Response to Maggie Huang’s blog: Shorter Supply Chain Leads to Higher Profit
Nov 18th, 2012 by yinyinaung.bettyhuang
From: http://cmuscm.blogspot.ca/2012/09/fashion-forward-zaras-supply-chain.html
Businesses are increasingly outsourcing distribution and transportation to other organization that can provide such services cost effectively (Hoang, pg 586).
However, unlike others, Zara builds its factory in Europe to reduce the process and timing of logistic. I agree with Maggie that Zara is able to “cut the shipping time and can provide new apparels faster than any other firms. ” In addition, I would like to add that Zara may be able to control/influence the factory more easily if it were built closer to Spain. Stock and quality control may be easier than if the factory was set up in China due to better communication, which could reduce time lags and potential conflicts. This may also be the reason to Zara’s way of minimizing the chances of delaying the delivery of products to the end customers.
To avoid conflicts, Zara may need to share information and collaborate with its outsourcing partners often. This would require them to build trust among each others.
Maggie Huang’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/maggiehuang/2012/11/04/shorter-supply-chain-leads-to-higher-profit/