Zara
CASE STUDY: - ZARA: IT FOR FAST FASHION
Zara’s success is attributed to its ingenious design, development, and production and supply chains in the world. It has been its culture to change its designs very frequently. This is mainly because they feel their differentiation point in the market is its new designs.
Short-cycle production of small volumes of items has made Zara fundamentally different from other competitors. Zara has a short lead time and is more responsive to market trend.
Salgado should consider upgrading Zara’s DOS-based POS system to current POS hardware and software such as Windows, Linux or Unix. There are three reasons to do so:
1. Decision making
Adopting a modern POS system will allow Zara’s commercials to make fairer allocations of items in situations where demand exceeds supply as they can base their decisions on daily real-time sales figures. Merging data into one system also enables real-time sharing of sales, ordering and returns information resulting in a more precise measurement of stocks and ensures better decision making. In addition, if all employees of Zara use the same system, it will be a good way of connecting autonomous stores which allows for better understanding of global trends and developments. With information sharing in real-time, Zara’s SC can react faster to sales information and latest market trends, and possibly reduce overall lead time with decisions made at a faster pace.
2. Networking
Currently, store employees do not have technologies to share data efficiently. This inevitably reduces employee productivity as the time could be better spent on other tasks. By implementing modern POS terminal system in the stores, the system can automatically collect and process data. With the implementation of modern POS systems with broadband internet connections, real-time exchange of critical information replaces the need for transfer of data using floppies and manually finding out information.
3. Cost savings
Zara’s success is attributed to its ingenious design, development, and production and supply chains in the world. It has been its culture to change its designs very frequently. This is mainly because they feel their differentiation point in the market is its new designs.
Short-cycle production of small volumes of items has made Zara fundamentally different from other competitors. Zara has a short lead time and is more responsive to market trend.
Salgado should consider upgrading Zara’s DOS-based POS system to current POS hardware and software such as Windows, Linux or Unix. There are three reasons to do so:
1. Decision making
Adopting a modern POS system will allow Zara’s commercials to make fairer allocations of items in situations where demand exceeds supply as they can base their decisions on daily real-time sales figures. Merging data into one system also enables real-time sharing of sales, ordering and returns information resulting in a more precise measurement of stocks and ensures better decision making. In addition, if all employees of Zara use the same system, it will be a good way of connecting autonomous stores which allows for better understanding of global trends and developments. With information sharing in real-time, Zara’s SC can react faster to sales information and latest market trends, and possibly reduce overall lead time with decisions made at a faster pace.
2. Networking
Currently, store employees do not have technologies to share data efficiently. This inevitably reduces employee productivity as the time could be better spent on other tasks. By implementing modern POS terminal system in the stores, the system can automatically collect and process data. With the implementation of modern POS systems with broadband internet connections, real-time exchange of critical information replaces the need for transfer of data using floppies and manually finding out information.
3. Cost savings