The Italian Fashion Supply Chain: a model to identify the suitable technology between Fashion Houses and Third Parties Laboratories

The “digital transformation” of the Italian Fashion Supply Chain is difficult to implement due to the complexity and dynamism of the industry. The geographical distribution of companies in small districts adds to the level of complexity of implementation, owing to each vendor operating as small closed systems. Market dynamism arises from the fragmented production activities and the desire for companies to overcome national barriers. Consequently, the introduction of digital tools to support supply chain processes has been identified as being crucial to maintain productivity and increase market share. While firms have understood the potential benefit stemming from the implementation of ICT in Business-to-business (B2b) communications, few Italian Fashion Houses have adopted such collaborative strategies in their supply networks. One of the most promising ways to address this deficiency in implementation is to analyze the relationship between Fashion Houses and their strategic partners, i.e. the Third Parties Laboratories. This work aims to contribute to knowledge in the field by assessing the level of eSupply Chain Collaboration adoption in the Fashion Supply Chain and the choice to implement eSupply Chain Collaboration with Third Parties Laboratories. The potential influence of eSupply Chain is reviewed through the definition of a theoretical framework, seeking to synthetize and model suitable digital tools that companies can implement to increase eSupply Chain Collaboration. The model provides a roadmap to identify digital tools that support these relationship, based on preliminary benchmarks extracted from the Italian Fashion industry.