Customer-Focused Supply Chain Strategy : Developing Business Value-Added Framework

Customers are crucial to any business as without customers, there is no sales; and without sales, there is no revenue and profits. Hence, there is a lot of attention on ‘customer-focus'. With competition now at the supply chain level, competitive advantage comes from the ability of supply chain partners to coordinate and integrate strategies aimed at satisfying the end customers of the supply chain at a relatively low cost. Customer-focused supply chain strategy provides an approach to respond to these challenges as it strives to match supply and demand, thereby driving down costs simultaneously improving customer satisfaction. This study underlines the significance of customer-focused supply chain strategy. It also provides supporting matrix to underscore various attributes of customer-focused supply chain strategy; develops 4Rs (responsiveness, resilience, reliability and realignment) framework for building customer-focused supply chain strategy; and formulates business value added framework to emphasize the overall benefits in terms of improved firm performance