Bespoke Supply Chains: Transforming Luxury Fashion Supply Chains

Optimal and efficient supply chain (SC) is a function of contingent and decision variables. Among contingencies are environmental and resource variables that must be understood to define operational strategies. The luxury fashion industry is a peculiar sector where SC design must take into account industry specific factors. Undeniably, the industry goes through substantial changes that directly affect operational effectiveness and efficiencies of SCs. Yet, it is not well defined how unexpected market dynamics could be translated into operational strategies. First objective of this research is therefore to define the most critical success factors for the luxury fashion industry. Not withstanding existing studies on the critical factors, it is not clear how luxury fashion SC strategies must be configured in accordance to rapidly changing industrial dynamics and market factors. In order to outline very specific components and to explore how luxury SC strategies must be orchestrated, this study conducts in depth interviews with experts, belonging to companies operating in the luxury fashion industry. Given that there is relatively little research on how to build robust methodological approaches by taking into account context variables, this paper identifies the most profound and critical success variables to stay competitive in the luxury fashion industry, and highlights what could enable luxury companies to adjust their SCs in highly volative and unexpected situations in accordance with the most critical yet contextual variables. © 2019, AIDI - Italian Association of Industrial Operations Professors. All rights reserved.