Supply Chain Management

A supply chain is the sequence of business processes and information that provides a product or service from suppliers through manufacturing and distribution to finally, the customer. Mens Wearhouse uses two different supply chains (there is only one diffenrece between the two). First they have the suppliers who provide the materials for making the suit (ex. cloth and thread). Then there are the brand name factories in which brand name suits, sport coats, and shoes are made (ex. Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Bostonian). These items are bought by TMW and delivered to a warehouse. From this central hub (Mens Wearhous owned) the products are shipped to individual MW stores across the country. Once they are delivered to the stores, the products are put onto the selling floor ready to be sold to the customer. Finally the customer can purchase a suit, get it altered for the best fit and take the item home. The other supply chain is used for dress shirts, casual shirts, and custom clothing. the only difference is that the factories are not other brand name owned factories; TMW owns the labels for these items.

TMW delivery performance is quite satisfactory. Each store gets a shipment of products twice, every week. The qualtity is also very good. The return rate is very low, while the rate for a customer who becomes a regular shopper at TMW is pretty high. The Mens Wearhouse uses an innovative supply chain managment for quick respose to unpredictable demand to minimize stockouts, lost sales, and markdowns. The only part that is unsatisfactory is the custom orders and improvements need to be made. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks to arrive for a customer. One way to improve this it to use the techniques used by dell, in which when an order is made, the inofrmation is sent out to all departments at one time rather than one department at a time. This will speed up this process significantly.