Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow. Hennes & Mauritz (H&M): High Cost of Fast Fashion Sweden-based Hennes and Mauritz (H&M), one of the leading fast-fashion retailers in the world, was staring at an uncertain future in 2018. As of November 2017, the company had unsold stock worth US$ 4.3 billion. While the CEO, Karl-Johan Persson, said that the problem was due to decreasing traffic to the physical stores and the growing impact of online retailers, analysts were of the view that it was due to H&M’s weak supply chain, which could not keep up with more nimble competitors like Zara. H&M designed the clothes in-house, but it did not own any production facilities and outsourced its manufacturing to factories located in Asia to reduce costs. It took about three weeks for the clothes to be designed, made, and shipped to stores across the world. Competitors like Zara, however, finished this whole process within a span of ten days to two weeks. There were exclusively online retailers like ASOS which had short supply chains. With H&M’s products not able to keep up with customers’ expectations, inventory started to pile up. The company did not make any major changes to its supply chain for over two decades and continued to produce in Asia without paying any attention to the changing trends in the fast fashion industry. Users said that the offerings from H&M had become dull and unfashionable. This was because H&M designed 80% of its clothes before the season and only 20% during the season. As the clothes were not attractive, they remained unsold, leading to a build-up of inventory. In the fast-fashion era, these clothes went out of fashion within a few weeks, and H&M was unable to sell them. This only added to its inventory. H&M’s supply chain was unable to react to the unsold stocks, and it continued to replenish stocks with styles that were not always trendy. It also started facing competition from online retailers who were extremely quick in introducing new styles and fashions. Though H&M went online in the late 1990s itself, it did not do much to develop its e-commerce capabilities. As a result, the company’s unsold inventory swelled to 20% of its total sales. H&M resorted to markdowns, which adversely impacted its profits. The inventory problem-plagued it for seven quarters, and the company appeared to be caught in a vicious circle of low sales, markdowns, and excess inventory. To address these issues, the company went in for an overhaul of its supply chain. But the new supply chain led to more problems as the merchandise could not reach the stores on time. It again went in for a change of the supply chain and also the design process to include analytics to understand demand. It also automated the warehouses and logistics centres. The company announced investments in artificial intelligence, RFID, and omnichannel programs. H&M then announced a transformation that was guided by three action areas – be restless around the core; invest in enablers – new technology and ways of working, and drive growth – both traditional and new. It remained to be seen whether the supply chain transformation would help the company regain the glory it had lost. Source: Hennes & Mauritz (H&M): High Cost of Fast Fashion - The Case Centre Answer ALL the questions in this section. 

Question 1 (20 Marks) Integration, operations, purchasing, and distribution are the four primary components of supply chain management. Each of these pillars is reliant on the others to provide a smooth transition from plan to completion at the lowest possible cost. Outline each of the four aspects and illustrate your answer with examples from the text. 

Question 2 (20 Marks) Foreign vendors are added to a company's supply chain for a variety of reasons. However, the fundamental motivation for utilising an international provider is because that source is thought to offer better value than a domestic supplier. Explain ANY FOUR (4) reasons for global sourcing and make reference to the case study. 

Question 3 (20 Marks) Discuss the various forms of inventory costs and use examples from the article to illustrate your point. Question 4 (20 Marks) Identify and describe ANY FOUR (4) external factors to direct distribution while making reference to the article to support your answer. 

Question 5 (20 Marks) The key processes and methods for integrating and managing process links among supply chain partners will vary depending on each firm's internal structure, market conditions, the degree to which functional silos exist in any trading partners, and the nature of existing relationships within each supply chain. Discuss ANY FOUR (4) important supply chain processes and provide examples from the case study.

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