The significance of supply chain management with regard to the attainment of value and strategic objectives for municipalities within South Africa : a case study

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Supply chain management (SCM) in the public sector in general, as well as the municipalsphere in particular, has received increasing prominence over past few years. Althoughthe focus is mainly due to the impact of fraud and corruption in public sector procurement,this author is of the opinion that SCM can also create value and aid in the attainment ofstrategic objectives. The study revealed that supply chain management is described as aprocess in literature, whilst it is described as a system by government. Of significance tothis, is that both literature and government view SCM as a means to add value. The studyalso revealed that in order for SCM to add value and to contribute to the attainment ofstrategic objectives, it is important that SCM forms part of the performance management(PM) system of an organisation. Performance measurement tools, such as the balancedscorecard, benchmarking, improvement and other measurement tools, were introduced astried and trusted methods for measuring SCM performance.The study was embarked upon because the author was of the opinion that municipalities inSouth Africa only implement SCM because it is required by legislation. Thus, this theorywas tested at Hessequa Municipality and it was found that the current emphasis was oncompliance at Hessequa Municipality. This was done by means of studying documentaryevidence and through interviews conducted with various internal and external stakeholderseither directly or indirectly affected by the SCM processes of Hessequa Municipality. Thestudy tested Hessequa Municipality's readiness to progress towards performancemanagement and measurement by using the financial capability model for SCM as utilisedby the Western Cape Government to ascertain the level of SCM implementation atmunicipalities. It was found that Hessequa Municipality meets almost all the complianceand control requirements, with only two areas that require slight attention before fullcompliance is achieved. Through the interviews conducted, the study also testedHessequa Municipality's willingness to progress to the next level and found that there wasindeed a willingness to progress towards managing and measuring SCM activities.In conclusion, the study recommended that Hessequa Municipality uses a phased-inapproach when it sets processes in place to progress towards performance managingSCM. That when developing performance indicators for SCM, it be aligned to theperformance management system and targets of the municipality. It also recommendedthat a combination of the tried and trusted methods be used to measure SCM performance. Finally, it recommended that the municipality eradicates the silo approach todoing business and adopts a more integrated approach by firstly integrating its internalprocesses before embarking upon integrating the actions of all the agents within thesupply chain.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University