LETTER OF INFORMATION AND CONSENT Dear Participant Integration of Supply Chain with Business Strategy of Companies in Fast Moving

Consumer Goods of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. I am currently undertaking a research project as part of my studies towards a Doctor of Technology: Business Administration at Durban University of Technology. The aim of the study is to establish and examine business strategies FMCG companies are implementing, determine synergies, challenges of matching demand and supply as well as developing a framework of performance measures and metrics needed to fully integrate supply chain with business strategy in order to synchronise integration of information and products flow matched to consumption and finances as they move across the supply chain and gain a competitive advantage. Would you agree to complete a questionnaire or be interviewed for the study? The questionnaire/interview will take approximately 15 minutes. The information you give will only be used for research purposes and will be aggregated with other responses and only the overall or average information will be used. Your identity and individual answers will be kept totally confidential. Should you wish to discuss this further please feel free to contact me or my supervisor or (the IREC Administrator, Lavisha Deonarian: 031 373 2900 or LavishaD@dut.ac.za). Your assistance will be much appreciated,

Yours faithfully Alpha Msomi 074 974 5725 msomi2010@gmail.com or amsomi@pctrainingonline.co.za

RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE INTEGRATION OF SUPPLY CHAIN WITH BUSINESS STRATEGY OF SELECTED FMCG COMPANIES OF KZN, RSA. Instruction to participants Kindly place a tick () in the code column next to the response representing your view SECTION A: BACKGROUND INFORMATION 1. Please indicate the form of business ownership of your company Description 1.1. Sole proprietor 1.2. Partnership 1.3. Close corporation 1.4. Company 1.5. Trust 1.6. Other: Specify 2. Which group do you represent in supply chain of KZN? Description 2.1. Consumers (Retail Outlets) 2.2. Wholesaler 2.3. Distributor/Supplier 2.4. Manufacturer 2.5. Producer (eg farmer) 2.6. Other: Specify 3. Your position in the compaby Job Title 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. 3.5. Chief Executive Officer Director Manager Assistant Other: Specify Code 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e

Code 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f

Code 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f

4. Gender Description 4.1. Male 4.2. Female Code 4a 4b

5. Kindly indicate your highest qualification. Description 5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4. 5.5. 5.6. Matric National Certificate National Diploma Degree Honours Masters

Code 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f

5.7. Doctors Degree 5g 6. Indicate the number of staff development workshops/programmes attended aimed at improving business competitive advantage in the last 12 months. Description Code 6.1. None 6a 6.2. One 6b 6.3. Two 6c 6.4. Three and more 6d SECTION B: GENERIC QUESTIONS TO COMPANY REPRESENTATIVES IN THE FMCG. 7. Choose one or more types of business strategy your company is implementing Description 7.1. Low-cost provider strategy: Is where the company seeks to be the lowest cost provider to most customer segments. 7.2. Broad differentiation: In this strategy the company seeks to develop products that offer unique attributes that are valued by customers. 7.3. Best cost provider emphasis on differentiation with the aim of making an upscale product at a lower cost that give customers more value for their money. 7.4. Focused differentiation: Is a strategy which concentrates on one or two segments of the market using either a cost or differentiation focus. 7.5. Defenders are organisations that have narrow product-market domains and devote their attention to improving efficiency of their existing operations. 7.6. Prospectors are organizations that almost continually search for market opportunities, responses to emerging environmental trends these organizations usually are not completely efficient. 7.7. Analysers are organizations that operate in two types of product-market domains. In their stable areas, they operate routinely and efficiently. In their more turbulent areas, top managers watch their competitors closely for new ideas, and then they rapidly adopt those that appear to be the most promising. 7.8. Reactors are organizations in which top managers frequently perceive change and uncertainty occurring an their organisational environments but are unable to respond effectively because their organization lacks a consistent strategy/structure relationship 7.9. Resource-based: In this strategy the sources of competitive advantage resides within the company. These capabilities which lead to competences which are difficult for competitors to copy. 7.10. The value disciplines creates customer value and provide a competitive advantage based on operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy.

Code 7a 7b 7c 7d 7e 7f 7g

7h

7i 7g

RATING SCALE KEY: Disagree (D) Strongly disagree (SD) Uncertain (U) Agree (A) Strongly agree (SA) 8 Indicate your level of agreement whether Integration of Supply Chain with Business Strategy is perceived to have any impact in your company Is ISCBS perceived to have any impact on achieving Item 8.1 Growth 8.2 Sales 8.3 Revenue 8.4 Maximise profitability through aggregate planning 8.5 Competitive advantage 8.6 Cost reduction 8.7 Customer satisfaction 8.8 Create value for shareholders 8.9 Value addition to customers 8.10 Continuous-sustainable improvement D 1 SD 2 U 3 A 4 SA 5

9 Are the following items perceived to be challenges to the effective integration of supply chain with business strategy? Perceived challenges Item 9.1 Business strategy is not effectively communicated to supply chain staff 9.2 Supply chain strategy is not integrated is with business strategy 9.3 Lack of top management support 9.4 Resistant to change in supply chain systems by management leadership 9.5 Misunderstanding of how supply chain is defined 9.6 Unwillingness to share information due to lack of trust amongst supply chain members. 9.7 Cross functional conflicts. 9.8 Inflexibility of organisational structure 9.9 Inadequate Supply Chain performance measures 9.10 Workforce incentives not aligned with business strategy 9.11 Inflexible organisational systems and processes 9.12 Inadequate supply chain competences 9.13 Inadequate supply chain networks to with the upstream-internal-downstream systems 9.14 The core competencies are not aligned with strategy of the organisation 9.15 Human capital is not effectively developed to support strategy implementation No effect 1 Small effect 2 Moderate effect 3 Large effect 4 Very Large effect 5

9.16 Social capital is not effectively developed to support strategy implementation 10 There is a broad agreement on how resources can build capabilities (key elements) that leads to competences which are difficult for competitors to copy (Prahalad & Hamel 1990, Stalk, Evans & Shulman 1992, Hall 1994 and Jooste & Fourie, 2009). They further states that sources of competitive advantage reside within the company. This is often seen as an inside-out approach. Using a responsiveness-efficiency rating scale of 1-5, evaluate the resource capabilities of your company in achieving strategic fit between supply and demand in the company. Key 1. Highly Efficient (HE) 2. Somewhat Efficient (SE) 3. Not Sure (NS) 4. Somewhat Responsive (SR) 5. Highly Responsive (HR) Key elements ISCBSs responsiveness-efficiency spectrum Item 10.1 Strategy: for instance leader in resourcefulness & competences which are difficult for competitors to copy. 10.2 Systems: for instance lean and agile end-to-end value chain 10.3 Organisational structure: for instance supportive of SCSI with business strategy 10.4 Shared values: for example foster value added cultural relationships 10.5 Technology: for instance B2B linkages through ICT 10.6 Policy on responsiveness-efficiency: for instance to match demand with supply 10.7 People: Have the right talent, accountable for performance HE 1 SE 2 NS 3 SR 4 HR 5

11 Do you perceive the following measures and metrics important for integration of supply chain with business strategy? Using a supply chain performance measures and metrics rating scale of 1-5, evaluate the importance of the following variables in achieving strategic fit between supply and demand in the company. Key 1. Highly Important (HI) 2. Moderately Important (MI) 3. Not Sure (NS) 4. Less Important (LI) 5. Not Important at all (NIA)

Supply chain performance measures and metrics Item 11.1 Order planning 11.1.1 Accuracy of forecasting 11.1.2 Planning process cycle time -the time elapsed in between the receipt of customer order until the delivery of finished goods to the customer. 11.1.3 Order entry methods 11.1.4 Human resource productivity

HI 1

MI 2

NS 3

LI 4

NIA 5

11.2 Evaluation of supply link at strategic level 11.2.1 Supplier delivery performance 11.2.2 Supplier lead-time against industry norm 11.2.3 Supplier pricing against market 11.2.4 Quality level against the market 11.2.5 Efficiency of cash-flow method 11.2.6 Supplier booking in procedures 11.2.7 Customer satisfaction 11.3 Measures and metrics at production level 11.3.1 Percentage of defects 11.3.2 Capacity utilization: 11.3.3 Effectiveness of scheduling techniques 11.3.4 Range of products and services 11.3.5 Utilization of economic order quantity Measures for delivery performance evaluation 11.4 Importance of delivery performance measures customer needs: 11.4.1 Quality of delivered goods 11.4.2 On time delivery of goods 11.4.3 Flexibility of service systems to meet customer needs 11.4.4 Effectiveness of enterprise distribution planning schedule 11.4.5 Effectiveness of delivery invoice methods 11.4.6 Number of faultless delivery notes invoiced 11.4.7 Percentage of urgent deliveries 11.4.8 Information richness in carrying out delivery 11.4.9 Percentage of finished goods in transit Delivery reliability 11.4.10 Performance

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THANK FOR YOU VALUABLE TIME