Question

Using a hypothetical fashion company, develop a map of the company's global supply chain. Remember you product is sourced, manufactured and sold in three countries (US, China, and India) and may require different logistics (transportation, warehouse, and material handling) for each.

Please also include your rationale for the supply chain map decision (e.g. Why did you choose truck or rail transportation? Why did you use a central warehouse or multiple warehouse?)

Answer 1

In the case of Fashion clothing Industry, you have common raw material such as cotton, wool, silk(Natural Fibers) and Ryan, Polyester, Nylon(Man-made fibers), so it makes sense to aggregate all buying of raw material from a single country located typically at the central geographical location or which has the lowest sourcing cost. A central warehouse can be used to supply the material to all three countries. Since in our Map the warehouse has been located in china then the raw material delivery from the warehouse to the factory will be done by truck in china, Ship in India (less distance) and Plane in the USA.
In our Map after the production of the finished goods in the factory, the truck transport will be used to send the finish materials to the nearby location finished goods warehouse. For the warehouses located in the faraway location, a train can be used as a mode of transport.
The material from the warehouses is transferred to the customer location (Supermarket etc.) via trucks.
This supply chain map also includes the flow of the information between the customer, production planning, suppliers and the factories. The information obtained from customers is cascaded to the suppliers in the form of monthly schedules. The factory management is also informed in advance about the customer requirement. In the case of a global supply chain, the information mostly flows by the electronic means of communication.