You are a global sourcing manager of a traditional UK-based fashion retailer. The company has 150 retail outlets in UK major cities. The company sources various products (menswear, Womenswear, kids wear, etc) from suppliers within the UK and abroad. The company has a central warehouse in Milton Keynes. You are
being asked to source a newly designed fashion product from outside the UK to be sold at the 150 retail outlets.

Produce a 3,000-word report to address the following tasks:

1. Perform a research to explain why the chosen product is suitable for the
fashion retailer and its customers. Choose a country of origin for the product
and explain why it is a suitable supply source.

2. Suggest suitable transportation mode(s) (i.e. air, sea, rail, road, etc.) for
importing the product (all the way from the supplier at the country of origin to
the central warehouse in the UK, and finally the retail stores). Support your
suggestions with convincing theoretical/practical arguments.

3. Suggest suitable port(s) of export in the country of origin and the port(s) of
import in the UK and design effective supply and distribution networks for the
product. Critically support your suggestions with convincing arguments and
additional information about each port and network design.

4. Illustrate, using a process diagram, all the parties involved, main activities and
all documentation required to manage the imports of the product all the way
from the supplier in the country of origin to the central warehouse in the UK,
and finally all retail stores.

5. Considering recent developments, suggest how the company might govern
and control the supply risk, sustainability and cost of imports and the reliability
of the delivery of the chosen product in the future.

You should make the following assumptions/suggestions: location of raw or
packaging material supplier, purchase terms (INCOTERM), payment terms,
shipment volume and frequency, locations of ports, inventory policies, and other
factors relevant to the above tasks. Your report should include references to the
appropriate (preferable peer-reviewed) logistics management literature (textbook,
journals, and websites). You referencing must apply Harvard style referencing style (see Module Handbook). Care should be taken when consulting websites;
they are not all equally authoritative (for example Wikipedia is not peer-reviewed;
therefore is not considered an academic reference website).
Assignments should be a maximum of 3,000 words in length.