Quality Management in a Supply Chain Perspective - Strategic and Operative Choices in a Textile-Apparel Network

Supply chain management (SCM) is conceived by academics and practitioners as either an extension of logistics or an all-encompassing approach to business integration. From the authors' point of view, SCM involves not only logistic activities but also other processes such as quality management. This paper seeks to understand how quality can be managed using a supply chain perspective and what the operative and strategic consequences are for both the individual companies and the whole supply network. It reports a case study conducted on Marzotto, an important Italian textile and apparel company, and its supply chain relationships. The study compares the quality practices in the two different kinds of supply network of which Marzotto is the focal firm. One is managed using a traditional customer-supplier approach and the other a broader and more co-ordinated perspective. In the latter case, it was found that the whole supply network could improve its ability to meet the expectations of the final consumer in terms of quality through the joint definition and co-management of quality practices/procedures.