IQRA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTER (IURC) IQRA UNIVERSITY-IU

RESEARCH PROPOSAL Thesis-1

Research Title: SECURING UPSTREAM SUPPLY CHAIN BY EXPORT ORIENTED LEATHER INDUSTRY OF PAKISTAN. Introduction (literature based): The leather industry on basic level obtains the leftover by-product of slaughterhouses which are hides of cow, buffalo, goat or sheep etc and transforms these raw materials hides into various types of leather in wide ranging types and standards according to their usage (De Buckle, 2001). In leather industry export-orientated sectors are thriving which include all of the leather apparel and garments either raw and semi-processed hides, made from buffalo, cow, sheep or goat (Ballad, 2001). This entire process has three stages, each having different permutations of raw hides & chemical, labor and capital (De Buckle, 2001). Leather industry has a global share of over 20 Billion dollars that is contribute to the global trade balance and as majority of production is export oriented thus becoming a vital part of the any country exports share (De Buckle, 2001). Keeping in view that the production of leather needed for exports has been steadily increasing globally but supply is not increasing at the pace of demand (Musleh-ud-Din & Ghani, 2000) thus causing problems for exporters. Under such condition manager pay special attention to the upstream supply chain either by vigilance or by management tool (Wathne & Heide, 2004) without these actions the entire process has inherent risk of staling. Because managers now know that firms success is tied to the strength and prowess of its weakest supply chain partner either upstream or downstream (Spekman, Kamauff Jr & Myhr, 1998). Furthermore, manager use buffering against

uncertainties and risks, which impacts on the operational performance (Giunipero & Eltantawy, 2004) at the end of the export-orientated industry has to face all the environmental pressures in order to get to the finish line. Manager try to resolve upstream supply chains problems based on situational factors that can vary and degree of product differentiation, technology, security needs, the relative importance of the supplier to the entire supply chain process (Giunipero & Eltantawy, 2004). But for securing upstream supply chain managers have to design and manage downstream supply chain in order to reduce the volatility within their upstream suppliers through their choice of management tools like order forecast rule (Anderson, Fine, C. H. and PARKER & G. G. 2000). In this paper I would to explore in which ways managers in export-orientated leather organization mitigate risk and uncertainties either using their own inherent policies or looking outward to other industries and benchmarking their practices of reducing uncertainties in their upstream supply chains. As literature reflects that as managers improve their downstream supply chain this inadvertently secure their upstream supply chains in this paper I would like to further investigate the possibility of this happening in an industry which is whole focused exports acquiring material from one sources and selling to completely different source. Statement of the Problem:

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List of References: Anderson, E. G., Fine, C. H. and Parker, G. G. (2000), UPSTREAM VOLATILITY IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN: THE MACHINE TOOL INDUSTRY AS A CASE STUDY, Production and Operations Management. Issue:9, pg:239261. Visit: http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/1644/anderson.pdf Ballard Richard (2001), A Preliminary Study on the Bovine Leather Value Chain in South Africa, Industrial Restructuring Project School of Development Studies University of Natal, Durban, ISBN NO: 1-86840-433-1, Visit: http://www.nu.ac.za/csds/. De Buckle Teresa Salazar (2001) The Leather Global Value Chain, A Review presented to UNIDO, Retrieved on 21-Feb-2012 to view visit: http://www.inti.gov.ar/cadenasdevalor/documentacion/industriadelcuero.pdf Giunipero Larry C. & Eltantawy Reham Aly, (2004) "Securing the upstream supply chain: a risk management approach", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 34 Issue: 9, pp.698 713 Visit: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=846940&show=abstract Musleh-ud-Din & Ghani Ejaz (2000), Science and Technology based Industrial Vision of Pakistans Economy and Prospects of Growth: The Case of Textiles and Leather. Visit: http://goo.gl/jZnsG Spekman Robert E.,Kamauff Jr John W. & Myhr Niklas, (1998) "An empirical investigation into supply chain management: a perspective on partnerships", Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 3 Issue: 2, pp.53 67, Visit: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=846693&show=html Wathne Kenneth H. & Heide Jan B., (2004) Relationship Governance in a Supply Chain Network, The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 68, No. 1, pp. 73-89, Published by: American Marketing Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/pss/30161976