Not quite a seamless supply chain

Citation

Jones, R.M. (2002), "Not quite a seamless supply chain", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 6 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmm.2002.28406daa.001

Not quite a seamless supply chain

Keywords: Supply chain, Clothing industry

The virtues of the seamless supply chain have received great attention in the literature and stock levels have been recognised as one of the basic indicators of progress in developing waste free supply chains. As Handfield and Nichols (1999, p. 9), put it in a:

… well-managed integrated supply chain the amount of inventory held throughout the chain increases ….

Jones (1997) showed that the behaviour of stock in the clothing industry was both unusual and inefficient when compared with the average for all manufacturing, in that stock levels in the industry were high and were rising when stocks in industry generally were falling (1963-1991). In addition, the goods for sale component of total stock was high relative to the average and had risen by 50 per cent over the 30 year period. I felt it would be interesting to update the analysis to 1997, to see if any progress has been made in the clothing sector. As was pointed out in the &#34"Editorial&#34" in Vol. 6 No. 3, high stock levels might also be taken as an indication of the difficulty of making accurate forecasts of demand in increasingly unpredictable markets.

Table I. Stock data (£ million)

Table II. Stock changes 1993-1997 (percentages)

Table III. Total stock as percentage of gross output

The basic data are contained in Table I. The initial impression gained from Table II is not promising, in that stocks have risen dramatically in the clothing sector. Table III shows total stocks as a proportion of gross output and again, the figures for clothing are both higher than the average and rising whereas the average figure continues to fall.

Table IV. Components of stock as percentage of total stock

Table V. Stock components as percentage of gross output

Table IV indicates the relative size of components of total stock. In the clothing sector, as was the case in the earlier period, work in progress (WIP) represents a smaller proportion of total stock than the average but goods for sale represent a much higher proportion of the total. The disproportionately high goods for sale total is, finally, again reflected in Table V which shows each component of stock as a proportion of gross output.

There is, therefore, little evidence in the stock data of any significant progress towards the evolution of seamless supply chains in the clothing sector. If a rising goods for sale total is taken as indicative that stocks are being held for the next link in the supply chain the figures would indicate a poor and deteriorating relationship at this point in the chain rather than an improving one. The situation in the textile sector (Table III) seems stable if not particularly efficient (Table II) although the rise in the goods for sale figure (Table III) is below average and might be taken to indicate a relatively more efficient situation at that point in the supply chain. However, taking the chain as a whole (and in the absence of data for retailing which is not covered by the data source) it seems clear that on the basis of this particular measure of supply chain efficiency there is a long way to go before fine words can be seen to have been translated into improved performance on the ground.

Richard M. JonesManchester Metropolitan University, Old Hall Lane, Manchester, UK

ReferencesHandfield, R.B. and Nichols, E.L. (1999), Introduction to Supply Chain Management, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.Jones, R.M. (1997), &#34"Stock changes in UK manufacturing with particular reference to the clothing sector&#34", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 207-15.