firms' achievement of relatively high supply chain competence scores suggested their external orientation (although they were not necessarily collaborating within a supply chain framework).SMEs will have to consider their integration with larger organizations in terms of information exchange, business activities and relationships.To do so, the companies will have to measure their levels of organizational and relational competence against the dimensions that customers consider to be critical to supplier performance.(SAA)