Case Study World Co’s Supply Chain Management Essay Example
Case Study World Co’s Supply Chain Management Essay Example

Case Study World Co’s Supply Chain Management Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (776 words)
  • Published: March 18, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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1.Compare Worldco’s supply chain practices to those of most apparel manufacturers? Apparel in japan was more of based upon uncertain demand and short lifecycles.The major difference s between apparel retailing in the US and Japan was that of product variety and cost of real estate.Apparel retailing in japan mainly focused on keeping the gross margins high,inventory turns flexible(Small batch lots/required based) and quickly responding to market signals.The Gross margins in Us on an avg is 34% where as in japan it is 42%,Inventory turns in US is 2.6% where as in japan it is 6.3%.

Returns of equity(ROE) in US is just 2.5% where as in japan it is 50%.A strong ROE is a solid signal that managers are doing a good job of generating returns from shareholders investments.ROE is certainly a hint that management is giving shareholders more for their money.Markdownsie %of sales

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(reduction in price to improve sales) in US is 32 where as in japan it is just 11.The apparel retailing in japan succeded because it could anticipate uncertainity due to excellent forecasting which was lacking in US retailing stores.

The corporate offices are in direct contact with the factories.merchantdisers inform factory workers of potential production problems and pattern specifiactions. Also if the factory encounters majot issues they can relay this information back to merchantdisers quickly.so we can see from this point that the supply chain practices at the World Co. Ltd were more organized and systematic as compared to the other apperalmanfuctureres.also the primary concern was Delivery schedules,Production lots and quality control standards which was best done by the World co ltd.The firm’s overall ability to adapt to Japanese fashion retail characteristics has

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allowed it to achieve a turnover of 5(US is 2.6) and lead times averaging only 2 weeks(US is 6 months).

2.Compare apparel retailing in japan to that in the US? Japan Quality association mandated Standard size,labeling and specification for all clothing manufactured for sale in japan.Since Japan is a close society with homogenous less population and less variation in the climate ,there is less size variety in japan as compared to united states.The scenario is different in united states as the population is vast and there are people from different countries residing in united states so there is huge variety in size.Japan retail stores display less inventory as compared to united states while the retail stores in united states display around 9 to 10 units of a particular product.

Many American retailers maintained excess merchandise inventory on the sales like best buy,GAP,staples,officedepot,Radioshack,Burlington coat factory etc on the sales floor to create the impression that they were the place to go to purchase that product.While japan apparel companies instead tried to impart a sense that the customer was purchasing “one of a kind” garment.The lower inventory levels,means frequent restocking by sales staff,reinforced the idea that the customer was purchasing a unique item.This was the main strategy of the japan apparel companies.

3.What do you think of world co. forecasting/production planning process?is there any way to improve on it?will it work in US? Yes it will work in US provided the firm has sufficient resources and it has a competent online inventory management system also the expertise of the employees hired by the firm would play a crucial role. 4.World co. supply chain performance seems great-give me some examples?So how

is their overall financial performance ?if you think it is very good tell me what makes it so good?if you think it is not good tell me what drags it down ? The supply chain management at World co. was based on sparcs system ieSuper,Production,Apparel,Retail,consumer satisfaction.

To speed response in the supply chain.The corporate offices are in direct contact with the factories merchandisers inform factory workers of potential production problems and pattern specifiactions,this implies that the company had aadvanced and excellent communication techniques which help them to give break through performance also the incentives offered to the employees in the form of promotions encourage them to perform better and motivated them to work harder in their given project.

Also looking at the overall financial performance we can say that the company had exceled in reducing lead times,careful tracking and proper management of cash flows.Base on the financial statement we can conclude that The Gross margins of World co. is 42%,Inventory turns in world co. it is 6.3%.Returns of equity(ROE) in world co. it is 50% which are good figures according to us as compared to other apparel retalairs.

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