Depending on types of demand and supply, the apparel supply chain can be categorized principally into three kinds: Push, Pull and Synchronous.

Description of variants of Apparel Supply Chain:

Push Supply Chains:

Push oriented supply chain caters to stable demand of homogenized products. In this type of supply chain, production and distribution decisions are based on long-term forecasts, as demand is stable. Push supply chain was characteristic of apparel organizations during the period from 1950 to 1970, when they had vertical organization structures and optimized activities focused on functions as companies were manufacturing oriented in a demand surplus environment of mass-products (4).

However, many present apparel organizations still have push oriented supply chain. Arvind Mills Ltd., one of the largest denim manufacturers in the world, has configured its supply chain based on push system. Typically, Arvind manufactures denim sorts based on monthly forecast to stock at various warehouses. As Arvind Mills pushes its products (sorts) to ware-houses, actual selling takes place on an ongoing basis with the sold sorts being replaced subsequently. Push system operates under make-to-stock environment.

While the system works efficiently at Arvind for years, it becomes difficult for a company to follow the same where high fluctuation in market demand exists. A Push-based supply chain accumulates excessive inventory (cycle stock and work-in-process) by the time it responds to the changing demand. In addition, since long-term forecast plays an important role, it is difficult to match supply with variable demand. Push supply chain also entails larger production batches, incompatible for catering demand of short quantity.

Moreover, the push supply chain generates more buffer/safety stock at every node of supply chain due to bull whip effect (5). This is due to inability of individual manufacturer of fibre, yarn, fabric and garment to access the actual demand. The bull whip effect shows increasing demand variability in the upstream direction of supply chain. Due to poor visibility of actual demand by respective manufacturers in the apparel supply chain, each tries to build buffer against unforeseen demand-variability. As each member superimposes its own guess on the demand forwarded by its immediate next organization, this amplifies the demand variability in a progressive manner in the upstream direction of supply chain.

Pull Supply Chains:

In the timeframe from 1970 to 1990, corporations were of both vertically and horizontally aligned, but apparel companies increasingly oriented towards market to sustain increasing competition. (6). With the emergence of more volatile market-demand and powerful retailers, like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, apparel organizations unable to supply competitively small orders that seldom repeat. Long forecast-based production results into huge stocks piling up at every stage of supply chain. This accumulation of inventory is further aggravated due to bullwhip effect.

To survive in this competitive scenario, organizations fine-tune their production and distribution as per actual demand given by customer in a pull oriented supply chain. This enables reduction of unnecessary buffer stock, improvement in service level to supply what consumer wants, not what company makes.

Raymond Ltd., the prominent apparel organization in India, has configured its supply chain based on pull system (7). The customers pull what they want from the manufacturing-base of Raymond through dealer-based distribution network. Entire supply chain of Raymond, which has vertically integrated composite network of different operations, produces only as per demand of customers.

However, as the entire supply chain is driven by actual demand, the time to market becomes long, depending on type of supply chain and number of players involved in it. Typical cycle time from order to market is 60 to 90 days in a pull or make-to-order system. This long lead-time fails to address the other challenge of the market, i.e. quick response to customer demand. Also in a pull strategy, it is not possible to get advantage of economies of scale, since batch production or truckloads are hard to achieve. Another disadvantage is proliferation of product mix. Moreover, as consumers demand drives manufacturing, it is normal for management to introduce as many variants as possible to capture market share. However, increasing product diversity spawns significant operational problems and reduces the responsiveness of the supply chain (8).