RMT Assignment: N I F T, H - K
RMT Assignment: N I F T, H - K
RMT Assignment: N I F T, H - K
RMT ASSIGNMENT
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ABOUT ZARA Zara is part of the Inditex Group of Spanish fashion retailers. Inditex, one of the worlds largest fashion distributors, it has more than 4,780 stores in 77 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. ZARA is the flagship chain store of Inditex Group owned by Spanish tycoon Amancio Ortega. Head Quarters in Coruna, Spain, where the first ZARA store opened in 1975.In the 1980s Zara pioneered the concept of what is now considered "fast fashion. Their product portfolio is comprises with men, women and kids(ZARA KIDS)clothes, shoes, cosmetics and accessories.
Vertically integrated supply chain where design, production, distribution, and retailing were integrated. The vertical integration of ZARAs production system allows them to place a garment in any store around the world in a period between two to three weeks. Vertically Integrated Supply Chain
FACTOR IN THE PROFITABILITY FORMULABuy low, sell high; Buy on credit, sell on cash. Zara, which contributes around 65 per cent of group sales , concentrates on three winning formulae to bake its fresh fashion:
Short Lead Time = More fashionable Lower quantities = Scarce supply More styles = More choice, and more chances of hitting.
In Spain, 200 fashion designers are in charge of new designs for the clothing line. They select the most cost effective fabric for the new designs. Designs will be made into models when sent to the factory. The computer then decide how to shear fabrics in order to waste as little as possible. Fabric will be sent to the factories.
After the sewing process, products will be sent back to the factory for button nailing, ironing and inspection. Up to tens of kilometers of underground
transmission channel connects all the processors. Label trademarks for different countries.
INVENTORYStores place orders twice per week and the supply of finished goods is matched to store demand.
Production is then increased or decreased in the flexible production facilities. Demand based production means there is very little inventory in Zaras supply chain, which results in much lower working capital requirements.
ZARA buys its raw materials from Italy, Spain, and Greece. Reason is final product can be push to the final selling point quickly. suppliers have agreed to supply material within 5 days to ZARAs facility in spain. due to this most of the inbound logistics are road haulage.(mainly trucks).
PRICING
As production is carried out in Spain where average wages are higher than low cost Asian countries so factory wage costs will be higher than competitors, which will affect margins.
DELIVERY
Deliveries typically arrive one to two days after ordering with most deliveries arriving by truck from the Spanish factories. Clothes are then put straight onto the sales floor and are available to purchase.
STRENGTHS
It produces about 11,000 distinct items annually compared with 2,000 to 4,000 items for its key competitors. The company can design a new product and have finished goods in its stores in four to five weeks; it can modify existing items in as little as two weeks. Shortening the product life cycle means greater success in meeting consumer preferences.
An average high-street store in Spain expects customers to visit three times a year. That goes up to 17times for Zara. 50% of the products Zara sells are manufactured in Spain, 26% in the rest of Europe, and 24% in Asian and African countries and the rest of the world.
CONCLUSION
Zaras updates after the case study and identify several important updates to its SC which includes a more accurate way of managing its inventories, an addition to its sales channel and improvements to retailers work process. However, it is noted that Zara still experiences several SC challenges. These include key issues such as the limitation of its companywide interconnectivity, obsolescence and restriction of the technologies currently used and lastly, the need to maintain its leadership in the industry with online expansion.
Based on the challenges discussed above, we have came up with three different recommendations to tackle the issues at hand. They are establishing mobile enterprise applications, upgrading of POS terminals and further improvements on its e-commerce. However, each of these recommendations has its benefits, disadvantages and associated risks. Zara will need to carefully evaluate these recommendations and mitigate possible risks before implementing them. All in all, we believe that through the implementation of more advanced technologies, whilst having proper management of possible risks, Zara will be able to further enhance their operations and remain as a dominant player in the fast fashion industry.