Supply Chain Management Practices of Ready Made Garments Sector in Bangladesh: A Case Study on Zaheen Knitwear’s Limited

Abstract

The term “supply chain management” has become a popular buzzword, probably first used by consultants in the late 1980s & then analyzed by the academic community in the 1990s. The ready-made garment (RMG) industry has recently occupied the largest part of exports and foreign currency in Bangladesh and has been for more than a decade the second largest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP). Millions of poor women and men are employed in this industry. However, a supporting import quota system in the USA was stopped in 2005 which has left the RMG sector struggling against new challenges that need to be properly addressed. As the end consumers of the apparel fashion market are becoming increasingly time-sensitive, a decrease in lead time, besides quality and cost criteria, is needed to win more orders from buyers. We have examined the opportunity that lies in an integrated supply chain to provide a competitive advantage to the Bangladesh RMG sector. A system dynamics approach has been used to identify the dominant variables of supply chain performance (such as enablers, performance or results, and inhibitors) in the RMG sector. Open and open end questionnaire will be conducted with senior management personnel, supply chain professionals, and merchandisers of the RMG industry. Based on the findings, a causal loop diagram is proposed to help understand the dynamic behavior among the said variables so that the top management may take effective decisions in order to enhance the supply chain performance in the long run.