Influencing factors in Supply Chain Network - A comparative analysis of Fast-fashion and Automotive Industry

Abstract

A supply chain is the process that delivers a product or service from supplier to customer, which involves the movement of information and material flow from upstream to downstream. And supply chain management has been defined as “design, planning, execution, control and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally.”1 But supply chain network shows a bigger picture which involves interactions among organizations. The complexity is also increased as well in supply chain networks. In order to better manage supply chain, complexity drivers need to be defined and the impacts need to be analyzed.2 According to Serdarasan (2013)“ Studies on supply chain complexity mainly use the static and dynamic complexity distinction. While static complexity describes the structure of the supply chain, the number and the variety of its components and strengths of interactions between these; the dynamic complexity represents the uncertainty in the supply chain and involves the aspects of time and randomness.”3 In this paper I will mainly focus on defining the factors that lead to the complexity and analyzing their impact on the network structure. In order to better discovering the factors, I will compare and analyze actual company cases in two industries in which structures and characteristics differ the most in diverse aspects—Automotive and Fast-fashion industries.