The Supply Chain Management Practices on Halal Orientation in Restaurants’ Operation within BARMM: A Concurrent Multi-Method Design

Abstract

The halal industry has gained significant global attention and has become an important concern in international business (Rusydiana and Mahszar, 2024). The designation "halal" on a product is no longer a sign of duty to Muslims but also a sign of the global need for quality assurance and a way of life for both Muslims and non-Muslims (Khasanah, 2021). The improper use of halal signs, food tainted by pork, and the denial of halal certificates—all of which indicate a lack of respect for the halal religion—are growing which are part of the many concerns in halal industry and a lack of information available on the Halal brand (Ahmad et al., 2019).
Halal orientation is very fundamental in gaining halal certification (Zailani et al., 2019). Businesses would be able to establish appropriate operational strategy to guarantee that all aspects of production from the staffing, materials, and production process, to the storage and transportation, will truly adhere to the halal requirements in production (Talib et al., 2018).
Moreover, supply chain management has the ability to use information effectively when transporting, storing, and warehousing goods (Rizki et al., 2023). The halal supply chain is one of the most crucial elements for Muslims since the product must be halal from the point of origin to the final consumers (Wahyuni et al., 2020). Thus, supply chain management areas such as logistics and warehouse are important to determine how products are distributed and stored.
According to the study of (Ngah et al., 2014), there is still a low acceptance rate for halal warehouses and logistics which results in the numerous problems that would prevent halal producers from utilizing halal warehouses and logistics to operate their products and that more research be done in order to learn more about the acceptance of halal supply chain services. This is supported by (Tumiwa et al., 2023) as they stated that halal logistics plays a crucial role in the process of storing, transporting, and delivering halal products to consumers and it calls for assurances of halal products from the manufacturers all the way to the distributor. However, there has been no process monitoring by the supplier from the beginning to the time it reaches the store.
In the BARMM, halal certification is administered by the Muslim Mindanao Halal Certification Board Inc. (MMHCBI), a private agency. The MMHCBI will assume full responsibility in ensuring that food and non-food products being produced, catered, served, or distributed in the region or elsewhere are Halal-compliant or acceptable for the Muslims to consume (Kuit, 2023)
Thus, this study is important because despite of the growing importance of halal compliance across the entire supply chain, the implementation of halal warehouse and logistics services remain low. Existing studies tend to focus primarily on the production and processing stage; there were limited studies specifically focusing on the supply chain management practices related to halal orientation within the restaurant operations in the context of BARMM. This lack of acceptance has led to operational challenges that hinder halal procedures from being fully implemented throughout the supply chain where insufficient process of monitoring from the point of origin until products reach establishment.