Explaining the Role of Integrated Supply Chain on Attainment of World Class Manufacturing in Electronic Domestic Appliance Industries

Current dynamic and complicated environment has made organizations and industries compete at an international level. If a world-class level production is pursued, they have to manufacture their products in a world-class level. To meet the world-class production indicators and remain competitive, they need to be more integrated at the level of organization, partners and supply chain. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between supply chain integration (SCI) and world class manufacturing (WCM). This study uses a descriptive-correlative method and its research population covers Electronic Domestic Appliance Industry companies. The samples in this research were selected using simple random sampling method. Fuzzy Delphi method was used to identify the dimensions and indicators of production in the world class level and to collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. AMOS software was used to test the hypotheses through a statistical test of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results showed that three dimensions of SCI namely, internal integration, supplier and customer have significantly positive impacts on obtaining products in world class level. The impact of customer integrity on delivery was not confirmed while high level of integral integrity is claimed to have more effects on cost and on-time delivery rather than other integration dimensions of supply chain integration. As the results showed, the companies in the industry are required to take actions on integrating supply chain comprising internal, supplier and customer integration in order to obtain WCM dimensions such as cost, innovation, quality, delivery, flexibility and services. Also result of. This paper helps managers to distinguish the effects of the different dimensions of SCI on obtaining WCM.