Assessing the future challenges in strategic sourcing commodity from China: a case-study analysis

Abstract

There has been an increasing trend of global sourcing garment supply from South-East Asia but the challenges confronting retailers sourcing commodity and seasonal garments from countries such as China are less well understood. A supplier evaluation model developed from the Kaufmann and Hedderich (2005) framework assesses the delivery, flexibility, cost, quality, reliability and culture sourcing challenges from China using a case study approach of a UK-based garment sourcing company using a fuzzy logic method. The results have identified that the highest challenges include unforeseen risk in delivery process, rigid negotiability, language barriers and Chinese-style business customs. The most important challenges are improvement, sourcing location, languages barriers, unforeseen delivery risks and customer services.

Keywords:

• China
• Chinese garment supply
• commodity
• fuzzy logic methodology
• strategic global sourcing
• trading relationships