Consider an apparel company in the business of Fast Fashion (frequently changing trendy clothes)

Fast fashion is a business style that offers fashionable clothes at reasonable prices. From an operations point of view, fast fashion requires a vastly reactive supply chain that can sustain a product variety that is at regular intervals changing. The capacity lead strategy offers the fast fashion industry the advantage of meeting demand and offering a buffer to allow the company to respond quickly to increases in demand for certain fashions like jeans and shoes. This approach adds capacity in anticipation of demand for certain fashion items and is as a result it's an opportunistic strategy with the rationale of drawing in customers away from competitors. The capacity lead strategy also has an advantage in that the operation is ready to satisfy customer demands and meet short term opportunities of fast-moving trends.

The disadvantage of this strategy is that demand may not increase and the company is left with the wasted cost of unused clothing. However, with the lead capacity strategy applied to the fast fashion industry, it is a costly way of providing capacity as it requires an upfront investment before demand. But it can be a helpful strategy if the company is attempting to build market share.