Campus Quilts Partners with UPS to Manage Its Supply Chain
What do you plan to do with all of the T-shirts you collect in your college years? Store them in a box somewhere? Wear them for the next 30 years? Give them away? Leigh Lowe of Louisville, Kentucky, has a different alternative for you-make a quilt out of them. Leigh is the owner of a small business that takes T-shirts, ties, baby clothes, sweatshirts, hats, and other memorable clothing items and sews them into pillowcases or quilts. Making this unique product offering is very time intensive-a single quilt can take up to 3 weeks-but the end product is highly personalized and valuable to the customer. The supply chain management and logistics for this type of business are different from your typical commercial retailer.
In this situation, the supplier of the raw materials and the customer who receives the final product are the same. Additionally, both the raw materials and the final product are unique and irreplaceable items. Therefore, it is imperative that Campus Quilts take the utmost care with the product throughout the product life cycle, from acquiring the raw materials to delivering the final product. Although Leigh is an incredibly talented quilt maker, she had no experience with protecting the security of irreplaceable items. Therefore, Leigh realized she would need a reliable third-party logistics/supply chain partner to manage this part of the job. Leigh turned to UPS to handle all of her logistical needs. She opened an account with UPS that allows her to initiate and track three separate shipments for each custom product via the Web. The process works like this:
The customer initiates the process by placing an order either online or by phone. After the customer makes a deposit, Campus Quilts sends a package to the customer that includes information on the product he or she has chosen, design instructions, a prepaid shipping label, and instructions for sending the raw materials (T-shirts or other memorable clothing) to Campus Quilts. The customer then follows the instructions and ships the materials using the prepaid label. Leigh creates the fi nished product from the raw materials. She then ships the fi nished quilt back to the address specified in the order. Relying on UPS to handle the logistics allows Leigh to focus on producing a quality product while expanding her potential customer base. Campus Quilts is able to reach customers worldwide via the Web and UPS. Without a shipping solution, Leigh's business would be confined to the local area. With a reliable shipping partner, she can expand far beyond her local area. Together, Campus Quilts and UPS provide a seamless customer experience. Customers feel "touched" all the way through the process because they always know where their personal items are-even during shipping. This sense of involvement helps customers trust Campus Quilts, brings Leigh closer to her customers, and is leading to a steadily increasing business. Sources: Compiled from www.campusquilt.com, www.ups.com, accessed March 22, 2013.
Questions
1. Describe why the supply chain for Campus Quilts differs from a "normal" supply chain. Discuss the implications of these differences for Leigh's supply chain management.
2. Why would Leigh's business be confined to her local area without a shipping solution?