Measuring and Enhancing Fast Fashion Supply Chain Performance: An AHP-SWOT Approach

Fan Siyu

Abstract

Fast fashion retailing is gaining increasingly dominant in global apparel competition. Fast interpretation of latest trend into designs and products on a weekly basis requires the supporting supply chain to be both responsive and effective. Instead of traditional ways of measuring and enhancing a supply chain by calculating its cost and lead-time reduction, a whole new perspective is proposed in this thesis.

Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as an excellent analysis tool builds up the structure of the method. Supply chain expert Hau.L Lee’s Triple – A theory (Agility, Adaptability and Alignment) is taken into consideration as the key criteria of a successful supply chain. Industry top performances are collected to compare with user’s supply chain under each “A” standard. And the practicality of solutions raised by Triple – A theories are considered under each “A” standard. These qualitative criteria are quantified by AHP structure through their assigned weights. SWOT analysis captures the strength (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O) and threats (T) of the supply chain through the ranking of performance measurements and solutions. After that, SWOT cross combines the internal factors (S, W) and external factors (O, T) and come up with four tactical performance-enhancing strategies (SO, ST, WO, WT). Finally, these strategies are further compared with respect to supply chain objectives. From the ranking, user is able to gain a clear view of the next steps to take.

This creative approach absorbs the essence of both AHP and SWOT analysis, enabling the comprehensive analysis of the fast fashion supply chain in an intuitive and user-friendly way. The collaboration of expert ideas into the measuring and enhancing process brings more innovation. The case study elaborates the application of this approach to a greater detail and proves this AHP-SWOT approach is useful and practically applicable in measuring and enhancing fast fashion supply chain performance.