Aligning product design with the supply chain: a case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the alignment between product design and the supply chain and to identify how this alignment impacts on a firm's supply chain responsiveness and resilience.Design/methodology/approach – An in‐depth case study methodology was adopted to uncover the strategies undertaken by one of the UK's fastest growing fashion retailers to create a competitive advantage through its management of the product design/supply chain alignment.Findings – The findings of this case illustrate that not only is the alignment of product design with the supply chain important in improving competitive advantage for the focal company, but it also has a significant impact in improving supply chain resilience and supply chain responsiveness. This case illustrates how fundamental shifts in the organisation, particularly in integrating product design and supply chain have enabled the repositioning of the company from a low priced fashion store to becoming a leading global fast fashion r...

[1]  P. Kotler,et al.  DESIGN: A POWERFUL BUT NEGLECTED STRATEGIC TOOL , 1984 .

[2]  S. Wheelwright,et al.  Restoring Our Competitive Edge: Competing Through Manufacturing , 1984 .

[3]  R. Hayes.  Restoring our competitive edge , 1984 .

[4]  Linda S. Lotto.  Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods , 1986 .

[5]  K. Eisenhardt.  Better Stories and Better Constructs: The Case for Rigor and Comparative Logic , 1991 .

[6]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Product development performance : strategy, organization, and management in the world auto industry / Kim B. Clark, Tahahiro Fujimoto , 1991 .

[7]  M. Easterby-Smith,et al.  Management Research: An Introduction , 1991 .

[8]  Laura M. Birou,et al.  Supplier Involvement in Integrated Product Development , 1994 .

[9]  Karl T. Ulrich,et al.  Product Design and Development , 1995 .

[10]  Thomas V. Scannell,et al.  Success Factors for Integrating Suppliers into New Product Development , 1997 .

[11]  S. Dowlatshahi.  The role of logistics in concurrent engineering , 1996 .

[12]  Michael J. Shaw,et al.  Reengineering the Order Fulfillment Process in Supply Chain Networks , 1996 .

[13]  Carliss Y. Baldwin,et al.  Managing in an age of modularity. , 1997, Harvard business review.

[14]  M. Fisher.  What is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product , 1997 .

[15]  Malee V. Lucas,et al.  Architectural innovation in product development through early supplier integration , 1998 .

[16]  M. Christopher.  Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Strategies for Reducing Cost and Improving Service (Second Edition) , 1999 .

[17]  R. V. Hoek,et al.  The Impact of Modular Production on the Dynamics of Supply Chains , 1998 .

[18]  Shad Dowlatshahi,et al.  A modeling approach to logistics in concurrent engineering , 1999, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[19]  D. Towill,et al.  Supply chain migration from lean and functional to agile and customised , 2000 .

[20]  Karl T. Ulrich,et al.  Special Issue on Design and Development: Product Development Decisions: A Review of the Literature , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[21]  Jerry Wind,et al.  Customerization: The next revolution in mass customization , 2001 .

[22]  Saurabh Gupta,et al.  Special Issue on Design and Development: Appropriateness and Impact of Platform-Based Product Development , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[23]  Christopher A. Voss,et al.  Case research in operations management , 2002 .

[24]  Anneke Vandevelde,et al.  Managing the design‐manufacturing interface , 2003 .

[25]  David N. Burt,et al.  World Class Supply Management The Key To Supply Chain Management , 2002 .

[26]  K. Pawar,et al.  Virtually co‐located product design teams , 2002 .

[27]  Frank T. Piller,et al.  Customers as co-designers , 2003 .

[28]  D. Tranfield,et al.  Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review , 2003 .

[29]  R. Eltantawy,et al.  Securing the upstream supply chain: a risk management approach , 2004 .

[30]  Juha-Matti Lehtonen,et al.  Modelling in product and supply chain design: literature survey and case study , 2004 .

[31]  M. Christopher,et al.  CREATING AGILE SUPPLY CHAINS IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY , 2004 .

[32]  Marketing Logistics (2nd ed.) , 2004 .

[33]  T. Skjøtt-Larsen,et al.  Platform management: Implication for new product development and supply chain management , 2006 .

[34]  George Q. Huang,et al.  Towards integrated optimal configuration of platform products, manufacturing processes, and supply chains , 2005 .

[35]  G. Zsidisin,et al.  Managing Supply Risk with Early Supplier Involvement: A Case Study and Research Propositions , 2005 .

[36]  R. M. Monczka,et al.  Achieving excellence in global sourcing , 2005 .

[37]  Paul Chapman,et al.  From tinkering around the edge to enhancing revenue growth: supply chain‐new product development , 2006 .

[38]  J. Collin,et al.  Plan for supply chain agility at Nokia , 2006 .

[39]  Celine Abecassis-Moedas,et al.  Integrating design and retail in the clothing value chain , 2006 .

[40]  Iain Reid,et al.  Achieving agility in supply chain through simultaneous “design of” and “design for” supply chain , 2006 .

[41]  Ravi Shankar,et al.  Mapping supply chains on risk and customer sensitivity dimensions , 2006, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[42]  F. Erhun,et al.  The Art of Managing New Product Transitions , 2007 .

[43]  Sameh M. Saad,et al.  Future shape of the responsive manufacturing enterprise , 2007 .

[44]  R. Masson,et al.  Managing complexity in agile global fashion industry supply chains , 2007 .

[45]  Paul Chapman,et al.  How to move supply chain beyond cleaning up after new product development , 2007 .

[46]  O. Khan,et al.  Risk and supply chain management: creating a research agenda , 2007 .

[47]  Wendy L. Tate,et al.  Product‐process‐supply chain: an integrative approach to three‐dimensional concurrent engineering , 2007 .

[48]  Robert B. Handfield,et al.  Integrating Suppliers into New Product Development , 2007 .

[49]  Jennifer Blackhurst,et al.  The Severity of Supply Chain Disruptions: Design Characteristics and Mitigation Capabilities , 2007, Decis. Sci..

[50]  M. Christopher,et al.  The impact of product design on supply chain risk: A case study , 2008 .

[51]  Gary L. Ragatz,et al.  TIMING AND EXTENT OF SUPPLIER INTEGRATION IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: A CONTINGENCY APPROACH , 2008 .

[52]  Germaine H. Saad,et al.  Managing Disruption Risks in Supply Chains , 2005 .

[53]  Alessandro Creazza,et al.  Managing the product design‐supply chain interface: Towards a roadmap to the “design centric business” , 2009 .

[54]  Angappa Gunasekaran,et al.  Modeling and analysis of build-to-order supply chains , 2009, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[55]  Margherita Pero,et al.  A framework for the alignment of new product development and supply chains , 2010 .

[56]  Euthemia Stavrulaki,et al.  Aligning products with supply chain processes and strategy , 2010 .

[57]  D. Power,et al.  An empirical investigation of the relationship between product nature and supply chain strategy , 2010 .

[58]  T. C. Edwin Cheng,et al.  Innovative Quick Response Programs in Logistics and Supply Chain Management , 2010 .

[59]  Håkan Torstensson,et al.  Aligning critical success factors to organizational design: A study of Swedish textile and clothing firms , 2011, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

[60]  R. Eltantawy,et al.  An empirical examination of strategic sourcing dominant logic: Strategic sourcing centricity , 2013 .