Sweden-based Hennes and Mauritz (H&M), one of the leading fast-fashion retailers in the world, was staring at an uncerta

[answerhappygod]

Sweden-based Hennes and Mauritz (H&M), one of the leadingfast-fashion retailers in the world, was staring at an uncertainfuture in 2018. As of November 2017, the company had unsold stockworth US$ 4.3 billion. While the CEO, Karl-Johan Persson, said thatthe problem was due to decreasing traffic to the physical storesand the growing impact of online retailers, analysts were of theview that it was due to H&M’s weak supply chain, which couldnot keep up with more nimble competitors like Zara. H&Mdesigned the clothes in-house, but it did not own any productionfacilities and outsourced its manufacturing to factories located inAsia to reduce costs. It took about three weeks for the clothes tobe designed, made, and shipped to stores across the world.Competitors like Zara, however, finished this whole process withina span of ten days to two weeks. There were exclusively onlineretailers like ASOS which had short supply chains. With H&M’sproducts not able to keep up with customers’ expectations,inventory started to pile up. The company did not make any majorchanges to its supply chain for over two decades, and continued toproduce in Asia without paying any attention to the changing trendsin the fast fashion industry. Users said that the offerings fromH&M had become dull and unfashionable. This was because H&Mdesigned 80% of its clothes before the season and only 20% duringthe season. As the clothes were not attractive, they remainedunsold, leading to a build-up of inventory. In the fast-fashionera, these clothes went out of fashion within a few weeks, andH&M was unable to sell them. This only added to its inventory.H&M’s supply chain was unable to react to the unsold stocks,and it continued to replenish stocks with styles that were notalways trendy. It also started facing competition from onlineretailers who were extremely quick in introducing new styles andfashions. Though H&M went online in the late 1990s itself, itdid not do much to develop its e-commerce capabilities. As aresult, the company’s unsold inventory swelled to 20% of its totalsales. H&M resorted to markdowns, which adversely impacted itsprofits. The inventory problem-plagued it for seven quarters, andthe company appeared to be caught in a vicious circle of low sales,markdowns, and excess inventory. To address these issues, thecompany went in for an overhaul of its supply chain. But the newsupply chain led to more problems as the merchandise could notreach the stores on time. It again went in for a change of thesupply chain and also the design process to include analytics tounderstand demand. It also automated the warehouses and logisticscentres. The company announced investments in artificialintelligence, RFID, and omnichannel programs. H&M thenannounced a transformation that was guided by three action areas –be restless around the core; invest in enablers – new technologyand ways of working, and drive growth – both traditional and new.It remained to be seen whether the supply chain transformationwould help the company regain the glory it had lost. Source: Hennes& Mauritz (H&M): High Cost of Fast Fashion - The CaseCentre Answer ALL the questions in this section.
Question: The key processes and methods for integrating andmanaging process links among supply chain partners will varydepending on each firm's internal structure, market conditions, thedegree to which functional silos exist in any trading partners, andthe nature of existing relationships within each supply chain.Discuss ANY FOUR (4) important supply chain processes and provideexamples from the case study.