Table of contents
Editorial board vii
Preface ix
About the author xi
1 Fashion retail supply chain management –An introduction 1
1.1 What is fashion retail supply chain management? 1
1.2 Overview of this book 2
References 5
2 Customer service management in fashion retail supply chains 7
2.1 Introduction 7
2.2 Quantitative customer service performance measures 8
2.3 Retail service quality scale 9
2.3.1 Conceptual model and related studies 9
2.3.2 The RSQS based systems optimization model 10
2.3.3 Numerical example 15
2.3.4 Numerical sensitivity analysis 17
2.4 Conceptual framework: Deming’s Quality Management
Framework 24
2.5 Conclusion 28
References 28
Appendix: Tables of the numerical analysis 29
3 Inventory models and coordination in fashion retail supply chains 33
3.1 Introduction 33
3.2 The EOQ model-based retail inventory problem 34
3.2.1 An illustrative example 34
3.2.2 Optimal inventory decisions and ordering frequency 34
3.2.3 Numerical example 36
3.3 The newsvendor model-based retail inventory problem 36
3.3.1 An illustrative fast fashion retailing example 36
3.3.2 Profit maximization model 37
3.3.3 A numerical example 37
3.3.4 Remarks 38
3.4 Coordination in fashion retail supply chain systems 39
3.4.1 EOQ model based inventory planning 39
3.4.2 Newsvendor model-based inventory planning 39
3.5 Sensitivity analysis 41
3.5.1 The EOQ-based model 41
3.5.2 The newsvendor problem-based model 43
3.6 Conclusion 46
References 46
Appendix: Tables of the numerical analysis 47
4 Efficient consumer response in fashion retail supply chain systems 51
4.1 Introduction 51
4.2 Basic analytical model 52
4.3 Profit analysis for the fashion retailer 54
4.4 All-win situation 58
4.5 Supply chain coordination 59
4.6 Numerical analysis 61
4.7 Conclusion 64
References 65
Appendix: Tables of the numerical analysis 66
5 New product selection in fashion retail supply chains 69
5.1 Introduction 69
5.2 Basic model 71
5.3 Analysis: Scenario one 73
5.4 Analysis: Scenario two 74
5.5 Numerical analysis 76
5.5.1 Scenario one 76
5.5.2 Scenario two 79
5.6 Conclusion 79
References 80
Appendix: Tables of the numerical analysis 81
6 Mean-risk analysis for fashion retail supply chain information
systems projects 83
6.1 Introduction 83
6.2 Problem formulation 84
6.3 Mean-variance analysis 85
6.3.1 Model details 85
6.3.2 Example 1 86
6.3.3 Example 2 88
6.4 Mean-semi-variance approach 90
6.5 Safety-first objective 91
6.6 Information system portfolio 92
6.7 Conclusion 93
References 93
7 Fashion retail supply chain management – Concluding remarks 95
7.1 Managerial insights 95
7.2 Future research directions 98
References 101
Subject index 105
Preface
Fashion retail supply chains are retailer-led dynamic multi-echelon systems in which fashion products, related information and funds flow between the point of origin to the point of consumption in both forward and reverse directions. Decisions in the fashion retail supply chain systems are highly consumer demand-driven. Over the past few years, more and more studies have been exploring the fashion retail supply chain management related problems though most of them are based on empirical analysis and exploratory case studies. Motivated by the importance of fashion retail supply chain management and the relatively few theoretical analyses being done in this context, I have authored this book and explored different important topics by an analytical systems optimization approach. I believe that this book will be a pioneering text focusing on this important topic.
This book includes seven chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the topic and presents an overview of the book. Chapter 2 examines the customer service management challenge in fashion retail supply chains. Both analytical and conceptual tools are discussed. Supply chain service coordination is proposed and consumer welfare is also considered in the analysis. Chapter 3 explores two classical inventory models and the issue of coordination in the respective fashion retail supply chain systems. To achieve coordination incentive alignment schemes are discussed. Chapter 4 investigates the popular and commonly seen efficient consumer response program in fashion retail supply chains. The critical role played by the consumer welfare coefficient is examined. Chapter 5 discusses the new product selection problem in fashion retail supply chains with the consideration of market uncertainty. Chapter 6 presents a few analytical models for evaluating risky fashion retail supply chain information systems projects. Chapter 7 concludes the book and discusses various managerial insights and future research directions. As a remark, every chapter in this book can be taken as a self-contained article and the notation within each chapter is consistently employed.
In terms of the potential audience, I believe that this book is suitable for both researchers and practitioners interested in fashion retail supply chain management, and retail operations management. It can also be a good reference book for undergraduate and postgraduate students for related subjects. As a matter of fact, many materials covered in this book are based on my own lecture notes used in my MBA/MA classes. Since this book targets a rather broad pool of potential readers, I intentionally reduce the complexity of the models and most of the analytical results can be understood easily by readers with a fundamental knowledge of calculus. In terms of presentation, I use simple “layman’’ terms as much as possible, and also prepare a lot of numerical examples to illustrate the concepts and theories explored in the analytical studies. I believe that the book is easy to understand by business managers as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Before ending, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jeffrey Yi Lin Forest, Alistair Bright and José van der Veer for their kindest help in the preparation and completion of this important book project. I amalso indebted to my family, colleagues, friends, and students, who have been supporting me during the development of this book. In particular, my former and current PhD students have helped me with the proofreading of this book. This book is partially supported by the funding of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong under grant number PolyU 5424/11H.