I signed up for a tour to go visit Inditex, the largest fashion/apparel distributor in the north of Spain. In fact, Inditex has well over 8 brands that are internationally known, and most people would recognize the brand "Zara". I know, they spelled my name wrong...I'll tell the CEO next time I see him.
Inditex's HQ is in a little town in Galicia (Arteixo, Spain) that from what I can tell is mainly used for industrial reasons. It's about 20 minutes away from La Coruña, the capital of Galicia that is also an important port for Spain. Anyway, the Inditex Tour that we had was guided by the Director of Communications and consisted of the following areas specific to the Zara brand: Design, Pattern, Cutting, Finishing, Packaging, Logistics.
Design / Pattern: The bus takes us to the first building where all of the designers and country managers sit. The buildings are open and modern, with tall white walls and open floor plan so that managers can easily talk to each other to transfer information as quickly as possible.
Cutting: The bus now takes us across the street to another large building where the fabric that has been chosen is now cut into the pattern's different pieces. These two ladies sit allll day at a computer playing a Tetris-like application to put all of the pieces of fabric so as to maximize the usage of the fabric. Poor girls!
Finishing: Zara does not handle any of the sewing themselves; it's all outsourced to a company close to town that sews all patterns within 48 hours and sends it back to Zara's facilities. Then the Finishing team (think of dry cleaners) give the clothing the final shaping before it goes on the hangers. Some of this is somewhat automized with large machines whereas in other cases, the inside lining of jackets and such must be "finished" by hand. What is "finished by hand?". It's ironing. As simple as that.
Logistics: Now that the clothes are curvy and such, and on hangers - it's time to distribute them to the right stores and prepare to send off in trucks/planes to anywhere in the world. The building is as big as 7 soccer fields...insane! The employees use bikes here just to get around. There are various mechanisms to ensure the clothing (each style, size, color) go to the appropriate store (over 1,600). It's absolutely amazing to see the amount of clothing that is flying on hangers through this building and how well it is managed to ensure quick delivery time to each store.
All in all, the tour was absolutely amazing and we were all impressed with the information shared and how Zara functions so centrally from Spain. And the best part was we got a free tshirt.
