Case Study World Co's Supply Chain Management

ASSIGNMENT 1

1. Compare Worldco's supply chain practices to those of most apparel manufacturers?

Apparel in japan was more of based upon uncertain demand and short lifecycles.The major difference s between apparel retailing in the US and Japan was that of product variety and cost of real estate.Apparel retailing in japan mainly focused on keeping the gross margins high,inventory turns flexible(Small batch lots/required based) and quickly responding to market signals.The Gross margins in Us on an avg is 34% where as in japan it is 42%,Inventory turns in US is 2.6% where as in japan it is 6.3%.Returns of equity(ROE) in US is just 2.5% where as in japan it is 50%.A strong ROE is a solid signal that managers are doing a good job of generating returns from shareholders investments.ROE is certainly a hint that management is giving shareholders more for their money.Markdownsie %of sales (reduction in price to improve sales) in US is 32 where as in japan it is just 11.The apparel retailing in japan succeded because it could anticipate uncertainity due to excellent forecasting which was lacking in US retailing stores.The corporate offices are in direct contact with the factories.merchantdisers inform factory workers of potential production problems and pattern specifiactions. Also if the factory encounters majot issues they can relay this information back to merchantdisers quickly.so we can see from this point that the supply chain practices at the World Co. Ltd were more organized and systematic as compared to the other apperalmanfuctureres.also the primary concern was Delivery schedules,Production lots and quality control standards which was best done by the World co ltd.The firm's overall ability to adapt to Japanese fashion retail characteristics has allowed it to achieve a turnover of 5(US is 2.6) and lead times averaging only 2 weeks(US is 6 months).

2. Compare apparel retailing in japan to that in the US?

Japan Quality association mandated Standard size,labeling and specification for all clothing manufactured for sale in japan.Since Japan is a close society with homogenous less population and less variation in the climate ,there is less size variety in japan as compared to united states.The scenario is different in united states as the population is vast and there are people from different countries residing