On invitation from Prof. Parthasarathi of the reputed PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Karthikeyan Iyer, Founder Director of Crafitti Consulting conducted a 3 hour session on “Lean for Fashion and Apparel Industry” on July 25th for an enthusiastic group of Fashion Technology students.
The session started with the “Beer Game” (originally conceptualized by MIT) to visualize the bullwhip effect in action. In this particular instance the bullwhip effect was visible in less than 10 demand-supply iterations!
An analysis of the observed bull-whip effect followed with deliberation on potential causes and implications on supply chain dynamics.
With this background, the stage was set to introduce Lean Thinking as a broad methodology to “innovate” the supply chain.
Armed with an understanding of supply chain dynamics and Lean Thinking, the class proceeded to take a preliminary look at the specifics of the Apparel Supply Chain, the various players, the 3 distinct cycles of Design, Procurement and Production.
The session ended with an assignment for the students to apply Lean Thinking principles to innovate a specific portion of the Apparel Supply Chain i.e. Retail Forward Production and Delivery Cycle.
