The History of Zara

The History of Zara Zara is the most successful brand of Spanish company Grupo Inditex. Its owner, Amancio Ortega, opened first retail store in 1975 in La Coruna, a small port in Spain. Zara became the worlds largest fashion retailer by 2008 end. By this time it had stores in over 70 countries, out performing its rivals like Gap of USA and Sweden based HM (Hennes Maurits) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/12/retail.spain). Zaras Innovative Operations: Daniel Piette, director of fashion, LVMH has described Zara as possibly the most devastating and innovating retailer in the world http://tbmdb.blogspot.com/2009/12/business-model-example-zara-devastating.html, owing to the companys innovative and unique approach in fashion retail. Zara follows the concept of a vertically integrated supply chain, in which the company has a tight control over most of the design phase, production phase and distribution system to its chain of retail outlets. The rest of these processes is handled by its sister concerns with nearby locations. Unlike its competitors Zara does not outsource its production to Asian developing countries; the proximity of production units helps Zara by giving flexibility in production so that the company can meet the ever-changing demands of the consumers more efficiently than its competitors. Zara has integrated the system of POS (Point Of Sales) and has formed a unique method that helps in the production of new designs. POS helps in monitoring what designs are bringing in maximum sales at the retail shops. The store managers are allowed freedom to decide which designs to display and which ones to keep back in the store, depending on the sales of those designs. Zaras employees at the retail outlets gather feedbacks from the customers and convey the information to the headquarters with the help of hand-held PDAs that each employee is required to carry. At the headquarters, the design teams immediately respond to feedbacks sent via PDAs and begin designing new clothes accordingly. The clothes are manufactured and distributed to the retail stores within a short period of 2 to 4 weeks owing to the vertical integration of its supply chain. While its rivals are busy finding and identifying what the latest trends might be and finally take 4 to 9 months to distribute new designs to their respective stores, Zara manages to design, manufacture and distribute new designs in a matter of just of 30 days. Taking advantage of the fast turn around time, Zara eschews the concept of producing just one collection per season, like its rivals do. Instead the designs keep on changing frequently so that Zara manages to deliver new designs twice a week to its retail shops. Zara only produces small quantities of each style so that there is continuous demand of popular designs. It cuts down on manufacturing costs as well. Thus Zara manages to deliver around 12000 different styles in a year whereas its competitors can produce only 4000-5000 per year. Hence, the company-coined phrase, fast fashion http://www.3isite.com/articles/ImagesFashion_Zara_Part_I.pdf. Current Technology in Information Communication Zaras use of technology in information technology is unique from its competitors. Firstly Zara uses much less technology, in terms of expenditure and work-force, than its competitors just 0.5% of its work force compared to 2.5% of employees that its rivals utilise. Similarly Zara spends only 0.5% of its revenue on information technology compared to expenditure of 2% by its competitors. Secondly Zara employs a unique combination of human and IT intelligence. Managers at the stores and the market survey done by the employees, form the human intelligence while IT intelligence consists of the PDA devices used to send information collected by the managers and other employees carrying the PDAs. An order form is transmitted to each managers PDA asking for information such as availability of garments and patterns of garment sales. The managers of each retail outlets then divide this order form into sections and these sections are transmitted to the PDAs of each employee to fill up, based o n customers feedback and the kind of designs sold. Employees then transmit back their respective sections to the managers PDA, after entering the customers requirements. The managers of each store are given total authority to determine and identify which sections are to be retained in the order form. The edited order form is then sent back to headquarters where the designing teams start working on the basis of the order forms. This unique hybrid of humans technology helps in managing the inventories efficiently and quick and efficient link between demand and supply, thus successfully helping in their own doctrine of fast fashion. Summing up Zaras use of technology http://leoborjblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/zara-it-for-fast-fashion/: Gather customer requirements PDAs Logistics and transmission of order form POS terminals and modems. Quickly designing new style CAD (Computer Aided Design) Advantages of such an Innovative System Vertical integration of supply chain and short turn around time lead to High turnover of product. Quick and efficient distribution helps to eliminate warehouse requirement, saving on additional storage costs. Searching the market for latest fashion trends and responding quickly to the consumer requirements with the help of hand-held PDAs. Complete autonomy and flexibility to the employees and managers who are in direct contact with the customers. POS terminals run on DOS operating system, which is cheap and easy to maintain and operate. Perceived limitations of this System http://www.slideshare.net/koffman/zara-case-study-2780928 Zara and its sister concerns have been using DOS as their main operating system in all the processes. It is an outdated operating system. As the POS vendor supplies DOS OS to zara only, it can always stop its supply, while continue to supply other operating systems to its other customers. Store managers are the decision makers. Zara headquarter relies solely on the experience and intuition of the managers. Instead of looking after customers, managers and employees have the time-consuming task of manually entering the garment details in small PDAs. This could result in the employees failing to assist some customers in choosing and might miss out on few garment sales. Inventory is maintained manually as well. Information transmitted is one way only. Managers have no knowledge of the inventories at headquarters and the stores distribution centre. Consequently managers cannot promise a customer if a particular garment that has been sold out, can be replenished and in how many days. Promises made to customers not kept can damage Zaras reputation, so the managers need to know about the garments inventories at headquarters and the distribution centres. There is a great demand for Zaras garments even though new designs are available twice a week. Zara may consider increase in production to meet these ever growing demands. Gathering of information therefore may need to be upgraded in terms of frequency. Its competitors can change to a better OS or software package and increase their turn around time, neutralizing Zaras edge of fast fashion over them. New IT Technology for Sustainability http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=97642 Benefits: New technology may not help Zara in increasing the competitive edge over its competitors but will help in sustaining that edge. A new operating system will help in installing software packages that will help in efficient access of inventory at the stores as well as headquarters and distribution centers. Upgrading to new OS will remove the companys dependency on its current supplier of DOS. Using more than one IT supplier will increase Zaras bargaining power. A Network can be set up between HQ, production centers and retail stores. POS system can be automated so that each sale will automatically update the POS devices. If the POS system of all stores can be interlinked all the store managers can easily know the inventory online and can make and keep their promises to customers demanding a particular garment. POS automation will help reduce overall workload of the employees and managers, as they will not have to manually enter every detail required in the order form. There will not be any need of hand held PDAs. Dedicated POS software will ensure that orders will now be made on the basis of theoretical inventories and will be more accurate. Orders can now placed continually increasing the frequency from twice a week to daily. Ideal software to be used for integration would be ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Linking all the process in the supply chain, from HQ, design centers to retail stores, will not only help the managers in accessing inventories but will also help HQ to regulate the supplies more accurately according to the orders placed. Production will become even leaner than before. ECQ (Economic Order Quantity) can help in determining quantities of different garments that buyer can order so that there is sufficient stock for the customers. This will reduce inventory cost as well. Knowing reorder levels will streamline managing of the inventory and help in maintaining the autonomy of the managers. Managers can determine from the reorder levels whether a particular garment needs to be ordered before it will go out of stock and can transmit the same to the production centers that are now linked to the retail outlets. Of course manual checks will still be needed occasionally to check a stores real time inventory is same as the theoretical inventory in case of exceptions like garments getting stolen or gone missing. Designers at HQ will now not depend entirely on the managers discretion and can observe themselves sales of new designs due to two-way system integration by ERP. Just in case a store does run out of stock on a particular garment, the manager can easily check the inventories of local nearby stores for availability and suggest the customer to go there. Inter-store connectivity will have added advantage of shipping garments to another store that has more demand of a particular garment. This will further increase the speed-to-market. Besides HQ even managers of different stores will benefit if they know through network what is selling at other stores and what is not. Cost Analysis: Zara will have to upgrade to better OS that will support ERP like Linux, Unix or Windows NT. Implementation cost of Linux is lowest of the three OS. But recurring costs like service-contract is much higher (McAfee et al). Annual cost of using Unix is the lowest and if functionality remains more or less same, Unix will be best suited. If other costs like plans for systems failure are not taken into consideration then implementation cost will relatively much lower than prospective ROI (Return On Investment). Risk Analysis: Changing software and operating system in all retail shops world over is not an easy task. Due to location of Zaras retail outlets all over the world, there will be many extra tangible costs. Cost of replacing current POS system with the new one. Cost of installation of new cables in each store and maybe new infrastructure to support the cables. Cost of external IT support, hiring professional consultants. Cost of internal IT management and technical training of personnel. Time taken to train the personnel till outside assistance is not required cannot be determined as level of training and learning will be different at different locations around the world. Risk Reduction: Both current and new systems should operate together till the personnel of each store can run the new system smoothly; this will not interrupt any service provided to customers. Zara has a huge pilot outlet that is around 1,500 square meters. Zara can use this as training facility from its personnel from all over the world. Zara can use it to test the new system as well. Zara can hire experienced software professionals and open an in-house department for software management and development. Zara can outsource the management and development to experienced software companies. However Zara will have to trade-off between highly efficient and expensive companies. Zara should develop a contingency plan and an exit plan as well in case the company cannot continue with the up gradation for some reason. Robust data backup is required in case the new system crashes due to mishandling by inexperienced staff.

Perceptual Maps Essay

Ranked from most healthy to least healthy. 1a) http://jambajuice.com/ – Jamba Juice 2a) http://www.soupersalad.com/- Souper Salad 3a) http://www.lucianositalian.com/ – Lucianos Italian 4a) http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/default.aspx – Subway 5a) http://www.schlotzskys.com/ – Schlotskys Deli 6a) https://www.tgifridays.com/ – TGI Friday’s 7a) http://www.bjsrestaurants.com/ – BJ’s Restaurant 8a) http://www.rudysbbq.com/page/home – Rudy’s Barbeque 9a) http://www.wienerschnitzel.com/ – Wienerschnitzel 10a) http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html – McDonalds Ranked from most expensive to least expensive 1b) http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html 2b) http://www.wienerschnitzel.com/ 3b) http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/default.aspx 4b) http://www.schlotzskys.com/ 5b) http://www.rudysbbq.com/page/home 6b) http://www.soupersalad.com/ 7b) https://www.tgifridays.com/ 8b) http://jambajuice.com/ 9b) http://www.bjsrestaurants.com/ 10b) http://www.lucianositalian.com/    1a) http://jambajuice.com/ – Jamba Juice Target Market – High income, health concerned, convenience speed. Good position – high traffic areas 2a) http://www.soupersalad.com/- Souper Salad TM – High income, health concerned, convenience speed, Vegan/vegetarian niche Poor position – sought out 3a) http://www.lucianositalian.com/ – Lucianos Italian TM – high income, occasion focused, culture based, high end experience Good position – uptown/cultural destination 4a) http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/default.aspx – Subway TM – low income, healthy concerned, substitute to unhealthy fast food. Good position – many locations 5a) http://www.schlotzskys.com/ – Schlotskys Deli TM – middle income, higher fast food quality, family orientation, semi – occasion. Decent position – located near many homes on alameda. 6a) https://www.tgifridays.com/ – TGI Friday’s TM – middle/higher income, quality food, sports niche, semi-ocassion Good position – SPID main traffic area 7a) http://www.bjsrestaurants.com/ – BJ’s Restaurant TM – family owned, sports theme, segregation in – family pizza/sports bar Good position – SPID high traffic area 8a) http://www.rudysbbq.com/page/home – Rudy’s Barbeque TM – Country themed, family style/ cafeteria style, mid/high income, revolved around convenience. Good Position – SPID high traffic 9a) http://www.wienerschnitzel.com/ – Wienerschnitzel TM – low income, convenience, German theme, â€Å"Americanized† niche. Poor position – competing with 3 other convenience based restaurants like subway and schlotzskys and other restaurants. 10a) http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html – McDonalds TM – Low income, convenience themed, Iconic reputation, children niche. Good positioning – many locations iconic marketing

What You Dont Know About Humorous Classification Essay Topics

What You Don't Know About Humorous Classification Essay Topics On the surface of it, the classification essay may seem to be an easy concept as it's only meant to help make a concept easily understandable to the reader. To understand the goal of your classification essay, you will need to understand for what sort of public you will need to write it. At this time you ought to be ready to compose an exceptional classification essay that will certainly get you an A from even the strictest professor. A classification essay on friends is not too challenging to write. If you're ready to dig deeper into the subject of classification essay writing, the subsequent step-by-step guide will reveal to you the way to compose a classification paragraph. The particular information and examples form the bulk of a classification essay. Plenty of things in life are categorized kinds of plants and animals, kinds of chemical compounds, kinds of medicine, kinds of furniture, and so on. The unifying essay topic could possibly be an activity, a form of person, place or thing. The nature of the essence of the permanent humor is dependent upon the range of manifestations of the temporal humor. With the assistance of humor, an individual gradually receives an opportunity to assert himself and find his personality. Humorous Classification Essay Topics Explained Most people today assess the entire essay depending on the 1st paragraph. While the notion of skipping on a few topics and categories may appear to be a fantastic idea once it comes to a massive essay, it certainly does not make for good reading. By writing that up, you will put all your notes in 1 place and structure the entire thing in a manner that'd make it simpler for you to do it! Clearly state the method you're using to divide the field into parts and list the categories which you will be describing in the body paragraph (three or four is going to be a superior choice). Humorous Classification Essay Topics at a Glance The concluding paragraph provides you a chance to draw together the many types and approaches you've been examining. Whatever the case, make sure your conclusion clearly emphasizes the aim of your classification. You can pick any order you want, but be sure your logic is understandable and clear. In case you have any difficulties in selecting the very best subject, utilize a unique gradual process to handle them effectively. It is very important to prepare a draft to direct you through the writing process. A good deal of students forget that writing pl enty of content doesn't guarantee them success in the conclusion of their essays. Start is a crucial step that has to be well articulated to capture the eye of the reader. Humorous Classification Essay Topics Hobbies can enable a person discover their abilities and the way to improve them further. When choosing the one or making your own idea of the research work, pick the theme, which will make it possible for you to write about certain well-defined categories. It's also wise to read up on the topic so that it is possible to express your thoughts more naturally. Some can believe the chance to investigate and explore a different topic will help them with a terrific learning curve. What to Expect From Humorous Classification Essay Topics? The group doesn't fit the category. When you have categories, make sure they fit into the exact same organizing principle. As soon as you have divided your subject, you have to choose a principle of classification. It's essential not to make too many categories all groups have to be equally important and equally related to your topic. When you've chosen your points, make sure to comment on all them for every one of the categories. The Rise of Humorous Classification Essay Topics In the event you were planning to classify types of wars, maybe you would classify by participants. If you're assigned a group, naturally, you don't have any options, but you'll then should decide the criteria for dividing up members of the group into small segments. For instance, a list of United States presidents could possibly be grouped in any variety of ways, based on your objective. For example, the classifications could be close relatives, distant relatives and deceased relatives. Rarely the work on the research papers go smoothly with no confusion, you might come to a standstill sooner or later or feel tension on account of the time limitations set. One of the most intriguing components of a classificati on essay is exploring the many ways which you can categorize the pieces of your subject. You are going to have the chance to supply plenty of examples to back up your arguments. Your subject will represent a wide whole.

The Breakfast Club And Teen Identity - 1613 Words

1 Ethan Wynne English 101 Sam Lackey October 2, 2014 The Breakfast Club and Teen Identity The movie The Breakfast Club takes viewers on a comedic tour of the ups and downs of adolescence. The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, focuses on the events that unfold between five very different high school students during a Saturday detention. Even though the movie was shot in the 1980 s the characters portrayal is still relatable in a way to a lot of people today. Director John Hughes takes us on a comedic ride with what seems like another typical teen movie while still portraying a few life lessons along the way and exposing some truths behind stereotyping. Anyone who has ever been a high school student can probably find some way to relate to the characters in the film. The movie revolves around 5 students who for various reasons have been sent to Saturday detention by principle Vernon. The principle asks each of the students to write a one-page paper on who they think they are. As the day progresses, we see the teens begin to bond with each other and find out about each other and themselves. The film begins by introducing each of the five characters. John Hughes gives us five common archetypes with each of his characters including: a jock, a popular princess, a geek, a criminal, and basket case. These generic characters make it easier for the audience to relate to one of the characters in the film. Andy, the jock, is the generic high school athlete, or so it seems.Show MoreRelatedCultural Significance Of Teen Films1426 Words   |  6 PagesTeen films are the definitive genre that captures the adolescent zeitgeist during the 1980s, and its popularity still hold cultural relevance in the present day. The teen films produced during the 1980s effectively represent youth concerns and the coming-of-age narrative, in terms of adolescent identity, the different roles characters play, sexuality, gender, relationships, class issues and the generational divide. 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