Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues, Second edition - Pr School

30 Fashion Marketing
economy (DTI, 1998; 2003; 2005). Related to productivity was the growth of
interest in quality, productivity and competitive position (Deming, 1986).
Supply chains as operations management
Continuing the theme of productivity has been the focus of much of the supply
chain literature found in operations management. Much has been written
on the efficiency of operations and the associated lowering of inventories that
can be better managed if operational improvements are made.
Focus on inventories: peaks and troughs
In the 1960s a precursor to the supply chain literature that would later concern
itself with the effect of demand was the work of Jay Forrester examining the
impact of demand amplification at stages in the supply chain and the impact
this could have upon inventories (Forrester, 1961). Industrial management
and purchasing and production management had a clear focus on inventory
management. For most manufacturing organizations inventories represented
a significant proportion of their Balance Sheet value (50–60 per cent or more).
Thus organizations that could reduce their inventory-holding cost could
improve their competitiveness (Jones and Riley, 1985). It has been demonstrated
(Wikner et al., 1991) that improvements to the supply chain dynamics
can be achieved by:
‘fine tuning’ the existing ordering policy parameters;
reducing system delays;
removal of the distribution echelon;
changing the individual echelon decision rules;
better use of information flow throughout the supply chain.
Complexity may be a function of product variation, non-standard production,
increased system delays, number of linkages in the supply chain, complicated
decision rules or simply changing decision rules, that is different sets of decision
rules, and poor use of information for whatever reasons (e.g. timeliness,
poor integration and communication). Furthermore, interactions between any
of the actors in the supply chain may higher or lower complexity.
Volume volatility adds to the complexity within supply chain systems. In
commodity markets where standard goods are exchanged this is less of a
problem because demand is easier to predict. Where volume volatility is most
prominent in markets where fashion is a key element of demand. Customers
in these markets demand non-standard goods often in smaller volumes than
would be the case for standardized products. For example, it is easier to predict
demand for tins of baked beans than for a particular style of dress with
associated colour and size variations adding to the volatility of volumes. Thus
in mass markets with limited variety of offer to the customer the dynamics of
supply chain systems may be easier to predict (Hines, 2004).