SCM practices and the health of the SMEs in Pakistan

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to provide a window into the supply chain practices of the small and medium enterprise sector in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – The Small and Medium Enterprise Center (SMEC) at the Lahore University of Management Sciences undertook a survey in 2003 to gauge the health of this sector. A survey of 650 firms in ten districts in the country was conducted. This paper presents the results and analyses of the supply chain practices of these SMEs. Research limitations/implications – There is dearth of independent data and research in the field of SME's in Pakistan. This paper provides a window to the supply chain practices of SME's in Pakistan and will enable future researchers to use this research as a building block in understanding these practices and the factors that pertain to successful firms. Practical implications – The implications of this study are far reaching enabling trainers, consultants, donor agencies, and entrepreneurs in the SME sector to learn the practices of successful firms and adopt/help SMEs adopt these in their operations. Findings – This paper we report some of the results of the survey and our analysis of factors related to supply chain management practices that seem to correlate with the health of the enterprise. The analysis shows that successful firms on average had more products, more customers as well as more new customers. SMEs into exports were the healthiest and exhibited most dynamic characteristics, followed by those that sold to OEMs. Another interesting insight is that growing firms sold more directly to end users while firms with higher sales per employee sold the least to the end user. Originality/value – A major frustration for most policy researchers in the SME area is the virtual non‐existence of scientific data on this sector in the country. This is the first survey of its kind in Pakistan.