Inditex: Scm Strategy
I. The textile industry
Inditex is a textile group, which owns the famous brand Zara. It has published its last figures testifying of its growing share value on the market. The group is leader in the European textile market and owns more than 4000 stores around the world and generates more than 85 000 jobs. Its headquarters are located in Arteixo in the North of Spain where most of the production is done. The group owns 8 brands: Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterque. For each of these brands the group designs and produces most of the collections, and the clothes are shipped twice a week in the stores. One of the key factors of success of Zara is its adaptability to the market. Indeed the strategy developed by its creator Amancio Ortega wants the shelves to be renewed once every two weeks, that is why controlling the supply chain is very important for the group.
1. The unique context and characteristics of textile industry
Textile industry is highly competitive. Competition has hardened with globalisation trend. Thus, outsourcing became recurrent question in the eighties especially when it came to cost management issues.
In addition to that, fashion industry has to come up with solutions regarding its own characteristics: oscillating and erratic demand, complex forecast process, fluctuating customer's expectations, short lifecycle of items, complexity to manage portfolio. These are not impossible to handle, but fashion industry has to manage its own issues and monitor a flexible structure to be efficient, profitable and be able to respond to customers demand in a very short time. Indeed what matters when it comes to supply chain management is to use all resources to satisfy customers' demand: delivering in quantity, matching quality standards required by customers, reducing lead time between batches in stores, offering a reasonable price. Still the fashion industry is not different from others in a sense
Inditex is a textile group, which owns the famous brand Zara. It has published its last figures testifying of its growing share value on the market. The group is leader in the European textile market and owns more than 4000 stores around the world and generates more than 85 000 jobs. Its headquarters are located in Arteixo in the North of Spain where most of the production is done. The group owns 8 brands: Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterque. For each of these brands the group designs and produces most of the collections, and the clothes are shipped twice a week in the stores. One of the key factors of success of Zara is its adaptability to the market. Indeed the strategy developed by its creator Amancio Ortega wants the shelves to be renewed once every two weeks, that is why controlling the supply chain is very important for the group.
1. The unique context and characteristics of textile industry
Textile industry is highly competitive. Competition has hardened with globalisation trend. Thus, outsourcing became recurrent question in the eighties especially when it came to cost management issues.
In addition to that, fashion industry has to come up with solutions regarding its own characteristics: oscillating and erratic demand, complex forecast process, fluctuating customer's expectations, short lifecycle of items, complexity to manage portfolio. These are not impossible to handle, but fashion industry has to manage its own issues and monitor a flexible structure to be efficient, profitable and be able to respond to customers demand in a very short time. Indeed what matters when it comes to supply chain management is to use all resources to satisfy customers' demand: delivering in quantity, matching quality standards required by customers, reducing lead time between batches in stores, offering a reasonable price. Still the fashion industry is not different from others in a sense