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Student Feature
ESD
Reports Winter 2005
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MIT
and the Fashion Industry
By
Sumit Kumar, MLOG '05
The
fashion industry is unique in the way that it attracts a potpourri of
talent both from artistic, as well as scientific, disciplines. Even
though I am an engineer by academic qualification, the scientific aspect
of the industry had not been very evident to me until I came to MIT.
Fashion and MIT sounded like a terrible mismatch at a time, until I
had the fateful meeting with Dr. Chris Caplice, Executive Director of
the Masters of Engineering in Logistics (MLOG) program at MIT.
I entered
the fashion industry in the year 1998 on being given the Herculean task
of reviving my father’s eroding apparel manufacturing business
in India. Since then, I have had the privilege of starting two apparel
fashion brands, “Turbulence” and “Adonis”, in
New York City and failing in both. So what went wrong? In search of
truth, I landed at MIT. I am more than convinced that the MLOG has the
answers that I have been looking for so long.
What
makes the fashion industry so challenging from a supply chain standpoint
is the nature of its seasonal and short life cycle; the key concept
being speed-to-market. Most fashion brands compete through their ability
to execute multiple new product introductions followed by continuous
replenishments. The sourcing shift to cheap labor countries adds tremendous
complexity to the supply chain by increasing uncertainty in quality,
manufacturing and transportation lead times, and cross-border customs
delays.
The
multi-disciplinary culture of the Engineering Systems Division (ESD),
of which the MLOG program is the supply chain management arm, helps
create a cross-functional culture enabling research like “The
Supply Chain 2020 (SC2020) Project” to flourish. SC2020 is a multiyear
research effort that helps identify and analyze the factors that are
critical to the success of future supply chains. This pioneering project
aims to map out innovations that underpin successful supply chains as
far into the future as the year 2020. Lasting approximately one year,
the first phase of research focuses on understanding current excellent
supply chains. It involves identifying and researching the organizations
that drive today’s successful supply chains in a broad range of
industries, with the aim of understanding the evolving business strategies,
operating models, practices and principles that are responsible for
driving improved performance.
SC2020,
my current MLOG thesis at MIT, is a tremendous opportunity for researchers
like me, with backgrounds in the fashion industry, to leverage our past
work experience in gaining useful insights of supply chain knowledge
from other industries. Under the supervision of my thesis advisors,
MLOG's Dr. Larry Lapide and Dr. Sharon Novak, Visiting Professor at
MIT Sloan, my current research is leading me to understand critical
macro forces relevant to the apparel industry. These macro factors range
from economics, trade regulations, technologies, labor laws, demand
trends, to competitive landscapes. It also helps me get a deeper understanding
of supply capabilities such as production and distribution technologies,
information technologies, human capital resources, and infrastructure
that enterprises need to leverage to develop and evolve their supply
chains.
While
I use my stay at MIT as a great testing ground to evaluate and re-evaluate
the various supply chain “don’ts” in my two failed
business brands in the apparel industry, I am also exposed to a myriad
of future supply chain career opportunities in other industries like
consumer goods, retail and even consulting. In short, my MIT experience
has been a delightful one and I view this opportunity as a solid start
in my quest to learn from my past failures. The knowledge gained here
has tremendous leverage value and I am already beginning to cherish
the fruits of my work.
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