GLOBAL INTEGRATION OF SUPPLY CHAINS IN TEXTILE/APPAREL INDUSTRY

Supply chain management is important. It basically deals with the interconnection of an organization between the different processes that produce value in the form of products and services to the ultimate consumer. The final customer has the only real currency in the supply chain (Nigel S, Stuart C, Robert J; 2001). It has been established that effective supply chain management enables good and services to be produced more efficiently. This project is aimed to investigate the integration of the whole supply chain of textile/clothing industry from textile dyeing/printing industry to retail via clothing manufacturing (stitching) and buying and distribution agents. It covers the problems associated with the integration of all the partners and also endow with the proposal for improvements. By integration author means all the supply chain partners even with the different names and ownership work as a single entity for a specific product range to increase overall efficiency. This research focuses on the integration of the Global supply chain network. companies need to be exceptionally global after the liberation of quotas. To get prepare for such a situation, the key steps involve collaboration and integration of the whole supply chain with always open option of switching allover the world. When we think about textile industry in the global context, it is shown that the globalization is not a new concept in textile industry. The major retailers in clothing industry are from USA, Europe and Australia while the major textile manufacturer belong to developing countries like India, China, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Mexico etc. so, the network is already present. To integrate the whole supply chain, there are two strategies present. One is vertically integrated and the other is horizontally integrated. So, the research will deal with the comparison of both strategies. The textile manufacturing industry specially clothing is one of the key sector deals with the critical supply chain. Clothing markets are moving toward more fashionable items (Pashigian, 1988; Standard & Poor's, 1998) as economic trends are prosperous and consumers' demand diversifies. This change requires more product variety, generating demand uncertainty that is closely related to fassionability and seasonality of the apparel product. Uncertain demand leads to many managerial problems for the apparel company, such as production planning, forecasting, inventory management, production system, and timely distribution. To reduce the risk level due to demand uncertainty, the supply chain in the Clothing industry, from raw materials to final customers, should undergo innovative and revolutionary changes that have successfully occurred in other industries. Last part of the report comprises of the proposal regarding the improvement of integrated networks. It deals with the comparison of vertical integrated and vertically disintegrated companies based on the examples from big clothing retailers of the world. It would give some useful data regarding big retailers based on cased studies and the information from companies' websites. One could have a good understanding of the whole supply chain of textile/clothing industry, when go through this project, and can recognize the problem associated with it. It is aimed to deliver the future scenario of this industry with the reference of quota liberation as well