A Study of Apparel Supply Chain Risks

Abstract

Today, apparel supply chains are becoming more prone to both controllable and uncontrollable risks. This phenomenon may be attributed to many causes but not limited to less vertical integration, fragmentation of supply chain ownership, short product life cycle, ever-changing customer expectations, increasing level of competition, environmental regulations, rapid technology obsolescence, etc. These risks deteriorate directly the apparel supply chain performance in terms of both efficiency and responsiveness. Therefore, the Apparel Supply Chain (ASC) managers should identify and analyze the risks related to their supply chains so that appropriate mitigation strategies can be developed to enhance the supply chain performance. An attempt is made to study the ASC and identify the related risks in general. This will provide a platform to identify the risks for an apparel supply chain in particular