The information technology barriers in supply chain of sugarcane in Khuzestan province, Iran: A combined ANP-DEMATEL approach

Abstract

The present study aims at identifying and also prioritizing information technology barriers in supply chain of sugarcane in Khuzestan province. The statistical population of the study consisted of all senior managers of sugarcane industries in the province. Of four large relevant companies in the field, 34 senior managers were selected. The required data was collected through two stages hiring questionnaires. In order to evaluate information technology barriers at the supply chain level, six main dimensions were considered including technological, supply chain management, strategic, organizational, individual and customer barriers. DEMATEL technique was also used to identify the relationship between indicators, and the ANP method was also employed to prioritize the before mentioned barriers. The results of DEMATEL showed that strategic barrier indicator acts as the most influential, and the supply chain management barrier indicator as the most impotent one. The results of ANP method showed that of all research indicators, customer barrier indicator (weight 0.001 27) was the most important indicator. Next, organizational and supply chain management barrier indicators are ranked second and third, respectively. Also, among the 28 research components (sub-criteria), the “lack of financial support” component with the weight of 0.048 21 ranked first, followed by “poor outsourcing management” and “high investment and installation costs” as second and third respectively, which also had the most impact on the sugarcane supply chain.