The case study describes all key ingredients that make Zara, the Flagship brand of the Spanish retail group, Inditex SA, one of the world leading fashion retail businesses. Over the last decades Zara introduced agile supply chain (ASC) in the fast fashion industry
and positioned itself third in the world retailers ranking. This came as a result of close
communication between customers and its designers and the ability to ship the desired
items in a week catching the sales moment. All these prove that ASC is an aspect enhancing
competition among organizations. Another lesson is that efficient production organization with
a good balance between in house and outsourcing task leads to minimum lead times and
increase in market share for Zara. The supply chain is not on an isolated agile process of Zara,
but indeed the whole organization is agile and working very efficient.
By using quick response Zara aims to reduce both excess stock holding in the supply chain and
risk associated with forecasting as product specifications are not finalized until closer to delivery