Managing Uncertainties in Textile Supply Chains

Abstract

The uncertainty that arises in textile supply chains may be attributed to several causes. These may be due to the uncertainty in demand caused by changing product variety, rate of new product innovation, lead-time from design to production, etc., or due to uncertainty in supply caused by the failure of the firms to deliver the products or raw materials to the final consumers or intermediate manufacturers, delayed delivery of critical materials, frequency of changing suppliers of critical materials etc.. There is also an uncertainty in manufacturing caused by degree of interaction among components, process yield stability, manufacturing lead time, etc. This study analyzes the impact of uncertainty at different points in the textile supply chain, and tries to identify the weak points in the supply chain. The design adopted for the study is descriptive in nature, involving primary data collection from a sample of textile units in Bangalore city. The data was collected by interviewing the different textile units about their supply chain practices, the constraints they face in terms of uncertainty, and strategies adopted by them to resolve those. The paper suggests appropriate strategies and solutions to manage the uncertainty that occurs in textile supply chains at various nodes and due to varied reasons.