Supply chains are the backbone of any operation, and that’s particularly true in the fashion industry, where sourcing, manufacturing and delivery are quite literally make-or-break.

To help host Sergio Reyes dive into visibility, management and more when it comes to supply chains in the fashion industry, Smartwool Head of Operations Aloke Mishra joined this episode of Scale with Sergio to share his insights.

To begin, the duo touched on the key elements of supply chains and what makes them so critical to the operation of businesses the world over.

“You really need to understand and have visibility into your supply chain from end to end,” Mishra said.

In particular, Mishra said sheer financial impact, time to market, production efficiency and end-of-life management are the core aspects of supply chains that make them so critical to the successful operation of a business in quite literally any industry.

Reyes and Mishra dove into each of those aspects, providing insights regarding how to best manage each and maintain visibility throughout the entire supply chain, not just a portion of it.

The pair also explored how scale and growth can affect supply chain management, noting that getting larger often means navigating new supply chain challenges.

Fortunately, solutions exist if you’re willing to do the work to identify areas where efficiency can be boosted, such as in the leveraging of raw materials.

“The bigger the company, (the more) silos, and each silo is creating its own product not knowing that each silo could be sharing 60% of the raw material,” Mishra said. “This is where I think supply chains have another part to play.

“When you really start to look at your raw materials much more closely, you are actually also going to embed yourself with R&D and say, ‘Hey, by the way, this particular component of yours and that component of that other one are like 98% similar.’”

Catch Up on Previous Episodes of Scale with Sergio!