The Recommendation for H&m

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The recommendation for H&M is to build faster, more flexible and efficient supply chain by following certain elements. Firstly, H&M should adopt and implement a clear policy commitment to respect human rights, embedded in all relevant suppliers. To do so, H&M should take help of some foreign governments to improve their respective clothes manufacturing industry and urge to not only keep laws but also enforce them. Secondly, though Tier 1 manufacturing supplier factories account for about 98.5% of commercial pieces, H&M should mitigate efforts to reach the subcontractors(such as Tier 2) beyond Tier 1 as most of the problems lie here. Tier 2 factories in Bangladesh and India produce fabric & yarn and according to executives of H&M, the use of both these textiles will increase soon. Thirdly, someone from H&M should visit the factory floor every quarter. Visiting suppliers in person, including surprise visits, is critical to assessing, monitoring, and managing risks related to employee conditions.

An efficient supply chain requires investments in proximity sourcing and automated warehouses. For an instance, government of Bangladesh can help enforce laws, but doesn’t have enough budgets to invest. Hence H&M must do the necessary investments so that the employees of the factory are safe. Also, if the employees are protected and satisfied, then productivity will increase, which in turn will increase profits of H&M. I personally feel that with the advent of media and social networking, it is very difficult to hide the sustainability of the suppliers. So consumers and retailers need to understand their suppliers' production processes, how they treat their people, the working conditions, and the environment.

However, there are certain challenges and drawbacks of the recommendation. The increase complexity of products, the sheer number of suppliers and the multiple tiers may challenge H&M. Also, H&M may have a huge first time investment to in-cooperate the human rights and new infrastructure for the suppliers, but doesn’t outweigh the benefits. Now-a-days shareholders, consumers and retailers react a lot if there is an issue with sustainability in supply chain, leading to decline in stock price. So the long-term benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

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