Abstract
Fashion industries are highly globalized as designing, manufacturing and selling are performed in different countries. As a result, it has a long supply chain and long lead time. Identification of value-added time through-out the supply chain is a key research area in apparel industries. This case study investigated detailed activities of thirty contracts of an apparel supply chain by considering the manufacturer as a coupling point of upstream (suppliers) and downstream (buyer). The contract frequencies were analyzed based on lead time and quantity. Each contract was analyzed using a time-based process mapping (TBPM). TBPMs of all contracts showed that overall 45% were non-value-added activities throughout the chain. It was also identified that the non-value activities were independent of the contract volume. This study recommends time compression methodology to reduce the non-value-added activities by using advanced manufacturing technologies. The methodology and recommended time compression ways of this study can be applied to other supply chains.
Highlights
The clothing sector is requiring frequent and trendy product changes in stores, quick response to trendy product development according to customer preferences (Martínez et al, 2015)
The non-value-added items were identified in the supply chain and the lead time was reduced by eliminating the non-value-added items
A short supply chain is recommended for the apparel industry under investigation as the fashion market is volatile and fashion product lifecycle is short
Summary
The clothing sector is requiring frequent and trendy product changes in stores, quick response to trendy product development according to customer preferences (Martínez et al, 2015). Contrary, these fashion industries are highly globalized as its operations throughout the supply chain from design to manufacturing, and selling are performed in different countries (Čiarnienė and Vienažindienė, 2014). Fashion markets typically show short life-cycles, high volatility, low predictability and high instinct purchasing (Christopher and Towill, 2002) Because of such characteristics, forecasting accuracy is extremely difficult. Two methodologies can be applied to implement Mass customization: i) Processes customization and ii) Advanced manufacturing technologies which include communication and network (Da Silveira et al, 2001)
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