With the increasingly competitive nature of the fashion industry, it is imperative that businesses have accurate and up to date information concerning the status of their orders and their position in the supply chain.
Krishna Kumar
Chief Executive Officer
Integra Apparels and Textiles Ltd (India)
In the ever-competitive fashion arena, the best are always pushing for an edge over the rest. With the dramatic success of the 'fast-fashion' brands such as Zara and H & M, buyers are focusing heavily on lead times and speed to market.
Krishan Kumar, Integra Apparels and Textiles and Gokal Chittaranjan, LT Karle, have in operation the Fast React system for production planning. Their observations on the usefulness of the software and the key modules to support production process throw light on why the industry needs to look at options and embrace technology for better working and faster lead-times.
In the current and future Apparel environment, with huge pressures on lead time reductions, which can only continue and get worse, a fully integrated planning system, which addresses the key areas of capacity, raw materials and critical path could be considered an 'Essential Tool for Survival'.
The Planning Process...Spreadsheets and ERP do not always provide effective control (World Footwear - September 2004)
The dynamics of the footwear industry are ever changing. Five years ago the stable demand environment (relatively small numbers of large volume orders), a high degree of product stability (long life-time products) and lead times of up to one hundred and twenty days, placed little real demand on the planning and pre-production process.
Fast React are specialist providers of Planning, Sourcing and Critical Path Management solutions specifically developed for the Apparel, Textiles and Footwear sectors where tight margins and short lead-times are commonplace.
