Clothing industry: Main challenges in the supply chain management of value brand retailers

Abstract

The clothing sector is currently characterized by frequent assortment rotation in stores, a quick response product development and a focus on minimizing end-of-campaign stock levels. This paper is based on the literature review and a case study carried out at a value brand retailer, with a purpose to identify the main challenges that value brand retailers deal in the supply chain management and how they could reconfigure their internal and external supply chain in order to can stay competitive in a market requiring more responsiveness. The research shows that the garment's categorization, the development of a global purchasing strategy and a global and local supplier network, the introduction of mini-collections, the implementation of concurrent engineering and the redesign business processes and the supply chain leads to a sales increase and purchasing savings.