The Rana Plaza Case Study

Bangladesh is on the fastest growing garment industries in the world. This booming industry is responsible for the production of apparel for massive companies like Walmart, Gap, and Inditex (which is the world’s largest apparel company in the world). These large companies took a liking to the Bangladesh factories for a couple major reasons. One being that they had more garment factories than Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia combined. But the primary reason was that it was simply cheaper to source garments from Bangladesh than any other place in the world. The cheaper price was a huge attraction to major companies because it would increase their profits, but also other countries were starting to rise prices. For example, monthly wages in the

In 2013, the world was exposed to these drawback after the collapse of the Rana Plaza. The collapse of the Rana plaza was devastating, over 1,100 workers were pronounced dead, with another 2,500 injured.

After the collapse of the Rana Plaza, lots of some unsettling information came out about the factory and the working conditions. Just one day before the collapse, workers had pointed out that there were huge cracks in the walls. The next day, the collapse happened. There were many hands involved for the collapse of the plaza. For one the owner of the building, Sohel Rana, is one of the major people involved. He obtained the permit to build the plaza directly from his friend, the mayor of Savar, bypassing the protocol. Sohel then proceeded to build an eight-story building, when is permit was initially for only five-stories. Also, the building itself was on a drained swamp, and was carrying six times more weight than it was designed to bear. The whole building was improperly built, and had no safety features. So, a lot of the blame falls on his lap, due to all of the illegal things he did to make

and Europe were sourcing their appeal from Bangladesh. Some of the retailers even sourced from the Rana Plaza. Once this study was released, large companies such as, Walmart, Gap, Inditex, and Hennes & Maurtiz were all caught in the crossfire. Walmart was the company, that had sourced some apparel from the Rana Plaza, and they received major backlash, due to the fact they lied about not being involved. Companies in the supply chain should have plans in order to try and make sure that a similar tragedy doesn’t occur again in the future. One action they can implement is making sure the factory they are working with is a secure place. By this I mean, to make sure that the factory isn’t standing on one beam, or there are no giant holes in the wall. They would probably have to hire a third-party to make sure that the factory is safe, so the opinion is biased. This action would ensure that they are doing business with a credible factory. As well as not putting their company at risk of being portrayed as an irresponsible company in the public’s eyes. Companies need to be seen as responsible because many customers do not want to buy products knowing the company isn’t doing the right thing or treating employees correctly. Another action that can be taken by companies in the supply chain, is not going with the cheapest factory to produce their goods. This would help reducing the