Apparel supply chain

Optimizing decision making in the apparel supply chain using artificial intelligence (AI) From production to retail... 

Lam, Jimmy K.C., Postle, R., 2006. Textile and apparel supply chain management in Hong Kong. International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology 18 (4), 265—277. 

There are a number of ways to define CLR practices in the apparel industry. This section describes three recycling apparel textile waste (pre- or post-consumer) in order for it to re-enter the apparel supply chain cradle-to-cradle (C2C) streams of biological and technical materials and reuse of existing garments. 

Zara is a multibiUion dollar Spanish company with stores all over the world. Zara owns large sections of the apparel supply chain and manages the entire chain to speed up innovation and product availability. One secret to Zara s success is the constant flow of customer requests and information from stores to the design studios. In turn, Zara generates a constant flow of product from plants to stores, even at the expense of retiring products for which there is demand. 

How do apparel supply chains compete One approach is to compete on cost, an approach used by Walmart and other department stores. This strategy focuses on developing a cost-efficient supply chain that may require global sourcing with low costs but long lead times. Such supply chains then require large buffer stocks to compensate for demand uncertainty or a focus on predictable demand for basic products with low demand uncertainty But there are many other dimensions of competition in the apparel industry. 

Given the processes used by buyers in practice, improving the apparel supply chain requires a healthy combination of statistical processes and buyer judgment. The approaches outlined in this chapter provide such a scheme. 

This shows that improving lead times and enabling decisions under a lower demand forecast error may require coordination agreements between members of the apparel supply chain. Once such coordination agreements are estabhshed, the access to manufacturing capacity closer to demand enables improved competitiveness of the apparel supply chain. Notice that all four Cs played a role in improving the supply chain. 

To identify the hot spots of environmental and social impacts within the supply chain implicitly requires extensive knowledge about the chain, a chain that in most cases extends across many national borders and involves a multitude of actors and connections between those actors. One of the common characteristics of a modem apparel supply chain is the lack transparency between each stage these supply chains are opaque systems where the ability to trace materials from one end of the chain to the other is complex and difficult to achieve. 

Media The apparel industry is under increasing scrutiny from the media, partly as a result of recent disasters in the apparel supply chain. This focus is often linked to NGO campaigns. 

Much of the focus regarding social standards is aimed at garment-making factories however, there is a growing acceptance that there are major social issues within other parts of the apparel supply chain. For example, forced child labor in cotton fields in Uzbekistan, bonded female labor in spinning mills in Southern India (sumangli), and worker safety problems in dyehouses and tanneries. 

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