Operations Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Question: Discuss about the Operations Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Answer: Introduction In the modern business world, companies have largely taken to develop internal aspects and specifically focus on the concept of logistics. According to Christopher (2016), it is noted that a development in the micro and macro features have enabled firms to integrate advanced a more organized supply chain as well. Further, a heightening of knowledge levels has also allowed the management to diversify internalities and thereby give a rise to the topic of supply chain management. Also, the external factors seem to affect not only the logistics of a company but also its developmental processes (Stadtler 2015). In addition to serving the people in a outstanding manner, the organizations focus on enhancing revenue generation and stakeholder`s welfare as well. Among the various business sectors, there has been a noticeable development in the clothing and textile industry. Moreover, the rise of various others firms has significantly posed exiting organizations with a high level of rivalry. For this particular project, a case study of a one of the most reputed enterprise named Zara has been taken into consideration. In addition to attending toward success models, competitive advantage factors, a comparison with several companies like Myers, Dell and Ford Motors has also been included. Despite of being inaugurated in the early 1975, Zara successfully makes it to the list of leaders in recent times (Zara.com. 2016). Regarding the supply chain of the enterprise, the managers tend to greatly diversify the aspect into various different levels that help in developing business conditions. Furthermore, several similarities between the rival firms form the last part of the project. Zara, typically being a Spain based company which provides a high quality fashion products at a comparatively low cost price is one of the most reputed and rapidly expanding firms across the globe. As stated by Areias and Eiriz (2013), the brand climbed its profit by 30 per cent in the first half of the year with a greater amount of sales by 15 percent, where 70 per cent of its income comes from Europe. Also, the enterprise accepts the economic challenges in Spain and it's still is one of the most known brands in the world. Being a flagship company, Zara defines the success story of the Inditex Group. It is noted that the company uses its innovation and featuring new methods in business model which creates the value of the products. The speedy production and distribution along with trending concept and advertisements act as the major reasons of Zara leading and sustaining over its competitors (Farahani et al. 2014). Further, the brand serves trending fashion retail 12 times faster to their customers. It is noted that, a time span of 15 days restore is required by the management to restore their style in rack from design store with changing in their fashion style every two three weeks. Zara owns the control over the quality of the product. Moreover, the company wishes attracts the customers virtually by designing the garment in their own way (Burke 2013). Regarding the logistics, the managers giving a special look to their garments evolved and produced so that the quality product manufactured on constant way. According to Balaban, Mu and Divjak (2013), being a widely spread firm the firm spent their money higher on re-investing in company which are new technology, new store, production facility, labour and lower amount in advertising. On the basis of popularity Zara put a mark on costumers' mind because the cloths are mainly inspired by highly fashionable design and serve self-comfort to the customers. In the modern times, media gives a huge impact in fashion senses, people wants to be dressed like celebrities. It is noted that the reputed brand fulfils the costumers dream, and also produces high quality goods and services. The design and style of outfits are mainly based in high volume tradition (Rossi 2016). Additionally, the speed of Zara can get a sketch of a design to the stores in just a few days. The ability of the workers encourages the supply chain process is in support of Zara's strategy. Zara produced 11000 different styles per year. In the head of the season 15percent to 25 percent outfits are produced and up to 50 percent of the outfits are produced in the middle of the year. Zara's store keeper maintain a relation to the shoppers what to their desire things and also the shopkeeper looks at customers feedback (Zara.com. 2016). The brand with such a systematic channel is firmly maintaining its position in the market while competing with other big names with the same purpose. As per the case study, it is seen that there exist several factors that act as the backbone to Zaras sustainability in the fashion market. While integrating vertically with the quick and new production introduction in the market and variable extraordinary products puts Zara ahead of the curve. According to Seuring (2013), manufacturing products in a small lot with lower inventory storage increases the exclusiveness of its name. As opined by Millar (2015), a vertical supply chain while collecting the feedback data increases the buzz among the shoppers. The fast- fashion tag along with the brand defines the speed at which the products are designed and launched in the retailing stores time is the key factor it considers. The company is a well-defined example of technology and strategic relationship. The competition in the fashion markets changed in a lot of ways in the past few years. Zara established its name from a local Spanish garment shop to the most famous brand in the world. The company is leading the Fast Fashion trend with its vertical supply chain when compared to other companies with horizontal supply chain as Dell (Dell. 2016). The customer feedback is also comparatively better than that of the Australian departmental store Myer (Myer. 2016). The latest fashion trends and supplying it to the customers is much better than Ford Motors which lacks in the accommodation of the latest technologies. This makes the brand highly sustainable in the production and retailing market (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015). Zaras main objective is to achieve growth with reduced risk or volatility while handling its own supply chain. According to Areias and Eiriz (2013), within no time Zara adapts the design while supplying the retail clothes within two weeks of the first appearance on the ramps. In the words of Bozarth and Handfield (2016), the company emphasizes on its speed of production owning the tag of Fast Fashion. The fundamental reasons for success of this company are because of the flexible production. The factories reserve around 85 per cent of the total capacity for season adjustments. The company basically depends on the sources of highly sophisticated fabric with its cutting and stitching closer to the designing headquarters in Spain. As soon as a design arrives the designers starts the work as they are trained for their fast production to the retail stores when the trend is still strong (Seuring 2013). Furthermore, another reason that makes Zara a completely untouchable brand is their communication with their customers. As stated by Turker and Altuntas (2014), the regular feedback of the demand of the shoppers including their likes and dislikes are considered and the data received is funnelled to the designers. Zara also considers the demand of a particular design and keeps an extra stock in hand to meet up with the crisis. The company generally sends a small amount of products with regular shipments which makes a particular design exclusive attracting a large number of customers which creates shortage. On the other hand the other products are costing less. Zara earns almost 85 per cent of the price on its products which is comparatively 15 to 20 per cent more than the other brands. Zara being such a different brand understands the reason of not providing discounts so that it can use the money on other beneficial things. This is also a reason Zara can afford extra labours with ship ping costs to meet up with the changes in demand. In the words of Afolayan, White and Mason-Jones (2016), Zaras success also depends on its centralized logistics and coordinated decisions. Zara sends two orders per week on a particular day and time (Zara.com. 2016). The vehicles reach at a particular time. This shows the rhythm and the constant behaviour of the complete employee section. Zara also owns a strong distributing network which enables a quicker delivery to the European outlets in less than a day and to the other nations in less than 2 days. According to a case study, Zara can deliver a design idea to the stores as a garment in just 15 days whereas another industry requires a half year time. Staying in the trend is all that what a company like Zara wants and this makes it one of the most leading brands in the world (Farahani et al. 2014). Higher profit and exclusive feels with one of the best supply chain puts the company on the top. The brand owns a successful history of its own making it strong and untouchable day by day. On the other hand, Dell owns a very simple and fair supply chain which includes the company, the suppliers and the customers (MacCarthy e t al. 2016). According to Gelsomino et al. (2016), the customer places the demand and requirements accordingly the company orders the parts required from the suppliers. The commodity is constructed and hence is delivered. Dell owns a horizontal supply chain which is easier to control with minimum responsibilities. Whereas, Myer being one of the biggest retail store awards the customers with Myer reward cards which emphasizes in building a large number of customers. Myer almost distributed about 50 million cards all around (Myer. 2016). The team helps in improvement and development using the reward. Ford Motors, a prime company generating cars it lost its name due to late adaption of the new ideas. Ford Motors operates on the basis of higher economy on scale which enhances the cost proficiency including the assembly of the parts which makes it a bit slower when compared to the production of Zara. Despite of being inaugurated in the early periods, Zara successfully made it to the list of leaders st arting from a local Spanish Company in less than 30 years (Balaban, Mu and Divjak 2013). As opined by Rana et al. (2015), despite of acting as three individuals and performing in completely separate business sectors, there exist several similarities between them. In order to succeed in the continuously changing economy, the well known organizations tend to focus on developing capability levels. It is noted that a high degree do competence enable Zara, Dell, Myers and several other firms to perform in a significant manner. Moreover, regardless of maintaining a continuous rivalry with each other, the organizations focus on heightening revenue levels with a well organized logistic system. Concerning the Australian market, Zara is confronted with competition from brand like Ford, Topshop but still successfully maintain its position in the list of leaders. Further, with a fruitful communication system, Zara effectively responds to customer needs. Based on the case study, it is inferred that both Zara and Myers consider their clients as the most affecting stakeholder group (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015). The high level selectivity to customer taste and preferences is one of the most crucial aspects of the logistics system of the two firms. In the words of Bozarth and Handfield (2016), a free flow of information within the internal and external world enables the companies to perform in a well planned and organized manner as well. In addition to the different business factors, there also lies a similarity between market segmentation and break down process as well. On the other hand, Dell being a successful and large based organization also tends to listen, understand and provide the people with demand goods (Dell. 2016). Additionally, the three layers of Dell`s supply chain tends to be different from the functional operations of Zara. It is noted that like Zara, Dell also focuses on the aspect of supply chain management not only to develop brand awareness, consumer loyalty and an increased level of satisfaction, but also as a characteristics of competitive advantage (Mukerjee 2016). Elements like geographical location, service development and transparent communication form the most important feature of the different organizations. With a growth in the social, behavioural and psychographic features, the managers of Dell and Zara increasingly concentrate on the supply chain management system. As stated by Millar (2015), apart from serving the people with their products, characteristic like market study, creativity and designing form the crucial features as well. Furthermore, the demand pattern, supply sources and logistics also effectively grab attention of the brand managers. According to Garca-lvarez (2015), it is noted that the customer centric aspect also proves to be one of the most affecting factors of the firms. Apart from the basic and necessary functions, the supply chain also focuses on a delivery, relationship building and ultimate development policy. A growth of external opportunities has enabled a rise of several companies. In order to succeed in the coming days, Zara, Dell and Myers focus on their self developed success plan (Rossi 2013). The aspect of uniqueness, cost reduction and flexibility has enabled duplicity of the methodologies. Moreover, branding, production defect, supplying and every other possible aspect of supply chain management form part of the theory and also act as the backbone of innovation success strategies (Burke 2013). Regarding firms like Ford Motors, the implication and practice of extraordinary showcas es the incapability of several firms to integrate the supply chain processes. Conclusion Analyzing the several aspects of the project it can be inferred that Zara being a globally recognized firm forms is greatly dependent on its supply chain management and logistics for further business development. It is noted that the firm had evolved to be a worldwide brand over the years and hence tends to integrate advancing factors in the business framework. Comparing Zara with Myers, Dell and other firms it is seen that there exists a vast amount of difference between them. However, there also prevail a few similarities in aspects of success models. Also, despite of belonging form different business sections, the organizations often tend to prioritize benefit of their customers rather than just concentrate on revenue generation. Further, a relationship between the internal and external world helps in understanding the supply chain in a much better manner. Despite of several differences there exist several noticeable similarities between Zara, Dell and Myers. It is noted that three of the firms tend to follow a highly comparable successful model. Concerning the supply chain aspect of the enterprises, it is inferred that the enterprises perform in a continuously improving and determined way. Being in a continuous competition with each other, the firms tend to maintain an extraordinary line of improvising and system integration. Apart from internationalization, the companies seek to make a optimum uses of available resources and thereby build up competitive advantage factors. 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