Bangladesh Apparel Exporters Prepare for 2009 with Fastreact
Bangladesh has been one of the countries to gain the most from the lifting of quotas in 2004 with exports up nearly 60% since 2004; Bangladesh is now the second largest exporter of apparel to the US market after China.
However, Bangladesh will face its biggest test in January 2009, when EU and US safeguard measures on imports from China expire.
If Fastreact sales are an indicator then the leaders in Bangladesh's apparel businesses are being very proactive to ensure their future success; aggressively investing in & adopting advanced production and management methods/technologies and developing skills of their workforce to ensure their success is not lost to China after 2009.
FASTREACT SYSTEMS Asia office has recently seen a dramatic increase in activity with many new systems coming on line. We asked two of the latest users in Bangladesh, VIYELLATEX & FAKIR KNITWEAR, what the key motivation was for their recent investment in Fastreact.
Mr. David Hasanat, MD Viyellatex: (www.viyellatexgroup.com)
"On time delivery is the key factor for a clothing brand and retailer. Low price alone cannot attract the good customer. As one of the fastest growing textile groups in Bangladesh, Viyellatex is enjoying continuously increasing business but at the same time facing more complexity in styles & orders.
As a fully integrated manufacturer (yarn to apparel), our flexibility is better than other vendors but to match global efficiency levels, we realised spread-sheet and manual Gantt chart planning boards would become increasingly difficult to manage in the future. We have chosen Fastreact, the world class production planning solution, to help us prepare for a more competitive future."
Mr. F.K Zaman (Nahid), Director Fakir Knitwears: (www.fakirknit.com)
"Bangladesh has low manufacturing costs but garment prices are decreasing day by day. To face the open trade policy, we feel it is high time to increase the efficiency of production to survive. In order to do this, perfect production planning and time and action plan is required.
Investment in Fast React will help Fakir Knitwears to increase the efficiency of production, providing central data management, time and action plan and perfect long term production planning. This better planning means less fire fighting in production and will greatly help to achieve the quality parameters required"
Faced with such a determined approach by the leading Bangladesh apparel exporters, it is imperative that all companies involved in either manufacturing or sourcing of apparel fully realise the significance of this proactive approach by Bangladesh and act NOW to ensure that their businesses have a chance to remain competitive in the Global marketplace.
The good news is that many companies, even in the developed economies still have very significant scope to improve control and thereby to achieve dramatic business benefits.
