Strategic fit represents the extent to which a firm is capable of meeting its strengths and resources with the opportunities available in the external environment. In other words, it represents the matching of the internal and external environment of a company. Internal environment includes all capabilities and resources of the organization (Chan, Ngai, & Moon, 2016). While on the other hand, the external environment of the organization is consist of available opportunities and threats in the targeted segment. Matching between internal resources and external opportunities is only possible by implementing an attractive and appropriate strategy. The organization needs to have actual capabilities and resources to support and execute an appropriate strategy (Ha & Tang, 2016). Thus we can say that an organization should take into consideration its products and nature of the product for the achievement of the strategic fit. Most of the time, companies failed in the management of the supply chain because of the mismatch between the nature of product demand and supply chain strategy. Each kind of product requires a specific strategy for supply chain management only then the organization can achieve a strategic fit (Chan, Ngai, & Moon, 2016).

            The main differences between both types are caused by a difference in nature, demand, and life cycle (Ha & Tang, 2016). Functional products are long-lasting products that can be found easily in grocery shops and local petrol stations. Functional products remain unchanged for a longer period of time and usually have stable and predictable demand. Organizations producing and selling functional products can easily forecast market demand and manage their supply chains efficiently. Somehow, functional products usually have high competition in the market as stable growth attracts to other companies and investors to invest in this industry (Chavez, Yu, Feng, & Wiengarten, 2014). As a result of the increase in competition, organizations decrease their prices and earn relatively less profit. The low-profit-margin caused by strong competition in the market is a negative point for functional products. While on the other hand, primarily innovative products usually get change over the period of time (Ross, 2016). Garment industry products like fashion clothing and apparel fall in this category. In other words, Garment industry products are primarily innovative products. Fashion get changes over the period of time; therefore, the life cycle of garment industry products is relatively limited and short (Ha & Tang, 2016). The key benefit of producing and selling the innovative product is a monopoly over market and high prices. Garment industry can sell out their products at a high price when they come up with innovative and new designs. Somehow, organizations can also enhance profitability by minimizing the cost of management in the supply chain. Cost-efficient supply chain management can support the garment industry to achieve a strategic fit in the targeted market (Chavez, Yu, Feng, & Wiengarten, 2014).

            Garment industry can achieve a strategic fit between its supply chain strategy and its competitive strategy by matching its internal resources and capabilities with the opportunities available external targeted market. Garment industry may get its strategic fit by building a competitive strategy to select some most responsive and suitable customer segments (Paulraj, Chen, & Blome, 2017). These segment can be demographic or geographic segment as both are important in the garment industry. Moreover, the Garment industry especially needs to understand what kind of customer needs and requirements can be satisfied with their products. In fact, the key focus should be on the customer's need (Chan, Ngai, & Moon, 2016).

         Garment industry sometimes introduces a quite new design or product in the market that was obviously never demanded or needed by the customers. In such a situation, the best strategy is to create a need by spreading awareness and promoting the new product in the targeted segment. Company working in the garment industry can only earn success in the market by addressing the competition (Ross, 2016). They need to have an understanding and complete information about competitors and competitive strategies. Mainly the company working in the garment industry have to ensure a competitive advantage for the achievement of strategic fit. Innovation itself support a competitive advantage if it relates to the requirements and needs of customers. Somehow, for innovative products, we cannot predict the future demands of the products by the selected audience (Gunasekaran, et al., 2016).

          Garment industry should pay attention to the supply chain management strategies in the market for the achievement of strategic fit (Paulraj, Chen, & Blome, 2017). The company should focus on its resources (human resources, financial resources, and raw materials) while developing strategies for the supply chain. In case of limited resources organization cannot add extra intermediaries in the supply chain. Moreover, in the case of market demand is increasing then organization need to ensure the availability of more resources for the execution of operations and meeting market demands (Johnsen, Howard, & Miemczyk, 2014).

          Considering low margin and unpredictable demand factor, we need to efficient supply chain strategy with a focus on cost minimization. In other words, a company working in the garment industry with the primarily innovative product should strengthen its resources and ensures strength by minimizing cost and enlarging profit margin (Chan, Ngai, & Moon, 2016). Innovativeness, uniqueness, and quality can add value to the product and may enhance the capabilities of the organization to address the competitive situation in the external market. Thus effective strategy having the capability to match internal strengths and external market opportunities can assist the achievement of strategic fit (Chavez, Yu, Feng, & Wiengarten, 2014).

            However, there are some obstacles that need to be tackled in the process of achieving the strategic fit for the garment industry. Key obstacles for garment industry are increasing the variety of products in the market, decreasing product life cycles, globalization, increasing demanding customers, and unpredictable market demand. The company can tackle these obstacles by developing an appropriate strategy (Ross, 2016).  For instance, obstacles related to globalization and increasing variety of products can be tackled by adding value in the product and promoting capabilities of the firm. Increase in globalization results in the increase of competition and the availability of alternative products (Ha & Tang, 2016). In such a condition, the garment industry needs to pay more attention to its innovativeness, quality, and pricing. Moreover, making products capable of meeting customer needs and requirements can also support in securing a better position in the competitive market while obstacles related to demand factors can be tackled through formulating an efficient strategy for getting relatively accurate information about demand and market changes. The company can use historical data for getting information about demand (Ross, 2016).

         Obstacle related to decreasing product life cycle is really crucial for the survival of the garment industry. Fashion get changes over the period of time (Chan, Ngai, & Moon, 2016). A product comes in the market, goes to peek (maturity level) and declines rapidly in response to the introduction of new product in the market. In such a situation, garment companies can do only one thing that is to increase their product variety. The company need to work continuously on the production sector. To address this volatility company need to make sure the availability of products while keeping product obsolescence low (Gunasekaran, et al., 2016). A clear understanding of the demand can make bring ease for organizations. Innovative products usually have uncertain demand. Fisher and Reman developed an accurate method to predict the life cycle of demand. According to the findings, the average forecast error is 55% if we collect data from a team of expert merchants. Nevertheless, the use of early two weeks sales data can reduce error by 8% for the prediction and forecasting of future demand. Strong agreement on a forecast by the committee can also cause to decrease forecast error. Thus organizations working with innovative products like the garment industry can reduce forecast error easily (Gunasekaran, et al., 2016).

References of Strategic Fit of Garment Industry of Supply chain management

Chan, A. T., Ngai, E. W., & Moon, K. K. (2016). The Effects of Strategic and Manufacturing Flexibilities and Supply Chain Agility on Firm. European Journal of Operational Research, 1-35. doi:: 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.11.006

Chavez, R., Yu, W., Feng, M., & Wiengarten, F. (2014). The Effect of Customer-Centric Green Supply Chain Management on Operational Performance and Customer Satisfaction. 25(3), 205–220.

Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Dubey, R., Wamba, S. F., Childe, S. J., & Akter, S. (2016). Big Data and Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain and Organizational Performance. Journal of Business Research, 70, 308-317.

Ha, A. Y., & Tang, C. S. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of Information Exchange in Supply Chain Management. Springer.

Johnsen, T. E., Howard, M., & Miemczyk, J. (2014). Purchasing and Supply Chain Management: A Sustainability Perspective (illustrated ed.). Routledge.

Paulraj, A., Chen, I. J., & Blome, C. (2017). Motives and Performance Outcomes of Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices: A Multi-theoretical Perspective. 145(2), 239–258.

Ross, D. F. (2016). Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies (2 ed.). CRC Press.