The secret behind "Louis Vuitton" Success !

 

Hi, I am Nikitha Akula, an aspiring operations enthusiast currently doing my 2nd year MBA in Amrita School of business. Today I am going to explain how Louis Vuitton manages its customer demand and how it has updated its supply chain process over the years, to satisfy the increasing demand. 

Louis Vuitton – part of the LVMH group – is a 160 year old French fashion house who produce  leather goods, handbags, trunks, shoes, watches, jewelry and accessories.They were recognizable with the famous “LV” logo and the monogram canvas. In 1893, the firm started its expansion by participating in the Chicago World Fair and promoting the brand in the US. 

The expansion strategy continued in the 20th and 21st century with a focus on the Asian markets. Vuitton also expanded its product line with smaller leather goods such as purses and wallets and started creating limited-edition collections to refresh the brand from time to time.

Louis Vuitton bag designed in collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami

Louis Vuitton’s success relies on a few key principles:

• Stores located in the most prestigious locations in the world (e.g. on Fifth Avenue in New York or on the Champs-Elysées in Paris)
• Glamorous brand image with an advertising strategy focused on travel, famous models and actresses with a recent shift towards celebrities in general
• Quality products
• The right balance between automation and “human-work” reinforces LV’s luxury image

Louis Vuitton’s operating model

In 2005, Louis Vuitton was still operating under a traditional operational model. It would usually take 8 days and between 20 to 30 craftsmen to produce a “Reade” tot bag.

Although this traditional process was synonym of quality and luxury for customers, it was not efficient nor adapted to the growing demand. New designs were often sold out quickly and the company was not prepared to speed up production in this situation.

What changes did they do?

With the help of McKinsey, a strategy consulting firm and inspired by the lean processes used in the Japanese auto industry, Louis Vuitton revolutionized its operating model. Under the new system, Louis Vuitton was able to assemble bags in less time and in a more efficient way.

• Workers who were originally specialized in only one operation are now trained to be able to accomplish different tasks in the assembly process. For eg, a worker who was specialized in stitching would now be in charge of cutting, stitching and finishing the edges of a pocket.
• Workers were also organized into small teams of 6 to 12 following the example of workers in the Japanese electronics industry.
• Workstations were re-arranged in U-shape, with the sewing machines on one side and the assembly on the other in order to minimize time to pass the work from one station to the other, this led to freeing-up space in factories which allowed to hire more workers and therefore becoming more efficient thanks to a better use of assets.
• Louis Vuitton also uses computer programs to help leather workers identify flaws in the skin they receive, reducing earlier the number of defects and the amount of faulty products returned.
• Similarly, robots are now smartly used to help workers focus on their core competencies: for example, in a shoe factory, robots are sparing workers walking back and forth from their workstations to the shelves.

Changes in Distribution Procedures:

• With a global distribution center near Paris, they are now able to ship products to six regional distribution centers in the world. Stores around the world send sales information to the French headquarter a few days after product launch in order to adjust demand appropriately.

LV’s operating & business models work well together, by being able to provide products to their customers on time, ramping up production if a bag becomes popular, LV does not exasperate their customers by turning them down.

Because workers are cross-trained, they identify defects earlier, which leads to fixing flaws more quickly and reducing returns of faulty handbags. This improves the quality image of the brand. Furthermore, the automation of the processes allowed to reduce costs and maintain jobs in France in order to keep the “Made in France” label, further contributing to the brand value.

Finally, less specialization enables workers to make more types of bags – you can shift workers more easily to producing a more popular bag when needed, depending on demand. This allows to create more collections every year and to ship them once every six weeks, twice as fast as before.

In conclusion, LV managed to reach a smart combination of automation and hand-made processes leading to a better ratio between quality and speed, enhancing the reputation of the brand.