Today, information technology (IT) plays a vital role in the field of textile industry. Any manufacturing unit employs four M’s, that is, Men, Material, Machine, and of course, Money. To achieve organizational success, managers must focus on synchronizing all of these factors and developing synergies with the organization’s internal and external operations. With increased competition, companies are turning to IT to improve their supply chain management (SCM) and use it as a competitive advantage. In short, many textile companies are harnessing the power of technology to add value to their business.
Supply chain management includes: sourcing, procurement, conversion, and all logistics activities. It seeks to increase the speed of transactions through real-time data exchange, reduce inventory, and increase sales volume by meeting customer requirements more efficiently and effectively.
Why do textile industries need IT support?
Lack of information on aspects of demand and supply.
Most of the decisions that a manager makes are related to supply and demand problems. But unfortunately, very few are capable of achieving it, so the decisions that are made carry risk and uncertainty. Excess inventory is one of the most common problems managers face, resulting in long cycle time, out-of-date stock, poor sales, low rates and reduced order visibility, and ultimately, leads to customer dissatisfaction.
Long acquisition time
In a traditional textile industry, the procurement process takes much longer. Therefore, retailers need to forecast demand and identify consumer trends at a much earlier stage. Lack of clarity about the future may result in early out-of-stock, delay, or overstock.
Competing supply chain
With the urgency to go global, apparel and textiles face hurdles of inefficiency in carrying out various processes involved from design, sample development, getting approval, manufacturing, shipping to payment procedures. The total time taken can extend to a year or even more. If we calculate, the production actually accounts for only ten to twenty percent of the total time. The rest of the time is spent processing information from one end to the other.
The trajectory of information technology development has crossed all applications in the textile industry. From improving textile manufacturing performance to tighter process control, TI has embedded intelligence into every node of the textile supply chain.
Enter global trade
It is a fact that a company that goes global opens up with many opportunities and threats in terms of competition, changing trends and other environmental changes. It requires managing all kinds of information efficiently and at a much faster speed.
Interaction of information technology with the textile supply chain
Share information
The proper flow of information between members of the supply chain is very important. Such information flow can influence the performance of overall supply chain operations. It includes data about customers and their demand, inventory status, production and promotion plan, shipping schedules, payment details, etc. Barcode and Electronic Data Interchange are the two information technology tools that can facilitate the integration of information.
Barcodes make it easy to record detailed data by converting it to electronic format and can be easily shared among members through the EDI system. EDI, with its high efficiency, can replace traditional ways of transmission such as telephone, mail, and even fax. EDI allows managers to analyze it and apply it in their business decisions. It also helps speed up the order cycle which reduces inventory investment. The EDI-based network enables the company to maintain rapid response and close relationships with suppliers and customers, who are geographically dispersed. Manufacturers and retailers can even share new designs developed through CAD/CAM.
Support planning and execution operations.
Planning and coordination are very important issues in supply chain management. The next step after sharing information is planning, which includes joint design and implementation for product introduction, demand forecasting, and replenishment. The members of the supply chain decide their roles and responsibilities, which is coordinated through the IT system.
Various software tools like MRP, MRP-II, APSS facilitate planning and coordination between different functional areas within the organization.
Material Requirements Planning (MRP) – Helps in managing manufacturing processes based on production planning and inventory control system. The proper implementation of MRP ensures the availability of material for production and product for consumption at the right time, optimizes the level of inventory and helps to schedule various activities. The MRP system uses computer databases to store delivery times and the number of orders. MRP mainly includes three steps: first, assess the requirement of how many component units are required to produce a final product; Here you apply logic to implement BOM explosions. The second step includes deducting the available stock from the gross to find out the net requirement. Finally, schedule manufacturing activities so that finished products are available when required, assuming delivery time.
The Manufacturing Resource Planning System (MRPII) is a logical extension of the MRP system that covers the entire manufacturing function. This typically includes machine loading, scheduling, feedback, and software extension programs, as well as material requirements planning. It provides the mechanism for evaluating the feasibility of a production schedule under a given set of constraints.
A textile company that has multi-point manufacturing and engages in global business needs more than just MRP and MRP-II like distribution requirements planning (DRP), it has the ability to resolve capacity and material constraints and quickly spreads the effects of problems both backwards and forwards. forward direction along the supply chain.
The Advance Planning and Scheduling System (APSS) includes both the material focus of MRP and the rapid response scheduling power of MRP-II.
Coordination of logistics flows
Workflow coordination can include activities such as procurement, order fulfillment, change implementation, design optimization, and financial exchanges, resulting in cost and time efficiencies. The results are profitable, fast, and reliable supply chain operations.
IT helps maximize the value of the textile supply chain through the integration of supply chain operations within and outside the organization and the collaboration of supplier and customer actions based on shared forecasts. The Internet adds to IT’s contribution to supply chain management through the coordination, integration, and even automation of critical business processes. The new system of the supply chain game emerges as a result of Internet-driven business innovation.
Many supplier companies maintain demand data by style, size, fabric, and color to replenish inventory at the point of sale. The restock level is determined by both parties after reviewing the sales history by product and the buying behavior of the community.
New business models:
Data mining and data storage
Data mining is the process of analyzing data from different points of view and summarizing it into useful information that can be used as a basis for monitoring and control, allowing companies to focus on the most important aspects of their business. It allows users to analyze data from many different dimensions, categorize it, and summarize the relationships identified. In short, it is the process of finding correlations or relationships between dozens of fields in large relational databases.
Data warehousing is the repository of data and can be defined as a process of centralized data management and retrieval. Data centralization maximizes user access and analysis.
electronic commerce
Electronic commerce can be B2B (Business To Business) and B2C (Business To Customer). B2C commerce is selling directly to consumers over the Internet. While B2B marketplace can be defined as internet-based neutral intermediaries that focus on specific business processes, host electronic marketplaces, and use various market-making mechanisms to mediate business-to-business transactions. B2B seems to be more prospective than B2C.
electronic commerce
Textile retail giants are adding an online shopping component to their offerings. It has affected their distribution and storage infrastructure. As a result of going online, retailers have changed their supply chain strategy. High-volume products with stable demand are stocked in local stores, while low-volume products are centrally stocked for online purchase.
Businesses prefer a direct route to consumers by closely examining the tastes, preferences, habits, and buying patterns of individual customers. Instead of waiting for consumers to visit their stores, retailers simply send them emails with offers. The Internet has facilitated a rapid response system. With the use of web-enabled technology, it is possible to have an automatic customer replenishment system.
