Apparel Supply Chain Optimization Focusing on Right Supplier Selection (Published)
To remain competitive in the apparel manufacturing industry, the factory must have to optimize the supply chain. Hence, there is no alternative way to select the suppliers scientifically to minimize the delivery time for the best quality materials. The apparel manufacturing organization has been suffering from delivery issues due to the unavailability of materials in a timely manner. In this paper, the analysis has been focused on the selection criteria of the suppliers to find the right one to place the material’s orders to get it on time and optimize the supply chain in the apparel manufacturing industry. Furthermore, it has been seen the delayed delivery status of the conventionally selected suppliers in the disaster situation. Meanwhile, the results have been found after the placement of the orders to the right suppliers in real-time to get the best outcome. 20% efficiency has been intensified because of the timely inhoused of the materials, which helps to reduce the productivity gap and the smooth supply chain can be maintained due to the right supplier’s selection by the analysis through cost ratio analysis method and dimensional analysis method. Moreover, the vicious cycle of the traditional supplier’s selection has been debated to understand why the conventional selection strategy is not fruitful for the apparel industry. However, the profit-loss analysis has shown the consequences of the erroneous supplier’s assortment. Additionally, there are some notable improvements: 1) After placing orders to the appropriate suppliers, the benefit-to-cost ratio increased by 50%. 2), The delay in delivery of the raw materials has been increased from 60% to 94%.
Keywords: Quality, apparel supply chain, cost minimizing, higher efficiency., on-time delivery