Shortening Lead-Times to Create an Agile Supply Chain for Esprit

It is becoming apparent that the ever changing environment in the global marketplace requires a swifter response time from businesses and their supply chains. The era when production was moved overseas, so businesses can take advantage of low-cost labor is coming to an end, because businesses are not only competing on price but also on time. The owner of Zara, a Spanish clothing store knows this first hand, and has turned supply chain management on its ear, making his company the “envy of the industry” (Ferdows, Lewis, & Machuca, 2004).

These companies sought to differentiate their brands through craftsmanship, quality, and design, but success often depended on external factors. Sales boosted by an expanding economy could erode quickly in an economic downturn, leaving distribution centers brimming with inventory. Consumer confidence was the cornerstone of consumer spending and, concomitantly, of the performance of the apparel and footwear sectors. Europe’s apparel and footwear industry saw compound annual growth of 2.3% in 2006 and 1.7% in 2005.4 A trend observed in recent years for consumers to split their spending between high-end luxury goods and value merchandise was attributed to the availability from chains such as Hennes & Mauritz of increasingly trendy apparel and footwear tagged at affordable prices. The perpetually shifting demands and preferences of the public encumbered the apparel sector with the need to maintain large-scale inventory systems, the financial burden of failed items, and the risk of stock-outs of popular items. The speed of change together with the lag between production and retail availability made accurate inventory forecasting a persistent challenge.

This report have help us realized that in today’s world, Fashion has been a very huge influence on us. In the fashion industry, Bardot is still like a new baby compared to other competitors. It has some good advantages but overall, Bardot has a lot to improve on at the same

Second, in fulfillment, we can also see speed in responding to demand. For example, the replenishment, as well as production will be optimized according to supply and demand as quickly as possible. Besides, the fulfillment will commonly completed in one or two days, clothes flowed quickly, and without stopping, from factories to DCs to stores, where they were immediately put on the sales floor. Third, in design and manufacturing, we can find how Zara respond quickly to demand. Zara brought out new items continuously throughout the year, including both changes to existing garments and entirely new creations. The network of production had made design from conception through production and into the DC in as little as three weeks. Besides, Zara did not have to predict what would be selling six months, or even one month, in the future; it could continuously sense what customers wanted to buy and respond “on the fly.” All these operations reflect the speed-chasing and target-oriented nature of Zara business.

The Spanish retail chain Zara has unique supply chain management practices that enable it to gain a competitive advantage over other fashion retailers in the industry. Zara’s rapid response time enables the firm to quickly respond to changing fashions while deliberately under producing products. This strategy, which is supported by competencies in logistic management, design and information systems, allows the company to maintain less inventory and higher profit margins and is a key factor to Zara’s success. The firm should continue to add value by seeking new opportunities to expand in the retail market and maintain their sustainable growth.

2. Richard M. Johns (2006). The Apparel Industry. 2nd ed. UK, London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. 1-124.

Retail is a fast-paced environment that is always changing and adapting to new trends and styles. This is why we see “fast fashion” stores such as H&M, Gap, Zara, Forever 21 and Uniqlo, cycling through the clothing they have in their stores very quickly. Because of the constant change in fashion trends, such stores are in an extremely competitive battle to be the most successful in their field.

In the fashion industry, fashion brands are highly associated with branding, because of the intensive competitive fashion markets. Moreover, fashion brands are self-expressing to some extent (Carroll, 2008). Building creative brand image is important for the fashion brands. In addition, Carroll (2008) said that social responsibility and potential risks are the two aspects related to the fashion brands. Just as

if supplier doesn’t supply on time may incur the company the loses of the clothes out of date fashion . Huge number of tons will be consumed faster than before because of this fast fashion. This was the possible disadvantage of the fast fashion distribution system. There are a lot of advantages that offset the disadvantages of the fast fashion distribution system. We may say here fast fashion requires innovation and brainstorming to get new designs overtime to be

For partners of ASOS, they generally go through the same production process as ASOS own-branded dress. However, they receive the order from ASOS and its merchandisers instead of consumers. It is an important process for ASOS as understanding the product lifecycle and stock level, they can plan the introduction and withdrawal of product. Also price can be adjusted accordingly with which sales are introduced during the decline period (The Times 100, NA). However, this supply chain requires a high collaboration of functions across supply chain (Fernie, 2009). The reason why ASOS can eliminate the traditional functions of a retail store is due to its well-managed supply chain, effective stock keeping system and fast-going logistic system (Meadows, 2007).

An additional method Zara utilizes to ensure the right product is produced is to constantly monitoring the sells at every store in real time through the use of computers. Sells managers are the individuals that play out this strategy. When the clothing sells well or does not sell well, they can quickly let the designers know to swiftly create new designs (“Case 3-4. Continued Growth for Zara and Inditex”, 2013). However, the competition is changing their strategies in an attempt to successfully compete with Zara. The methods that Zara has implemented to ensure fast fashion is truly fast has pressured the competition into reducing their lead times on stocking their stores (Hayes & Jones, 2006).

The clothing industry, as one of the most globalized industries in the world (Bonacich et al 1994), is currently undergoing a restructuring, especially the fast fashion sector. Fashion markets are synonymous with rapid changes and short product life cycles. Therefore, changes in consumer demand for newness and fashion trend force the emergence of ‘fast fashion’ strategy in retailers like Zara and H&M and shifts in the focus of competitive advantage from price towards quick response. That is to say, clothing firms, which are adopting global or offshore sourcing strategy, are not considered to have more competitive advantages as before.

Hugo Boss has become known as an industry trend setter for its high quality men’s and women’s fashion apparel, shoes, and accessories. Product leadership, intimate knowledge of their market and customers, and operational excellence are what distinguish the company from others in the luxury fashion goods industry. From an operational perspective, the variability that exists as a result of designing and manufacturing short run fashion products is high. This perpetual shifting of demands and preferences makes it difficult to maintain accurate industry forecasts that result in high risk actions as manufacturing products with no guarantee of sale leading to large scale inventory systems.

The product itself is at the heart of brand equity and brand performance describes how well the product or service meets customers’ functional needs (Keller 2008, 64). Following is Moods’ brand performance measured by some attributes and benefits. Regarding primary ingredients and supplementary features, Moods is doing well with choosing fabric from partners in Paris and Istanbul, who provide the best materials for Moods’ collections based on the requirements of quality, color and even style of button. This leads to the good quality of final products, which help Moods sell them at medium-plus price range. In term of style and design, Moods’ products are unique and favorable in male clothing market because it reflects not only the moods of fun and happiness but also the style of cultural tales that Norwegians love. However, Moods still need to improve designs in female

The world has become fascinated towards the fashion. The first thing need to be considered is Fashion; it can be behavior, implementing new ideas on clothing’s, hairstyle, decorations and so on which are automatically linked to our day to day activities. In today’s context, fast fashion has become a trend to a fashion industry patterns yet delivered utilizing less costly materials to guarantee a low cost tag. Many companies have been successful and unsuccessful to earn a trust from their customer. For the matter of success level it depends on how innovativeness they are and also applies the principle of supply chain and logistic management activities for the growth of their