Optimizing information flow to enhance demand planning in Sri Lankan apparel supply chains : a statistical approach

Abstract

Sri Lankan apparel industry is country’s main contributor to its export-led manufacturing industry while serving as an outsourcing firm to major international apparel brands all over the globe. Apparel industry earns its profits by properly allocating resources they spent on the apparel supply chain to provide their customers with quality products at the right time with the lowest cost possible. Thus, it is very important for the industry to have an accurate demand information flow at the right time to plan and allocate their recourses within their supply chain to earn profit. Therefore, the study has been carried out to develop a methodology to optimize the information flow with respect to the “time variable” to enhance the apparel demand planning. Required information has been collected through a pilot survey with industry experts and a secondary survey with 100 participants from the managerial level employees in the apparel information flow operations. Descriptive analysis, hypothesis testing, analytical hierarchy process analysis and critical path method are used to conduct the relevant inferences. Study results indicated that in order to increase the performance of the information flow to enhance demand planning, highest priority is given to the time spent on the information flow operations, second is the accuracy of the information, third and fourth are cost of the operation and reliability of the information respectively. Information flow of the selected case study is modelled using ISAP analysis and critical path method and it is analyzed using the free float and total float techniques where the developed methodology can act as a guideline to the apparel industry to enhance it demand planning process. Also, a conceptual methodology is developed using the cost slope concept to optimally use time and cost spent on the operation to find an optimal balance between the two resources