Levi's.pdf - Levi’s Personal Pair Jeans (Case Study)...

Levi’s Personal Pair Jeans (Case Study)
Introduction
In 1995, women’s jeans were a $2 billion fashion category in the US and
growing fast. Levi Strauss was the manufacturer of women’s jeans and
the market leader. It used to sell 51 different size combinations of
women’s jeans which had been the industry -leading product for decades.
However, fashion was taking over a category, dominating and putting the
company under a heavy attack. Strauss was a push-based manufacturing
company, so producing a fashion jean with a variety of styles, colours, and
the better fit was like a nightmare for the company.
Strauss was as aggressive as other apparel manufacturers and retailers
in improving the quality of product, manufacturing process and
technology, and delivery cycles times. But still, from product design to
retail sales, overall supply was complex, expensive, and slow. On
average, there was an eight-month lag between ordering cotton fabrics
and selling the final pairs of jeans. Strauss operated 19 original L evi’s
retail stores across the country to get in touch with the end-user or
customer. In the fall of 1994, as an experiment in an alternative value
chain, Stra uss introduced ‘Personal Pair’ kiosks in 4 of its original stores.
Problem Statement
This case study aims to explore the new alternative ideas Levi Strauss
has implemented to reduce the value chain and whether they should
continue it.