ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF DEMAND-DRIVEN SUPPLY CHAINS: SIZE-SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS IN THE ITALIAN FASHION COMPANIES

This paper aims at identifying the main solutions that Italian fashion companies adopt in order to increase their “market sensitivity” and, thus, to improve the effectiveness of their supply chains. In the last years, fashion companies have experienced an increased level of time-based competition, which has determined the growth of the fast-fashion segment and of new players that are able to quickly bring to the market new products. In Italy, this evolution has determined the rise of new brands, launched by small-to-medium sized enterprises, which have a strong market sensitivity and, at the same time, can enjoy a highly responsive production system, thanks to the fact that most of them are located in industrial districts. In recent years, also traditional, large Italian fashion companies have started proposing items targeted to the fast fashion segment. The supply chains of both typologies of companies have to be agile, but we assume that their market sensitivity is achieved through different levers. In this paper, we analyze four cases, two for each typology (small-to-medium Italian fashion companies and large ones), so as to understand whether relevant differences exist between the way in which such companies achieve their “market sensitivity”. This analysis demonstrates that while large companies are investing in the adoption of up-to-date technologies and best practices, small-to-medium sized ones leverage their knowledge of the industry and the intuition of their employees in order to interpret market trend and to plan their product offering accordingly.