Soap Manufacturing Value Chain, Analysis, Issues and Solutions: A Study of Faisalabad Soap Manufacturing Firms

Abstract

The know-how of soap manufacturing supply value chain is very important because soap products have become an integral part of an individual’s day to day life. The finished product reaches the ultimate customer through a variety of production steps and industry involvements, along with supply value chain networking. The value addition at each step fulfills the demand of the manufacturer and customer along with market competition dynamics. Faisalabad is the largest soap producing hub after Karachi where the production reaches above 1, 00,000 ton every year. This paper highlights the important aspects of soap value chain in which value addition takes place in every step. Moreover, the issues are also highlighted along with the solutions of these issues currently facing by the soap industry of Faisalabad. The data is obtained through 26 personal interviews by the researcher with the owner of the firms which include micro, small, medium and large setups of soap manufacturing with different product line. The major importance of getting the know-how of the soap manufacturing value chain is to highlight the issues faced by the soap firms in achieving ideal level of quality which equally competes with the multi-nationals products and become aware of the constraints from the grass-root level of raw material purchasing to transforming it into highly quality finished products for the customers.