Creating a rapid response to the supply chain system has become the key to the success of garment enterprises

The bra in the modern sense is actually a genuine imported product. Through the influence and influence of a large number of domestic and foreign brand underwear companies, women have begun to pay attention to the aesthetics of "internal beauty." Underwear is also gradually associated with fashion, sexy, fashion and other words. However, the trend is always changing and constantly introducing new ones. As a branch of the apparel industry, underwear companies are also faced with problems such as shorter and shorter product development cycles, diversification of underwear categories, and increasingly selective customers. These issues have brought management and R&D to the company. A certain degree of difficulty.

When apparel consumption enters the era of “fast fashion”, in the face of changing industries and market environment, many apparel companies have begun to be prepared for safety in order to change and optimize their processes and pay attention to the supply chain. In the new wave of informatization of apparel companies, Manifin Group (hereinafter referred to as “Manifin”) also began to gradually carry out informatization construction to support its huge group organization structure and internationalization strategy. Although not as bright as Li Ning or Smith Barney, it may be more useful.

The underwear industry is faced with transformation and upgrading. The Manifin Group, which originated from the underwear city of Chaonan District, Shantou, Guangdong Province, is a large-scale specialized brand lingerie enterprise group with research, production and marketing. The company owns three subdivided underwear market brands: Ives, Manifin and Lanjuli. More than 1800 self-operated counters, 120 self-owned stores, and 2,500 franchised customers have been established throughout the country. Among them, the Mani-Fen brand has been rated as the "first in terms of comprehensive market share of similar products" for six consecutive years.

Manifin’s informatization started earlier, and it has gone through more than 10 years from the financial computerization and stand-alone applications. After 2001, marketing, invoicing management, and ERP were implemented one after another. Later, with the accurate market positioning of the company, Mannifen gradually developed from one brand to three brands. The management structure developed from the headquarters, offices, and counters to the four levels of management from the group, branch, and office to the counter. However, at this time, not enough attention has been given to informationization, and it has been in a state of standing still, which is insufficient to support the expansion of the organizational structure. This is a common problem faced by apparel companies.

Zhang Man Teng, Director of Manifing's IT, has a deep understanding of the industry and his own company. He pointed out that it was not surprising that companies did not pay enough attention to IT in previous years. The apparel industry is an industry with a relatively high value-added brand. The profitability of branded companies is generally good. When the profit rate of a company is relatively high, it will obscure many management issues, and the demand for informationization will not be so strong. “With the changes in consumer demand and the improvement of people’s living standards and tastes, the competition in the underwear market has become increasingly fierce. Enterprises have realized that the gross profit margin of products has dropped drastically, and a large number of inventories have eroded their profits, and the overall profitability has been declining. At that time, it will begin to pay attention to the internal management of the company, attach importance to informationization, and seek to improve traditional business processes, working methods and business models through informationization in order to curb and reverse the downward trend in profitability."

The structural out-of-stock caused by high inventory and out-of-stock terminals is a problem that plagues many apparel companies. With more and more personalized consumer demands, it is more and more difficult to grasp the demand in the early stage. Zhang Teng said frankly, "With the company's sales growth, inventory is also growing rapidly, but at the same time the terminal feedback back information is out of stock. The reason is because the previous period did not properly grasp the needs of consumers. "This structural contradiction will lead to a vicious circle, which will cause the sales model of the company to become a product that will be continuously discounted soon after the product is launched. This deviates from the original intention of the company to develop new products. All companies are designing and developing new products." At the same time, it is hoped that the product will be sold as soon as possible with the original value in order to maximize profits."

SAP's core information infrastructure platform began in 2007, and Mani-Fen’s commitment to becoming an international leader in underwear leaders has become increasingly clear. In order to support the multi-brand business strategy, multi-level organizational structure, and the efficient operation of the huge terminal network, Manifin has formulated IT plans for the next 3-5 years. “We hope to manage the people, finances, and materials related to the company on a unified information platform in 3-5 years. We will realize the visualization and digitization of all management processes and business results. IT planning will be revised annually. According to the development goals and management requirements of the company stage, the input of informationization will be adjusted accordingly.” Zhang Teng introduced. Only if the entire group uses a unified language on the same information platform can they communicate smoothly and make strong decisions.

Zhang Teng believes that enterprise information construction should include three sets of systems. One set is a system at the core business level, including ERP, terminal POS systems, manufacturing systems, PLM, and CRM. Manifin's industrial chain is very long, covering all aspects from design, R&D, manufacturing, logistics to terminal sales. Only by effectively managing these core businesses can we provide consumers with value-added services. One set is a support system that supports and services core business systems such as OA, Email, process management, knowledge management, and BI. There is also a set of tools system, including network, antivirus, encryption, storage, backup and so on. As long as these three systems can be well organized and coordinated, the enterprise information system construction is relatively complete and effective.

How to collect the needs of front-end consumers so that the entire supply chain can "prescribe the right medicine" is a problem that Mani-Fen is very concerned about. In 2009, Mannifen began to implement PLM. Through this system, Manifin realized the process management of collecting customer needs, transforming customer needs into product requirements, improving planning capabilities and strengthening product development, in order to drive and improve the delivery of Manifin's supply chain in all aspects. ability.

In 2010, Manifin began a radical implementation of the SAP system. The entire group's information system was built with SAP as the core, integrating sales and service systems with SAP, enabling real-time data exchange. Next, Zhang Teng and his IT team will carry out the second phase of the implementation of the SAP system, mainly in the factory manufacturing process.

Speaking of the effect of SAP implementation, Zhang Teng continued, “implementing SAP means that each company is not just a software system. SAP includes the sizing and adjustment of many core business processes. The internal management of the company will produce a **.” With the implementation of SAP, Mani-Fen spent a lot of time in the early stage, reorganizing the rules and procedures of the entire company from the organization and process. Reorganize the business and redefine the job responsibilities, including the division of responsibilities for each item, the process of the process, and the rules.

SAP is a set of financial and business integration systems. Previously, Manifin had multiple sets of different business and financial systems. The accounts were settled at the end of each month. It takes more than ten days to complete various financial statements. Now it takes only two days, and the financial staff can free up more time to do other things. More valuable things. At least, it can be intuitively understood that efficiency is the saving of labor costs.

Zhang Teng also pointed out that SAP's promotion of inventory management and product flow efficiency is also very obvious. Manifin has 10 distribution centers throughout the country, serving more than 1,800 terminals and nearly 2,000 franchisees. "Based on the unified SAP platform, Manifin's product scheduling capabilities have improved significantly. Due to unbalanced development in all regions of the country, product sales will also appear uneven, and products will always flow to the most efficient place. After nearly six months of on-line The efficiency of inventory turnover has increased by nearly 50%, and the clear digital results have also been recognized by management."

Improve the supply chain response speed Garment companies face high inventory on the one hand, on the one hand the ultimate reason for the lack of terminal double-defects is that the supply chain response is too slow. "In the garment industry has long been not a factory, a hospital, a wall, the supply chain response speed is too important for enterprises." Zhang Teng said with emotion. Undoubtedly, building a fast-responding supply chain system has become the key to the success of apparel companies.

“The lingerie supply chain is very long. A complete supply chain should start from discovering the needs of consumers and finally complete services for consumers. It covers the understanding of consumer demand, excavation, and transforming consumer demand into Product demand and product demand are transformed into design requirements, and then enter product planning, design, manufacturing, logistics, and sales, and consumers get satisfactory products and services.” This long supply chain is also jokingly likened by Zhang Teng. "The link involved in making underwear is as complicated as building an airplane."

In Zhang Teng's view, capturing consumer demand is fundamental. A large number of apparel companies are trying their best to improve the back-end, working hard to increase production capacity, improve design and development efficiency, and improve logistics distribution efficiency. Too few companies are willing to focus on the front end. However, we must be aware that all work on the back end of the supply chain is based on obtaining accurate consumer needs. If consumers do not agree, then no matter how much labor and cost the company invests, it can only be an inefficient supply chain. Analyzing and collating consumer demand is a long-term process that requires the firm's persistence and investment.

The distinctive feature of the apparel industry is that the homogeneous color code is beneficial to the sales and display of the terminal. The lack of color code breaking will have a great impact on sales, which depends on the centralized management and distribution of resources. Manifin has collected more than 60 small warehouses scattered throughout the country and replaced them with 10 distribution centers to serve more than 1,800 terminals and more than 1,000 customers across the country, shortening the supply chain hierarchy and realizing centralized management of resources. The future will also be moderately concentrated.

Mannifen also optimized the supply chain supply network according to the characteristics of the distribution of stores, and built distribution centers in South China, East China, Shandong, Northeast China and Xi'an according to the radius of radiation. Manifin’s supply chain currently forms a closed loop at some point. Through the terminal, Internet and PLM system docking, it is easy to collect the needs of customers into the product development needs. "PLM, logistics distribution, and terminal retail systems have all been completed. Now that the poor factories have not cut in. From the internal level, a closed loop has emerged from customers to customers."

Planning is also an important factor in shortening the supply chain cycle. Many companies have relatively large plans, such as annual and monthly plans. “The reason why the supply chain is always busy is that the planning is too bad. Manifin can now do the weekly plan and the next step hopes to refine it.”

Exploring New E-commerce Models With the increasingly matching of consumers' shopping habits and logistics, e-commerce has also become a business model for traditional clothing companies to start testing water. However, some people think that e-commerce is only an extension and supplement of traditional channels. Some people think that it is transforming the traditional clothing industry. The three flagship stores of Mani-Fen can be easily found at Taobao Mall. Obviously, this is only a groping for Manni Fen, not the final model.

Zhang Teng is optimistic about e-commerce. He believes that information technology has brought new modes of communication between companies and customers, which has led to changes in corporate branding, access to consumer demand, and internal work processes. He emphasized that traditional businesses and e-commerce will be a concept in the future, and they are essentially acquiring consumers, providing services and values ​​to them. It is only because traditional commerce still occupies an absolutely dominant market share. “Maybe the business model of the future will change. Perhaps traditional business is just for leisure and experience.”

Zhang Teng has a high interest in e-commerce. Enterprises must develop e-commerce. To be bigger and stronger, there must be an excellent information platform to interface with the Internet. Otherwise, it is impossible to accept this market. Currently, Manifen organizes a dedicated team to conduct research and try e-commerce.