FOREWORD
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The APO has recognized for
some time the growing importance of introducing
sound supply chain management to enterprises.
This is especially so in the light of concomitant
concerns about the need to remain flexible and
competitive in a rapidly global sing market, consistently
characterized by greater unpredictability, shorter
product life cycles and stronger expectations
of fast time to market. Such concerns continue
to dominate the challenge set of the Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
As predicted, the challenge today for such SMEs
is no longer the issue of who’s brand or
product is better. Rather, it is more about who
has the better supply chain compared to competition.
In this regard, the operational issues pertain
to who can do it better, faster and cheaper. Related
to this question naturally is the associated need
to focus on the state of supply chain management
in Asian SMEs. Under girding the core of this
focus is still the thrust of productivity improvement
for the less endowed and less resource rich SMEs.
Based on this thinking, the APO launched a symposium
from December 11 to 14 in Taipei, Republic of
China for member country SME representations to
present their national cases on supply chain management
in relation to their indigenous SMEs. The contributions
covered a mixture of conceptual models and practical
applications at both the enterprise and sectoral
levels. Special attention was given to the barriers
and challenges of implementing supply chain management
for SMEs for overall value-chain productivity
improvement.
This volume is thus a compilation of worthy contributions
to, and numerous spirited discussions within the
symposium. We trust that the this publication,
essentially of case studies arising from the symposium,
can serve to illuminate the interested reader
involved in either SMEs activities or holding
managerial responsibilities related to productivity
and value chain management. Further, it can be
employed as a useful reference tool to point the
same reader to some performance improvement areas
and concerns for SMEs in the domain of supply
chain management and its related technologies.
Lastly, the APO would like to thank the government
of the Republic of China for hosting the symposium
and the resource persons for providing their valuable
time, knowledge and expertise in helping to bring
this symposium to a fruitful conclusion. Special
thanks also goes to Prof. Mark Goh, chief resource
person for the symposium and editor of this publication,
for bringing this publication to completion.
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