Effects of the COVID-19 Epidemic on Supply Chain Management in the Ready-to-Wear Industry and Possible Solution Suggestions

This research aims to determine how the supply chain management is affected by the COVID-19 epidemic in the Turkish ready-made clothing industry, which continues to maintain its place and importance both in the global ready-made clothing market and in the Turkish economy, and to identify possible solutions against the negative effects that may arise from these effects. According to the findings of the research, 91% of the participating enterprises stated that the epidemic reduced their capacity utilization rates. This reduction rate was 46% on average. In addition, 89% of the enterprises benefited from the short-time working allowance. The epidemic mostly affects supply chain management in the ready-made clothing industry; decrease in profitability, decrease in average number of orders, decrease in average number of products per order, decrease in production amount, increase in finished product stocks, increase in stock costs, decrease in productivity, increase in measures taken for occupational health and safety, increase in cash need and increase in the amount of inputs supplied from abroad. affected in terms of reduction factors. In addition, participating enterprises, which are classified as small and medium-sized enterprises according to their average annual turnover and number of employees, were more affected by the effects of the epidemic on finance, sales, information flow, productivity, R&D activities and online commerce. Within the scope of possible measures that can be taken to get rid of the negative effects of the epidemic, businesses mostly need support for employment. In addition, they demand the postponement of tax debts, facilitating access to financial resources, support for investment, support for online trade, postponement of loan debts and meeting the need for financial support. In order to get rid of the negative effects of the epidemic and turn the crisis into an opportunity, businesses should increase the effectiveness of their marketing activities, distribute the risk by finding new markets, shorten their supply chains and supply their inputs from the domestic or nearby geography as much as possible, benefit from the entire logistics service network in delivering orders to the customers, depend on changing consumer demands and requests should realize the necessary changes in its product ranges, give due importance to online commerce and holistic channel strategy and invest in these areas, integrate digitalization into all processes in the supply chain quickly and effectively, realize that innovation has become very important and effectively implement occupational health and safety systems. they should use.