Fashion Supply Chain Management: Top Smart Solutions to Set Up

The fashion retail world is changing, and clothing companies everywhere are looking for ways to integrate the latest technology into their supply chain operations. If you specialize in the apparel business, now is the time to embrace the modern tools and resources to streamline your supply chain operations, increase efficiency, and make savings. To stay ahead in the competition, be informed of the following trends in fashion supply chain management.

Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial intelligence is quite popular across various industries today. It not just enhances the lifestyle of people, but also simplifies the business operations. Supply chain management is no exception. One of the challenges that clothing companies face almost every day is product distribution. Artificial intelligence makes product supply more manageable, improves profits, and helps identify the latest trends in fashion.

Artificial intelligence is data driven. By gathering sufficient data from different areas of the web, such as social media, you will obtain a great understanding of what your target market wants, or where the demand lies for your products. This lets you to allocate the resources appropriately to manufacture successful products and distribute them at the right time. Artificial intelligence also gives you an insight on your sales, so you will know what products you should concentrate upon to reduce losses.

Supply Chaim Automation:

One of the things that several businesses prioritize these days is supply chain automation. Managers have smart technology at their disposal to make informed decisions on the everyday operations of their businesses. Automating the processes of fashion supply chain management is a huge advantage in terms of enormous time and cost savings. Internet of Things (IoT) is wildly adopted for asset tracking, reporting, and end-to-end supply chain visibility.

IoT tracking devices not just gives you the information of your shipments, but they also can monitor temperature, humidity, and more in real time. IoT tracking solutions offered by top manufacturers can reduce the chances of shipment delays and damages.

Supply chain automation reduces manual intervention, which further reduces human errors. Customers these days expect brands to quickly respond to their demands, which is yet another reason why companies should automate their supply chain.

Product Lifecycle Management:

In the recent times, several customers are more cautious than ever when purchasing products from different brands. They value companies having core values and beliefs that they relate to. Since every information is available at their fingertips, most buyers today expect transparency from a business that they buy the products from.

Therefore, it is not about the quality of the product but also about how the product is made. This is where product lifecycle management (PLM) software really shines. A typical PLM software will provide a complete picture of a product lifecycle. It benefits both the employees and customers as well. For businesses, a PLM software ensures better productivity and manufacturing, product safety, reduced cost, and increased revenue.

And for customers, they get a high quality product as their feedback and complaints can be easily tracked with PLM. The software distributes the customer suggestions across the product lifecycle. The entire team, right from engineering to sales and marketing, can work towards eliminating the product issues and improving the customer experience.

Cloud Technology:

Loss of data is a major concern for customers and businesses alike. As people are increasingly reliant on digital data, cloud technology has experienced explosive growth in the past few years. Cloud systems help your employees to preserve sensitive information and protect it from unauthorized third parties.

Data protection isn’t the only benefit that cloud systems offer. Supply chain personnel could efficiently collaborate with their suppliers and vendors, improve profits, and reduce the cost of goods.

IoT trackers – used to obtain real time information on your shipments – leverage the power of the cloud as well. The sensors collect the data and upload it to the cloud, from which you can retrieve the necessary information and achieve better fashion supply chain management. Cloud based technology is a huge advantage for smaller organizations, as it requires lesser resources to accomplish their regular tasks and improve the workflow.

An Agile Supply Chain:

The supply chain of any company must be able to quickly adapt or respond to the rapid changes in customer demands, product prices, and other unexpected events. An agile supply chain is all about improving speed, flexibility, efficiency, and productivity in the manufacture and supply of goods.

If there is an unforeseen delay or interruption in manufacturing, an agile supply chain will be able to deal with the situation and eliminate delays in the entire production process. Fashion companies are altering their supply chains by establishing new distribution centers and utilizing data-driven technology to minimize disruptions.

One of the initial steps to improve fashion supply chain management is investing in a good tracking system. Talk to an IoT device manufacturer for more information.