California Apparel News

The need for speed—and the tools to help speed up the supply chain—topped the agenda at the American Apparel and Footwear Association’s “Speed to Market” symposium, held Jan. 30 at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles.

The race to speed products to the marketplace has become a common goal for the apparel industry, but companies also need to prioritize their agendas before making heavy investments in technology and other means to faster production, warned leading manufacturers and suppliers.

Representatives from Nike Inc., the Authentic Fitness Corp., The J. Jill Group Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and others were among the speakers at the day-long symposium sponsored by the Arlington, Va.–based trade organization and attended by several hundred manufacturers, educators and suppliers from the Los Angeles area and across the country.

The symposium gave attendees a glance at what leading manufacturers are doing to improve speed and efficiency in the age of broad supply chains that extend across the globe. Technology has been a key resource in meeting that goal, yet companies need to understand their positions in the value matrix to determine how fast and in what manner they need to react, said Rick Darling, president of Li & Fung USA, the New York–based arm of the powerful Hong Kong sourcing giant.

“We have certain customers that are still in the business, where speed is not paramount,” Darling said. “In a lot of cases, speed can be affordable if you’re a fashion specialist hellip; but if you’re a retailer whose basic business is chino pants and polo shirts, you might have to replenish quickly, so it’s a lot more affordable to have a supply chain that represents value.”

Darling said finding the balance between timing and price has become a new dilemma in today’s market.

“While we try to recognize that speed is important to some parts of the market, it’s certainly not at the forefront of the whole market,” he said. “For Limited Express, speed is paramount and flexibility is paramount, and that dictates to us where we’ll place their order. Someone like Carter’s that’s doing a children’s program for Wal-Mart, price is critical to them; flexibility is not as important to them. They have a speed issue when it comes to replenishing inventory at the right locations, but they have a price issue when it comes to making goods to sell at the right price.”

Companies that find the right balance have been successful, said Jonathan Spier, chief executive officer of the New York–based Apparel Holdings Group. Spier credited technology with helping to turn around the company’s men’s, women’s and children’s apparel. The category has grown from $75 million in 2001 to a projected $300 million for 2004, he said.

Spier purchased the company three years ago as a turnaround project.

“When we took over, this company had no infrastructure and no vision,” he said. “We understood the symbiosis between fashion and technology.”

Spier hired a chief information officer to manage technology. The company brought in Computer Generated Solutions’ enterprise resource planning software to manage business, Lectra’s U4ia and Adobe Illustrator to create inhouse textile designs, Gerber Technology’s AccuMark for pattern design, and Profit Solutions’ system for chargeback management.

Thinking like a retailer

Swimwear maker Authentic Fitness Corp., based in Commerce, Calif., recently incorporated various technologies into its business model to help improve efficiency and enhance margins.

Authentic Fitness deployed merchandise planners to identify, track and analyze sales down to product, size and color. This helped the company generate realistic forecasts in a database format for its stable of brands, which includes Calvin Klein, Speedo, Nautica, Catalina, Anne Cole and Sunset Beach.

To make the program more effective, Authentic Fitness now manages its annual forecast according to its budget and then uses that projection to adjust its bookings, said Kathy Van Ness, designer division president. The company tracks excess raw material as part of a “lean manufacturing” cost-savings plan, she added.

The database is also useful for identifying retailers’ needs, such as replenishments and store in-stocks. In an instant, the swimwear maker can track and analyze receipts by door, monitor fill rates, and use that information to plan a proper flow throughout the season. That specialized focus at the retail level has increased sales, profits and customer satisfaction, Van Ness said.

“It’s helped us get smarter about being a supplier by analyzing the market and implementing a program in which our organization thinks like the retailer,” Van Ness explained. “Attitude and passion about getting to the end game is going to make it happen.”

Authentic Fitness is also in the process of employing Demand Solutions, a supply chain/demand management solution, to track point-of-sale data for real-time forecasting. The company’s goal is to transition to a vendor management inventory model to maximize collaboration with customers and increase inventory turns.

Authentic Fitness targets consumer profiles at price points that will appeal to specific niche markets and retail channels, depending on the label. The company works collaboratively with customers on swimwear assortments it thinks will offer the most profitable results at retail, Van Ness said.

Consultants Walter T. Wilhelm and Warren Hartenstine said that while it was common to see lead times of 11 months in the 1980s, companies such as Spanish retailer Zara are bringing new products to the market every week.

Forming partnerships

Lance Ruttenberg, executive vice president of Duquesne, Penn.–based American Textile Co. Inc., said technology is not the only way to gain efficiencies. Partnering with the right contractors and forging relationships can be just as important, said Ruttenberg, who spoke about the role of collaboration in product development at the symposium.

During its five-year relationship with American Textile, Confecciones del Valle in El Salvador has grown from being a sewing contractor to purchasing, tracking and sourcing. The Central American company also supplies warehouse space to store raw materials and inventory for American Textile.

And the relationship works both ways. Every Monday, Confecciones del Valle receives 200 work orders from American Textile.

Tightening up “inhibitors”

Wilhelm said the main objective for many companies now is to knock down “inhibitors” that consume production time. Among these inhibitors are fabric and color approvals, costing, pre-production processes and human errors.

Wilhelm pointed to emerging technologies such as Gerber’s WebPDM product lifecycle management software, which manages the hordes of specs—including designs, costs, colors and construction details—associated with the product development process.

“If you don’t get the accurate specs, you’re not going to get an accurate garment,” Wilhelm said.

For color approvals, Wilhelm suggested color management solutions by eWarna Ltd., GretagMacBeth and ColorData. He added that selling tools such as Lectra’s 3D Visual Merchant—which creates virtual showrooms that place yet-to-be-produced garments into computer-generated stores to enhance buyers’ perceptions of merchandising— have helped presentations.

Looking toward the future, presenters Marshall Gordon of SAP America Inc. and consultant Charles Gilbert said the emerging RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, which retailers are requiring from manufacturers to track merchandise, will become a reality soon. They noted that several manufacturers already have RFID programs in place.

“It’s real and is happening fast, so you can’t sit back and see how others are going to do it,” Gilbert said.

—Additional reporting by Claudia Figueroa and Andrew Asch