Saying all this, internal and external integration is not suited for every company. If you are a small or independant company, internal integration is far more suited to you. There are many reasons for this: one being that as a small company, being partnered with a larger one may make communication difficult or there simply be no ability to communicate if there has been no experience in the past. Another reason being it may cost more money that the buisness doesn't have, to partner with a large company.
External integration is far more suited to larger buissnesses as it is more costly and is created for a larger supply chain. There are disadvantages however, overall external integration can reallly help with partnered company's supply chain processes. A good example of this is Primark and DHL. DHL and Primark have a good partnership. In November 2012, DHL opened a 40,00 square meter logistics center.
This was built in Germany, near the Dutch boarder. DHL said the center would send out fashion products in cartons. This center was created to help Primark's distribution to neighbouring countires and to support its growth as a buisness.
To conclude, integration is used in supply chain to better the perfornabce of producing garments. There are 2 different types of integration: internal and external. Internal means within one company and is suited to independant companies. External integration is suited to larger companies and is a partnership bewteen 2 companies.An example of this is DHL, they have partnered with both WH Smiths and Primark to improve their supply chain process.