Supply chain management in fashion and textile industry

Abstract

In fashion and textile business, the demand changes rapidly due to fashion trends and a volatile market situation. This demand is unpredictable and could vary and change completely in a short time, creating high difficulties for supply chain. To create a leagil (lean and agile) supply chain is one observed way for a fashion and textile retailing company to optimise its performance and to remain competitive. One good example from such is fashion retailer Zara, which has adopted leagile approach and combined this with key success factors for fashion retailing. However, in this paper, we argue that the leagile approach is not a universal solution in the fashion and textile business. For some fashion and textile companies, the lean approach is more adequate. Case study findings and simulation results reveal that the lean and leagile approach could coexist as different strategy alternatives – simulation results favour leagile strategy, while five year profitability analysis shows lean apparel retailer H&M to have higher profitability than Zara.