agencies would be easier too. Pressure groups have reason to feel upbeat as
well—cleaning up the fashion supply chain, both in terms of environmental and
social impacts, just became easier.
Blockchain, few would even dare to disagree, is all set to become the disruptive
technology of the days to come. But how far it will go in becoming an all-
encompassing reality would depend on far too many other factors, including political.
In a globalised world where a supply chain cuts through countries—sometimes back
and forth—intergovernmental agreements may be the deciding factor.
A Demanding Supply Chain
In September, global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company released
a survey report that served a cautionary reminder: that digitisation will end in
disappointment if it is notintegrated into a broader transformation to a customer-
centric operating model. The report, Digitization: The next stop for the apparel-
sourcing caravan, made another point amply clear—as did a subsequent blog post
on the company’s website by four of the five authors of the study—that digitisation
must not be seen as an end in itself; it is a means to an end.
Achim Berg, Saskia Hedrich, Tim Lange, and Karl-Hendrik Magnus wrote about
the findings: “Rather, it is a powerful enabler of progress in all the main drivers
of future success in apparel sourcing—including the continued optimisation of
sourcing-country strategy, strategic supplier partnerships, better environmental
and labour compliance, and a doubling down on end-to-end efficiency. Apparel
players have a major transformation ahead of them, spanning all these elements.
Effective digitisation will help them deliver that transformation faster and with
much greater impact.”
A Leaner and Faster Digital Process
Digitalisation helps to create a leaner process at each stage of the supply
chain and between stages. A digital supply chain can bring significant
advantages, including:
Speed: Digitalisation can help cut product development time significantly.
For example, headquarters and suppliers can send digital samples back
and forth rather than shipping physical prototypes, thereby saving time.
Flexibility: Digitalisation improves communication among the
stakeholders in the different stages of the supply chain and speeds
up processes, giving stakeholders more flexibility to adjust quickly to
changing consumer demands.
Risk minimisation: Manufacturers can use digital technologies to respond
to possible manufacturing issues much more rapidly and efficiently. Since
any needed changes can be done virtually, no physical adjustment of the
blueprint is needed.
Trust: Automating interactions with suppliers builds trust. For example,
digitalising payments makes it easier for stakeholders to pay on time, and
storing invoice payments digitally in the cloud makes it easier to trace
transactions.
Improved efficiency: Digitalisation smooths the interactions between the
different stages of the supply chain, making supply chain management
more time and resource efficient, which results in reduced operating
costs.
Environmental sustainability: Digital sampling and 3D printing can negate
the need to ship physical items up and down the supply chain, which
helps designers and manufacturers reduce their use of resources such as
materials and fuel.
Source: Deep Dive: An Overview of the Digitalization of the Apparel Supply Chain; Fung Global Retail & Technology (FGRT)
Those worried
about intellectual
property issues
would be thrilled;
but then so would
be all those
concerned about
the opaqueness of
supply chains. A
chip can tell who
made the product,
the conditions
they worked