Case Study Of Zara Group

Question 2: Zara’s logistic system and management practices can handle the current pace of growth, but they will need updating at some point in the future. How could quantitative management approaches and data analytics help Zara executives plan for the next generation of its logistics and management approaches?

Zara’s IT expenditures are low by fashion industry standards. The spectacular benefits reaped by Zara from the deployment of technology have resulted from targeting technology investment at the points in the value chain where it has the greatest impact, and not from the sheer magnitude of the investment. This is in stark contrast to Prada’s experience with in-store technology deployment.

There are several ingenious steps taken by Zara that proves both profitable and unprecedented. Zara has used technology to revolutionize their business, from buying the unprocessed cloth to determining which color die to use and what to make with that cloth. The technology process continues on the manufacturing lines and all the way to the final sale. But it does not stop there, it goes beyond the point of sale to question the reasons why a purchase was not made after a client expressed an interest in an item. The point of sale system provides real time data which is given immediate attention.

In a modernized and globalized world, knowledge creation and synergization of knowledge in an organization is truly crucial. As data and information are readily available, and information communication technology (ICT) has highly advanced, organizations such as B&Q need to understand how knowledge creation can assist to improve internal and external processes and also encourage innovation.

According to the data acquired by the company’s website, evolution and origin of Zara can be seen as follows,

Créée en 1975 avec son premier point de vente à Corogne, l’enseigne espagnole Zara a su, en l’espace de 34 ans, conquérir la scène internationale. Appartenant

Hence, technology is bettering reliability and speed with which information is divulged (Porter, 1980). Hand-held computers or PDA’s are utilized by Zara to collect information on consumer needs between retail stores and the factory in La Coruna. This along with regular telephone conversations between store managers and marketing specialists are one of the reasons that Zara’s information network is so effective. The utilization of PDA’s can be done by any company; it is Zara’s determination not to allow important information to fall by the wayside that assists with its success. PDAs are connected to the store 's point-of-sale (POS) system, enabling managers to see how garments rank by sales. In as little as an hour, managers can send information that combine the hard data captured at the POS intermixed with acumen on what customers would like to see. All of this data allows Zara to design and produce styles and orders based on feedback rather than guesswork. Hence, Zara avoids costly overproduction and the consequent sales and mark-downs that are so widespread in the fast fashion industry (Rohwedder and Johnson, 2008).

The core concept of Zara 's business model is they sell "medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices", and vertical integration and quick-response is key to Zara 's business model.  Through the entire process of Zara 's business system: designing, sourcing and manufacturing, distribution and retailing, they presented four fundamental success factors: short cycle time, small batches per product, extensive variety of product every season and heavy investment in information and communication technology.  These four elements are involved in every aspect of the business.

The business idea of Zara is to link customer demand to manufacturing, and to link manufacturing to distribution. And based on this general idea, Zara has several essential elements for its business model. First, speed and decision making, which means that in the external level, Zara need to respond very quickly to demands of target customers, and always keep in style. While for the inside, Zara treasure intelligence and judgment of common employees who enjoy a great deal of autonomy. Second, its marketing, merchandising and advertising strategy. Zara does not spend on virtually advertising, while it spends heavily on stores, and no selling online because of

This theory was made possible when Inditex accomplished correlating situational demands to a certain management style. The tactic for Zara is to interact with its environment and transition suppliers into consumers and to create systems to keep track of time production as well as reporting of inventory.

Until now, every garment that is product in Zara’s factories around the world has to travel back to Spain in order to go through quality controls, and is then send to its distributors. But the continuous flows of goods from all the productions sites to Spain and from Spain to the markets of sell, as well as the relative communication flows necessary to such a business model will inevitably slow down as Zara will have to deal with a constantly growing number of customers. Thus, the highly centralized information system of Zara seems not to be easily applicable in Asia, in addition to being time and money consuming.

Season 1: Zara is seeking perfection. She is roommates with her best friend Lauren. She is on quest to find out what went wrong in her last relationship. She hates her job. Goes back and forth with her ex Bryant. She finds out her ex has feelings for her best friend Lauren. She ends the friendship with Lauren. Zara moves out of the apartment with Lauren. Zara ends up alone and feeling like a failure.

Multi-brand strategy refers to the development and marketing of two or more competitive products by the same firm under different brand names. Zara has created a multi brand strategy through brand acquisitions such as Massimo Dutti for quality and conventional fashion, Pull and bear for casual clothes, Berksha for avant-garde clothing, Stradivarius for trendy clothing, Oysho for lingerie etc allowed Inditex to target different segments more effectively which were built within the domestic market first and launched for international markets.

Operations management is in regard to all operations within the organization responsible for creating goods and services that organizations pass to their customers. This function is at the heart of all organizations, giving the means of achieving their aims and reason for their existence. These activities include: managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage and logistics. A great deal of focus in operations is on efficiency and effectiveness of such a process.

From an analytical prospective, explain how information systems relate to the way Zara runs its business. What types of systems are the most essential for this company in its current environment?