The Research On Control Of Supply Chain About Realizing Optimal Inventory In Apparel Industry

Any industry in economical field needs to manage the inventory efficiently and effectively. The apparel manufacturers and the apparel retailers, no matter that they are big or small, are always facing the problem of inventory in the different level. Discount at the end of selling season is that avoiding the overplus inventory, while selling apparel product in anti-season way is that cleaning up the remained inventory. Sometimes the inventory is the root that causes an apparel company bankrupt. Why? Firstly, the inventory fix the invested financial. Secondly, apparel product is imperishable fashion product that means the decrease demand significantly at the end of selling season, i.e. its value is inverse rate with time.In order to reduce the inventory, the apparel industry has to take several methods: first, try to sell, namely, less volume of new product are first launched to the market to see the sale state, which break the link between supply and demand and impact seriously profit. Second, at the beginning of selling season, the price is as much more times as the cost which harm the benefit of consumes. Third, discount sale, viz. selling by cost or by under-cost, the loss is compensated by the earning at beginning of selling season. The big gap price between the start and the end ofselling season causes the consumer's abnormal consuming psychology. For example, they consider they are cheated, or they take the psychology of waiting and looking around. Forth, pouring the old stocking inventory at much lower price. Under the allurement of lower price, the consumer are impulse to buy such product at a moment so that the apparel rubbish are put to their wardrobe because the garment and the fabric has fashion characteristic, which is fact that the old inventory are transferred from company to consumer. Fifth, piling inventory in the warehouse, which causes large waste of resource of society. From above, we consider that it is significant in theory and in reality to research the issue of apparel inventory.This dissertation studies the inventory issue of apparel industry based on the foreign materials and some domestic practice. The main contain of the dissertation are as follows:First, the dissertation analyzes the cause of occurring inventory. The first cause is intensive competition because apparel product is soft goods, comprising lower science technology and dense handwork labor, resulting in the lower entry barrier of industry. Meanwhile, apparel product is fashion product that has high marginal profit. These inducements cause apparel companies established in succession that aggregates the competition in apparel industry. Furthermore, the globe economical is also the cause of intense competition. Under the situation apparelproducts become proliferation, changing quickly and short life period such that consumer has increasing taste, stringent and canny. So the uncertain of demand is increasing high.The second cause is hard to forecast. Because the new products must be launched every season and the selling season only last several months, there is not history selling data when forecasting, contrast to the traditional forecasting method, there is at least history selling data for one year. When product is proliferated, demand of product is assigned according to stock-keep units. The manufacturer and the retailer must forecast not only the total demand volume, but also the distribution by SKUs. The error forecast results in the overplus and out of stock.The third cause is long lead time. If the lead time was too short when producing apparel product, the error forecast would be corrected properly. However, the lead time is so long, even longer than the selling season, that forecast must be done at a long time before the beginning of selling season, which brings the uncertain forecast, high inventory and out of stock.Second, from the point of supply chain view we research the strategies of reducing lead time, such as how to reducing lead time to achieve performance of supply chain; how to share information between th...