Zara : Fast Fashion (case study)
Click here for the Zara case study (pdf).
On my holiday in the north of Spain, which happened to be pretty close to the scene of crime, I couldn’t resist reading this article about Zara. A clothing company in the fashion industry – very succesful qua revenue and Net Income. How are they doing this – while competitors falter?
As an IT specialist and TOC practitioner, this is article – a case study actually – was a must read. Implementing IT (ERP) systems for many, many years, convinced me that IT means much more than just hardware and software. The real challenge of implementing IT systems is: How to make them beneficial for the company.
It’s about using technology – yes – but even more it’s about people and (business) procedures
- using the data to learn what customers really want
- Anticipating, reacting, rather than forecasting.
- Thinking small, fast and short
- accepting possibly higher costs, as opposed to large, slow and long, with – at least forecasted – lower costs.
Which results in making more profit. Because there is less inventory, less risk of betting on the wrong trend or forced sell-outs. And not to forget a much faster and adequate response to customer demand.
The Zara case-study demonstrates everything Faect believes in – IT can give you an competitive advantage.
Click here for the Zara case study (pdf).
Eric Slond is Functional consultant and co-founder of Faect BV. Our toolbox for Supply Chain challenges is the latest addition to the Faect Portfolio : Soft4Inventory.
