Identifying the best supply chain model for a fashion apparel retail brand

Abstract

Supply chain is one of the key term in modern business world. Emphasis on supply chain has seen a vigorous change from being a supportive function to an integrated strategy within last couple of decades. It’s a common belief in the business world that Brands are no longer competing but the supply chains. Apparel & clothing is one of the biggest industries in the world. Clothing being a basic need of human, it’s a never ceasing industry. Apparel retailing is a part of apparel supply chain. Very much like any other industry, apparel supply chain is a globalized and scattered supply chain. A cotton grown in India getting converted to yarns in Vietnam and the yarn sails all the way to far -East Asia which then becomes a fabric in China. This fabric then goes through the garment manufacturing process in Indonesia with trims made in Thailand. Then that garment goes to a shopping mall in Germany and an Australian traveler buys it. This is a typical supply chain in apparel. This gives us an image of how complicated the apparel supply chain and how complicated it is to manage apparel supply chain. There are so many researches written based on studies of identifying optimum supply chain. There are numerous studies on the generic supply chain strategies and the applicability of those based on different aspects of the business. However there are very few researches written specifically on apparel business. Also though there are many researches which outline the generic supply chain, there’s hardly anything which discuss about individual strategies and their applicability specifically for apparel retailing. The attempt of this research is to identify the usage of the strategic elements in achieving the most effective supply chain. In order to do this, the research has carried out a thorough literature survey and focus group interviews while best practices of current best performing supply chains were studied in parallel. By gathering all the strategies concurrently through all the above routes, a questionnaire was created and the perception of the apparel industry professionals on the applicability of those strategies were analyzed through the questionnaire data. So in summery the research identifies the most effective mix strategic elements for the supply chain model of an apparel retail fashion brand.