๐๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ I๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ก๐๐ข๐ง ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ฒ
A Spanish clothing retailer, Zara, can bring new products to market in three or four weeks by holding materials in undyed form and regularly feeding information about market demand back to its suppliers. This allows it to react quickly to changing demand patterns. When it figures out which items are the most popular, it applies the right colour and pattern to the garment and ships them to stores. Retailers that source entirely from faraway low-cost countries have to issue firm orders long in advance due to the long shipping lead times, so Zara sources from locations closer to its stores.
No matter where you are in the value chain, you will be more powerful if you know how the end-customer really feels about the product. This principle is so important that it reverberates through the supply chain. The final link in the supply chain is the customer, so establishing a feedback loop completes the chain.
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- Continuous market feedback
- Concurrent product development
- Rapid and early prototyping
- Product life-cycle management (PLM)
- Early supplier involvement
- Forward branding
- Designing for the supply chain