Typical of its customers is The Limited, Inc., a large U.S.-based chain of retail clothing stores. The Limited outsources much of its manufacturing and logistics functions of Li&Fung. The process starts when The Limited comes to Li&Fung with designer sketches of clothes for the next fashion season. Li&Fung takes the basic product concepts and researches the market to find the right kind of yarn, dye, buttons, and so on, then assembles these into prototypes that The Limited can inspect. Once The Limited has settled on a prototype, it will give Li&Fung an order and ask to delivery within five weeks. The short time between an order and requested delivery is necessitated by the rapid rate of product obsolescence in the fashion clothing industry.