Zara–Rapid Fire Fulfillment
Name
Institutional Affiliation
ZARA–RAPID FIRE FULFILLMENT 2
Zara–Rapid Fire Fulfillment
Zara is a fast fashion apparel retailer based in Galicia, Spain. The founder of the
chains of retail shops is Amancio Ortega who started up the first Zara shop after a wholesaler
had canceled on an order which he had invested heavily on (Bonnin, 2002). Today, the retail
chain has grown to a global brand which boasts of over 2000 stores in more than 85
countries. The growth of Zara as an international brand is hugely credited to its super
responsive supply chain that ensures fast delivery of products and information.
The success of Zara’s supply chain
Zara has heavily invested in its supply chain. While other clothing companies
outsource their raw materials such as fabric, Zara gets its resources from its factories or
manufacturers affiliated to its parent company, Inditex (Ferdows, Lewis, & Machuca, 2004).
Also, the company manages the distribution and sale of its products through retail shops that
are wholly owned by the firm. Finally, the brand also invests a lot in holding space for its
products which ensures that its products are not put together in bales due to limited space but
are shipped in hangers making it easy for stores to stock the product as soon as they arrive
(Ferdows, Lewis, & Machuca, 2004). These strategies by the company function to ensure that
the firm has complete control of all the processes involving their clothes from design,
production, distribution, to the moment the final consumers buys them. By dealing directly
with the ultimate users of their products, the company can obtain vital information of the
trends, fabric and color variation that the consumers want and hence easily change the clothes
to the customers’ satisfaction. The control of all processes also ensures that there is flexibility
and that delays that come with unreliable suppliers or business partners are eliminated in the
supply chain (Ozlen & Handukic, 2013). These simple steps taken by the company ensure
that its supply chain is successful in delivering products to customers and information to the
firm.
ZARA–RAPID FIRE FULFILLMENT 3
Advantages of Zara’s responsive supply chain
From its super responsive supply chain, Zara accrues a lot of benefits not enjoyed by
its competitors. Through the supply chain, the company can produce and stock goods in small
batches. This system ensures that the company products are in demand as they are in limited
supply. Two, the company supply chain can communicate the needs of the customers directly
to the designers as it is in direct contact with both the producers and the consumers (Nueno &
Ghemawat, 2003). This interaction enables Zara to produce designs and clothes variation as
per the wishes of the customer making their stores to have a wide variety of apparel for their
clients. Also, Zara is able to stock as many as 10,000 new designs annually in their stores as
the open communication channel ensures that the designers are in sync with the needs of the
consumer (Ferdows, Lewis, & Machuca, 2004). Finally, the responsive supply chain
minimizes the delays that come with relying on outside partners to conduct some of the
processes. Hence, new designs can be formulated, manufactured, and availed to the customer
within 14 days.
Advantages of Replenishing Stores on a frequent basis
While other apparel companies rely on economies of scale to stock……
