Shortening Lead-times To Create An
Agile Supply Chain For Esprit

Abstract
Leaded by the fashion brands like ZARA and HM, fast fashion has risen to be the theme of current fashion industry, their emergence has a deep, profound impact on conventional apparel industries. Under the pressure of the trend, Esprit is one of the victims of traditional fashion brands. This paper focuses on the current problem that Esprit is faced with, presents three possible solutions which are designing new products following fashion shows, establishing smaller-scale operational mode and using quick response strategy, in order to create an agile supply chain for Esprit by the means of shortening three critical lead times: time-to-market, time-to-serve and time-to-react.
1. Introduction
The last decade has witnessed a significant transformation that fast fashion has become a key feature in current fashion industry. Although it was regarded as a niche concept offered by a few winners such as Zara and H&M, fast fashion has now been adopted as a key operation mode by many brands in the fashion market (Baker, 2008), using advanced and more efficient supply chains to be more responsive to changing trends towards customer demand. Hence,
Fast fashion brands perform relatively better than other fashion brands in various aspects.
(Mattila et al. 2002: 340 – 351)
Esprit is a fashion brand owned by Esprit Holding Ltd., manufacturing apparel, accessories, footwear and housewares under the Esprit label. In the previous fashion market, Esprit is generally recognized as the originator of fast fashion. As one of the pioneers in the fashion industry, however, Esprit has lost its way in recent years. (Best Retail Brands, 2012) "In essence, Esprit is a strong and profitable brand, but the brand has gradually lost its soul over the past few years,'' Ronald Van Der Vis - chief