BUS606: Operations and Supply Chain Management

Since the production of mechanical sewing machines in the 1850s, sewing apparel products has always been and remains a labour-intensive activity with small capital investment requirements, which allows the industry to spread widely especially in the low-wage areas. Although automation in cutting and sewing is seen in present time, the elimination of physical labour is not significant. Apparel processing is, therefore, manual type operations and consumes a lot of physical and time resource. From the SC point of view, apparel manufacturing is the continuation of the extensive textile processing which consists of a series of operations, including pattern, assortment, fabric handling, cutting, stitching, dry and wet processing, garment dyeing, finishing etc. Undeniably many parties involved in textile-apparel operations which might be from same apparel composite or independently specialize bodies like dry or wet processing companies. There are many sideline actors like chemical and dyestuffs suppliers, accessories suppliers, embellishment service providers, quality testing services etc. play a very important role in apparel manufacturing.  Apparel manufacturers play an important role as they are considered as first tier supplier. Buyers often have direct communication with this tier and apparel producers' deal with the rest, e.g. second and third tier. It is not uncommon that an apparel producer sources the raw materials, components and others on behalf of buyers and as per their requirements.

Retailers or distributors are often closely integrated with the apparel manufacturer; even some of them are vertically integrated. For example, Christopher alludes that Zara uses its own highly automated factories and a network of smaller contractors for quick response. However, Christerson and Appelbaum argue that apparel production is vertically disintegrated, transactions-intensive, and involves extremely volatile demand conditions and highly specialized niche markets. They observe that it operates through subcontracting networks where the cut fabrics, along with buttons, zippers, or other components, are delivered to an independent sewing contractor. However, after the extensive effect of globalization, such segregating activities are not so common. Although the principal players are often retailers and apparel companies, each member of the textile-apparel chain has its valuable contribution, as Chandra and Kumar mention that each member of the textile SC possesses specialized knowledge about the textile business. They add that the collaboration is mutual as the apparel maker acts as a consumer of fabric, while dealing with a textile manufacturer (a provider of fabric). The long supply pipeline makes the lead time of the textile-apparel SC relatively long and uncertain in response to the volatile characteristics of fashion markets. For this reason the growth of cooperation between the actors in the SC is important for the sake of quick response in order to meet demand of the present market.