Lean as a Strategy

The American textile industry has moved much of its operations offshore in the pursuit of lower labor costs. Textile imports have risen from under $5\%$ of all textile production in the early $1960$s to over $95\%$ today. Offshore manufacturers make long runs of standard mass$-$market apparel items. These are then brought to the United States in container ships, requiring significant time between original order and delivery. As a result, retail customers must accurately forecast market demands for imported apparel items.

A textile retailer wishes to match the trend in the market and bring in new products before the competitor introduces the same. Whom should he approach and identify the reason for your answer.

a$.$ Domestic manufacturer.

b$.$ Offshore manufacturer.

a

Reason:

a$.$ Domestic manufacturers can be reached quickly and make small batches of orders which will be delivered within the short time.

b$.$ Offshore manufacturers are cheap and large quantities can be ordered.

c$.$ Offshore manufacturers are not the trend setters and the fashion may not be same to order a large quantity at a time.

d$.$ None of the above.