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Transportation and Logistics for a Sustainable Fashion Sector

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Abstract

Improving sustainability in transportation is one of the major focuses in recent years for many globalized manufacturing industries, including fashion. This chapter discusses key questions and challenges for various methods of transportation that are shaping current trends and make reflection in the fashion industry. This chapter employed the approach “Avoid-Shift-Improve” in transportation management recommended by the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport. In this paper the authors have examined various methods of transportation that are shaping current trends, including sustainable modes such as centralization distribution and full truck load and shifting transport to improve trip efficiency and environmental outcomes. The chapter provides potential benefits of incorporating the sustainable transport and logistics systems of narrowing, slowing and closing resource loops into fashion industry business models.

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The clothing industry is one of the most competitive and highly value-added sectors in the world; however, in recent years the industry has suffered difficult times. Logistics is a very important strategy to gain competitive advantages like time, cost and customer satisfaction. This paper presents logistics as a strategic solution and investigates important problems as well as necessary solutions according to the needs of the Turkish clothing industry. In the first section of the article, a profile of the clothing industry in Turkey and the world is presented. Then the situation of the logistics sector in Turkey and the world is explained. Finally, an evaluation of logistics as a global strategy in the clothing industry is presented.
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We introduce a new type of critical supplier—the nexus supplier—that becomes evident when we consider suppliers from a network perspective. The extant literature focuses on the importance of strategic suppliers and identifies strategic suppliers as critical due to their significant impact on a buying firm's profit and risk position. These strategic suppliers are considered one-at-a-time and tend to be top-tier suppliers. In contrast, a nexus supplier can come from anywhere in a multitier supply network and is critical due to its network position and the resultant portfolio of interorganizational ties. In this study, we offer a theory of the nexus supplier by integrating the supply management and social network literature. The theory is presented in the form of typologies, which articulate three ideal types of nexus suppliers and how they distinctively influence a focal buying firm's operational performance. We use real-world examples to build our arguments. We discuss implications of the nexus supplier for both theory and practice.
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This study analyzes an integrated inventory control and transportation planning problem with carbon emissions regulations. We investigate the economic order quantity model with less-than-truckload (LTL) and truckload (TL) transportation under carbon cap, cap and trade, cap and offset, and taxing policies. We find the retailer’s optimal order quantity under each regulation with LTL and TL carriers. Analytical and numerical results comparing LTL and TL carriers are documented. We illustrate that the retailer’s carrier preference depends on regulation parameters. The tools provided enable analyzing the effects of regulations, transportation costs and emissions on the retailer’s costs and emissions with each carrier.
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This paper examines the impact of corporate social responsibility behavior on the sustainability performance of focal companies and their partners in fast fashion supply chains. The attributes of sustainability and the mechanism of sustainability governance of the fast fashion supply chain are also discussed. From the perspective of strategic corporate social responsibility, we first analyze the motives for adopting sustainability governance in fast fashion supply chains, and identify seven competitive sustainable attributes of the fast fashion product based on sustainable development theory. Then, by establishing a sustainability governance framework, we identify seven factors that affect the sustainability governance decision-making and evaluate the efficiency and legitimacy mechanism of sustainability governance from internal and external perspectives. Finally, we explore the application of the governance mechanisms via a case study based on H&M’s seven sustainability commitments. The findings suggest that the core influence and centrality of a corporation should be strengthened from the perspective of internal governance, and stakeholders should collaborate to achieve sustainability governance throughout the entire fast fashion supply chain from the perspective of external governance.
Article
In recent decades, the fast fashion industry has been characterized by widespread operations across both developing and developed countries. Due to the economic, social and environmental problems in developing countries, companies increasingly focus on sustainability and try to ensure the same quality and standards in working and production conditions throughout their supply chains. Although the tension in the exchange of resources between developing and developed countries lies at the heart of current sustainability activities, what these companies are actually doing to manage their supply chain has not yet been explored in depth in the literature. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Seuring and Müller (2008), the current study attempts to fill this void by conceptually mapping the current situation of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in the fast fashion industry by analysing reports from 9 companies that use the same reporting guidelines. The results of the study reveal that these companies focus significantly on supplier compliance with their code of conduct, employing further monitoring and auditing activities to prevent production problems in developing countries, improve overall supply chain performance and set sustainability criteria for their suppliers.
Article
Traditional inventory models involve different decisions that attempt to optimize material lot sizes by minimizing total annual supply chain costs. However, the increasing concern on environmental issues stresses the need to treat inventory management decisions as a whole, by integrating economic and environmental objectives. Recent studies have underlined the need to incorporate additional criteria in traditional inventory models in order to design “responsible inventory systems”. This paper explores the integration of factors affecting the environmental impact within the traditional EOQ model and proposes a “Sustainable EOQ Model”. All sustainability factors linked to the material lot size are analyzed from the beginning of the purchasing order to the end of its life inside the buyer plant. Thus, the environmental impact of transportation and inventory is incorporated in the model and investigated by an economic point of view. In particular internal and external transportation costs, vendor and supplier location and the different freight vehicle utilization ratio are considered in order to provide an easy-to-use methodology. The optimization approach is applied to representative data from industrial problems to assess the impact of sustainability considerations on purchasing decisions if compared with the traditional approaches. Finally, an illustration of the effect of using the new “Sustainable EOQ model” is presented and discussed.
Article
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions stemming from transport within a distribution system are generally acknowledged to increase as the system is centralised, since transport work is increased owing to such a change. At the same time, this type of centralisation creates new opportunities to make changes in the system that are not viable in a decentralised distribution system; changes that can decrease CO2 emissions at the same time as the provision of cost-efficient customer service is not affected negatively. Based on an extensive literature review as well as case studies, the paper discusses and illustrates the circumstances under which it is possible to achieve such simultaneous improvements in the performance of a distribution system. Paramount in achieving concurrent positive results in terms of cost, service, and environmental impact is an understanding of what drives and affects the performance of the system.
Article
In this paper, we develop a new model of oligopolistic competition for fashion supply chains in the case of differentiated products with the inclusion of environmental concerns. The model assumes that each fashion firm’s product is distinct by brand and the firms compete until an equilibrium is achieved. Each fashion firm seeks to maximize its profits as well as to minimize its emissions throughout its supply chain with the latter criterion being weighted in an individual manner by each firm. The competitive supply chain model is network-based and variational inequality theory is utilized for the formulation of the governing Nash equilibrium as well as for the solution of the case study examples. The numerical examples illustrate both the generality of the modeling framework as well as how the model and computational scheme can be used in pratice to explore the effects of changes in the demand functions; in the total cost and total emission functions, as well as in the weights.
Article
This paper discusses how urban freight activity can function such that it meets the urban sustainability objectives policy makers are now beginning to implement. It considers: the importance of urban freight transport in maintaining the economic vitality of the city; the negative impacts that it imposes; the concept of urban sustainability and the development of sustainability strategies; and the means and measures by which freight transport could be made more sustainable. It presents results from a project that investigated the current freight transport operations of seven different companies in three urban areas in the UK. The potential operational, financial and environmental effects of four policy measures on these operations are considered.
Article
Full-text of this article is not available in this e-prints service. This article was originally published in International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, published by and copyright Emerald Publishing Group. Stochastic computer-simulation models have been constructed of the clothing supply chain and applied to retail inventory control. This quantifies the performance of quick response procedures for seasonal merchandise, thus creating an analytical tool. They are designed to investigate the effects of improved retailing and supply procedures on financial and other performance measures using two supply strategies: fixed quantity re-ordering and fixed interval re-ordering. These offer a wide range of options in experimentation. They permit an evaluation of both purchasing systems in relation to different quantities and lead-time scenarios. Experimental work with both models has shown that if the replenishment time exceeds two weeks, the potential for lost sales greatly increases. This provides a benchmark figure for assessing the responsiveness of clothing industry supply chains.
Trade and competitiveness assessment of mandated speed-limiters for heavy trucks operating in Canada. Ottawa: Transport Canada
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