Supply chain strategy in the fashion industry: Developing a portfolio model depending on product, retail channel and brand

The paper presents the results of a research project focused on supply chain (SC) strategy in the fashion/apparel industry ongoing at Politecnico di Milano, aiming at assessing the relevance of Supply Chain Management (SCM) approach in a context, i.e. fashion, where operations and manufacturing seem to be considered as ancillary to marketing and communications activities. Relying on theoretical developments and empirical case studies, the authors propose a model, the “segmentation tree” model, for adopting a focused approach to SCM resulting in a SC strategy segmentation based on three drivers, namely product, brand and retail channel.