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Zara's supply chain: Case Study

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Zara's supply chain: Case Study
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how to develop a competitive supply chain in order to response to the speed of the customer changes in clothing industry.
Literatures review – The key success factors of the clothing industry are explained. Also the supply chain concepts related to the industry are developed (Agility, Quick Response and Lean)
Analysis of Zara’s supply chain – The supply chain network of the company is analysed and each stage of the network is developed in details to see how the supply concepts are applied or not by the leader of the clothing industry (Zara)
Future developments – The company needs to focus on e-commerce development by taking advantage of its agile supply chain. Furthermore, Zara could set up a reverse logistics to develop a sustainable business.
Conclusion – Three key points are relevant in this industry: the location of production facilities has to be the closest as possible to consumers (1). The use of concurrent engineering ease to develop products quickly (2). Finally, the ownership of the stores is a competitive advantage to understand the needs of customers.
Limits – The use of Zara’s supply chain model is not applicable for international development.

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1 - Introduction
“One day it’s in and the next day it’s out” (H. Klum). Customer demand changes in fashion clothing industry are quick and unpredictable. The summer/winter collections ' times is ended, to give way to a perpetual series renewing of collections. Each time a customer come in a store, he wants to discover new products. The strategy sounds good and simple at a marketing point of view but that is a tricky challenge for supply chain managers. They need to reduce lead time, be innovative and responsive with a high variety of products to manage.
How do companies have to organize its supply chain in order to be responsive to changes rapidly while remaining competitive in price?
The aim of this essay
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