The importance of an agility and response-based supply chain for the fashion industry in India

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: 64, Coventry University (Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing), course: Engineering Management, language: English, abstract: This work studies the traditional organisational structure of fashion industry in India. The aim is to understand the importance of the agility and response-based supply chain for the fashion industry. The author wants to determine what agility is and to find its role in achieving the balance between profit maximization and meeting the customer demand. The essence of an agile supply chain has been determined and various enabling factors such as flexibility, reduction in lead time and innovation have been identified by means of the analysis. Based on data collected from semi-structured interviews of different firms and organizations in India, it was determined that the awareness about agility and responsiveness is very low. Finally, a critical analysis of the application of current technologies in supply chain management was performed to understand the capabilities of current systems and their usefulness. Today's business environment is rapidly changing due to globalization, outsourcing, mass customization, new innovations in technologies and changes in customer preferences. A volatile market, short product life-cycle and the uncertain environment has made organisations look for better ways to do business. Firms are experiencing a need for better infrastructures to support their decision making due to the changing environment. Therefore, in order to compete in a marketplace with tremendous opportunities, it is necessary for firms to have an effective supply chain management.