Business work flow

Business work flow
Example L&F case.
In an era of globalization and fierce competition, organizations look for new ways of creating competitive advantage and appropriating value from competitors. Li & Fung, a Hong Kong based textiles trading firm demonstrates the key role that a carefully designed supply chain plays, to help organizations achieve this goal. Li & Fung were initially operating merely as brokers, connecting textile manufacturers in the Pacific Rim and main land China with the buyers in US and Europe. However, in the 1990s they put together a global supply chain for the textile industry.

Brands

Currently Branded Lifestyle represents eight brands, namely, Calvin Klein Jeans, Calvin Klein Underwear, Roots, GANT and Billabong.

Calvin Klein Jeans is represented by Branded Lifestyle in Singapore and Thailand. Its provocative advertising strategy has drawn the attention of many die-hard fans for the brand’s good quality and innovative jeans. With this as a principle, Branded Lifestyle continues to explore new ways of conveying Calvin Klein Jeans’ edgy and trendy lifestyle message through exciting campaigns.

Calvin Klein Underwear is also represented by Branded Lifestyle in Singapore and Thailand. The brand’s seductive advertising campaign, coupled with its quality and advancement in comfortable men’s and women’s underwear, has augmented the brand name as a whole as well as secured its strong brand image in the customer’s minds.

Roots is Canada’s leading lifestyle brand today, known around the world for its wide range of quality leather goods, clothing and accessories. Branded Lifestyle shares the same philosophy with Roots on environmental protection commitment and is dedicated to deliver environmental-friendly and quality products to customers.

GANT, a premium lifestyle brand presented by Branded Lifestyle, carries three lines: G.N.H., Rugger and Elliot Gant. GANT truly reflects its all-encompassing lifestyle concept. Branded Lifestyle will facilitate GANT’s expansion in Asia and fulfill its vision of becoming a truly global lifestyle brand for men and women.

Apart from the lifestyle fashion brands, Branded Lifestyle has broadened its brand portfolio to boardsports market. The Australian boardsports brand, Billabong, is a global leader in the boardsports industry and currently distributed in over 100 countries around the world. A dedicated supporter of boardsports, the brand sponsors over 500 action sport athletes from 20 countries worldwide

Business work flow
There are 7,500 suppliers from 26 different countries that form part of the Li & Fung global supply chain. Consider the manufacture of readymade garments for the European and the American markets. When the retailers in Europe and the USA decipher upcoming trends, Li & Fung creates the necessary designs. The initial conceptualization and design of the garment is typically done in Hong Kong. The cotton yarn is bought from Korea and dyed and woven in Taiwan. Japanese zippers are sourced from a factory located in China.
Finally, all these components are shipped to Thailand, where a consignment of, say, 50,000 garments will be split into five batches of 10,000 each and simultaneously manufactured in five factories. The readymade garments may bear a "made in Thailand" label, which may not fully reflect the reality. The entire consignment will reach Hong Kong, where the final inspection and packing will be done. The consignment will reach the destination in about 5 week’s time.

Figure: L&F work flow diagram

L&F is a leading company in supply chain management. Its success over the past two decades has made it one of the premier knowledge centers of research and experience optimizing a company supply chain. They are developing models that keep L&F on a continued trend of industry leadership. L&F also partnered with the Chinese University of Hong Kong to share some of its knowledge with the world via the Li and Fung Center for Supply Chain Management where they publish journals, give presentations, and offer consulting services.

The Li and Fung Research Center explains that the company has seven principles forming the pillars of supply chain management. The research group says the key is that the “supply chain must be flexible, agile, cost-effective and responsive. Nowadays it is more common for companies to collaborate in a global context where each of them focuses on its core competency and outsource the rest.”

L&F has taken its core competency to the extreme by perfecting the science (and art) of outsourcing. The company follows the following principles to assure it stays at the leading edge of supply chain management theory and practice.

• Be customer-centric and market demand driven;
• Focus on one’s core competency and outsource non-core activities, in order to develop a positioning in the supply chain;
• Develop a close, risk- and profit-sharing relationship with business partners;
• Design, implement, evaluate and continuously improve the work flow, physical flow, information flow and cash flow in the supply chain;
• Adopt information technology to optimize the operation of the supply chain;
• Shorten production lead time and delivery cycles; and
• Lower costs in sourcing, warehousing and transportation