Case Study: Managing Workers' Interests Across Global Supply Chains Networks

Case Studies of the Garment Manufacturing and Offshore Construction Industries

Patsy Perry, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780749477233
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Operations
• Index: Business

This case study focuses on a UK-based designer knitwear manufacturer and retailer, involved in global outsourcing and retailing activities of own-brand products as well as contract manufacturing for other fashion brands.The case analyses the high environmental impact of the fashion industry, in terms of its carbon, water and waste footprint. It is under increased pressure from various stakeholders to balance the triple bottom line (TBL); environmental, social and economic needs. The case study highlights the difficulties in managing global supply chains when it comes to corporate social responsibility and protecting workers' interests. It also illustrates how a region's labour laws and historical relationships with Western clients can embed the importance of ethical behaviour alongside modern cost and lead time cutting demands. The authors examine globally dispersed fashion supply chains which have potentially negative impacts for people and the planet. It highlights the fact that for fashion businesses, it's a challenge to incorporate sustainability when the critical success factors are cost efficiency and effectiveness. Aimed at students on logistics, supply chain management and fashion courses, readers are provided with tools and ideas for sustainability and presented with questions about challenges to the fashion industry as well as some interesting suggested solutions.

CASE STUDY

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Managing workers’ interests across global supply chain networks

Case studies of the garment manufacturing and offshore construction industries

Patsy Perry and Mohamed Abdel-Wahab

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

dr patsy perry is a Lecturer in Fashion Marketing in the School of Materials at the University of Manchester. Her research interests include corporate social responsibility in fashion supply chains and she has published a number of book chapters and academic journal papers in this area.

dr mohamed abdel-wahab is a Lecturer in Construction Technology at Heriot-Watt University. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design and has published extensively on construction skills and training issues, including the link between skills/training and performance, skills policy, implication of new technologies for skills development and training, and the facilitation of learning from construction practice.

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Introduction

Garment manufacturing and construction are key industries in the economy. Garment manufacturing is a key export industry for many developing countries while construction is a key contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) in both developing and developed countries. Both sectors have long and geographically complex supply chains, with materials sourced from different countries, as well as labour-intensive production processes that can rely significantly on migrant workers, particularly in developing countries. Ethical scandals involving exploitation of workers have made news headlines in both industries in recent years. In 2013, the garment industry’s worst ever industrial disaster occurred in Dhaka, Bangladesh when the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed and resulted in the deaths of over 1,100 people. Many Western fashion brands were implicated in the disaster as they had been outsourcing production to companies in the Rana Plaza building. Whilst ethical scandals are commonly associated with developing countries, they may also occur in developed countries. In 2015, a study by the Ethical Trading Initiative found evidence of sweatshop working conditions in garment factories in Leicester, England, including a lack of employment contracts, pay levels below the minimum wage and breaches in health and safety practices. Recently, the situation of migrant construction workers in Qatar has made news headlines with hundreds of reported deaths due to poor health and safety practices, and working conditions. Workers are unable to leave the country without the permission of their sponsors and are often forced to accept lower wages and unsanitary, cramped and dangerous living conditions.

Therefore, an important aspect of managing global supply chains is managing worker issues, especially in industries which are labour intensive, low skilled and under pressure for cost and lead time reduction (such...

Table of contents

• Managing workers’ interests across global supply chain networks