Mobile phone enabled Supply chain management in the RMG sector: A conceptual framework

Relatively little is known about mobile phone use in a Supply Chain Management (SCM) context, especially in the Bangladeshi Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry. RMG is a very important industry for the Bangladeshi economy but is criticized for long product supply times due to poor SCM. RMG requires obtaining real-time information and enhanced dynamic control, through utilizing information sharing and connecting stakeholders in garment manufacturing. However, a lack of IT support in the Bangladeshi RMG sector, the high price of computers and the low level of adoption of the computer-based internet are obstacles to providing sophisticated computer-aided SCM. Alternatively, the explosive adoption of mobile phones and continuous improvement of this technology is an opportunity to provide mobile-based SCM for the RMG sector. This research presents a mobile phone-based SCM framework for the Bangladeshi RMG sector. The proposed framework shows that mobile phone-based SCM can positively impact communication, information exchange, information retrieval and flow, coordination and management, which represent the main processes of effective SCM. However, to capitalize on these benefits, it is also important to discover the critical success factors and barriers to mobile SCM systems.