Supply Chain Management

AMIDA PIERRE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ZARA : 1 Having a very responsive supply chain allow ZARA's product to match customer preferences much more closely than the competition , with affordable prices , but it also allow ZARA to reduce the design cycle times of six months to four to six weeks which allow them to introduce new designs every weeks so in a certain way they are more flexible than the competition . 2 Inditex made the choice of in-house and out sourced manufacturing because Zara manufactures its apparel using a combination of flexible and quick sources in Europe and low cost sources in Asia . Because products with highly uncertain demand are sourced out of europe , whereas products that are more predictable are sourced from its asian locations . 3 4 From replenishing its stores multiple times a week ZARA reduce inventories and forecast error Inditex distributed to stores all over the world , the frequency of replenishment "oblige" ZARA to ship several times a week from its Distribution Center to match customer demand . 24 hours for Europe and 40 hours for America and Asia . 5 ZARA need a huge IT infrastructure TOYOTA : 1 TOYOTA plants should be located in every market it serves . Toyota decide what the production capability of each of the factory will be . TOYOTA need a high degree of flexibility to be able to export to markets that remain strong when the local market weakens . 2 Each plant is capable supplying every market so TOYOTA's plants should be able to produce for all markets and not only specific contingency market . AMAZON: 1 AMAZON need to have a lot of warehouse and they should be located close to AMAZON's biggest customer area but also close to the farest customer location to be able to meet the deadlines and deliver everywhere . 2 AMAZON use book purchased from a distributor in response to customer orders whereas the traditional bookstore purchases directly from publishers and stocks books in anticipation of customer orders . 3 AMAZON stocks many...