Applicability of lean towards improved efficiency in sample processes : A case study of a Swedish branded retailer

Globalization has led to that companies’ within the textile industry, now source manufacturing overseas. Supply chains are therefore now ultimately longer, with a lot of activities and people involved. Control and implementation of strategies is now something that companies need to considerate in the supply chain, in order to reduce lead times, meet the unpredictable demand of today’s consumers and compete against other retailers. One important task in this is for retailers to have an efficient PD and sample process, due to the fact that it's in this stage where the retailers still have time to make changes and prevent problems along the supply chain. The Conceptual Framework; describes that the textile industry is not high represented in the use lean even if the strategy doesn’t need large investments in technology or training. A great part of succeeding with lean lies in the development phase, and to build a well developed and thought out system to be able to create future products. In the methodology chapter the authors have chosen to perform a case study on a branded retailer. By conducting interviews, observations and value stream mapping, the researchers can approach the study from different angles in order to double check the results, which tends to increase the validity and reliability of a study. The study's empirical materials are based on seven semi-structured interviews with employees at the case company, two observations on fittings and a Value stream mapping (VSM) of 5 different styles. This was done in order to create a deeper understanding of the sample process and the activities involved and identify non-value adding activities. Discussion; the researchers have noticed that depending on the production country and product type, the sample process looks very different. This can be a result of that people working in the process don’t have a standardized way in handling problems and instead do it in their own way. The results that case company generated could be concluded that there are several problems in sample process, which is further discussed in the analysis chapter, where there are a number of lean tools that can eliminate the identified problems. The conclusion that the researchers made is that working with Lean PD can help the company to improve their capabilities and do more with less, by sorting out the unnecessary activities with a focus on standardizing. The literature say that VSM and 5S are most common in textile companies, but the researchers have seen, through this research, that other lean tools are applicable and appropriate in the PD as well