Trends in apparel supply chain management

Supply chainSupply chain consists of all

the parties involved directly or indirectly in fulfilling a customers requirement

Management of all these parties in order to get maximum efficiency and profit is called SCM

Supplier

manufacturer

retailer

whole seller

consumer

Key SCM Concepts

Example: P&G supply Chainc

Timbermanufacturer

Papermanufacturer Packaging

P&G or other manufacturer

Wal-Mart or third party Wal-mart store

Chemical manufacturer Plastic producer Consumer

Internal supply chain

Textile value supply chain

Effective Supply ChainWhen is Supply chain Effective? management of Products Information fund flow

ToolFor effective management of information, products

and funds there are certain tools which are evolving in SCM:

RFIDCPRF(Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and

Replenishment")Quick responseVMIEDI(Electronic data interchange)VIC(voluntary interindustry commerce standard)

RFID

“Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the use of an object (typically referred to as an RFID tag) applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.”

RFID

RFID tags contains silicon chips and an antenna that can transmit data to a wireless receiver

There fore in RFID there is no requirement to close the product and scanner as like in Barcode scanner can read the product from quite a distance

workingMost common method to identify a product using

RFID is to store an ID or a serial no that identify a specific product along with other information, on a tag which is a small microchip connect with an antenna

Antenna enables the chip to transmit the information contains to a reader

Reader convert the information in digital form with the help of a supporting software

Difference between RFID and barcodeBarcode are scanned manually and read individually

In case of RFID it’s a small object similar to a adhesive sticker which can be easily attached or incorporated with in the product

RFID can give the exact location of the particular product which is missing in barcode

RFID TagsActive tags

Passive tags

BenefitsImproves inventory managements

Improve customer service

Boosting customer loyalty

Product security

Exhaustive information about product

VMI----- vendor managed inventoryVMI is an integrated approach where the inventory at

the distributor or retailer end is monitored by supplier

It optimize the supply chain performance in which the manufacturer is responsible for inventory management for their retailer

ModelIn VMI The manufacturer receives an electronic data

regarding sales and inventory of retailer

The manufactures can view every item which has been sold or remain in the store and true sales point

Under VMI the manufacturer generates the order not the distributor but it does not change the ownership of the product

Benefits to manufacturerLower inventory investment

Better scheduling and planning

Better market information

Closer customer ties

Benefits to retailerLess stock out with higher inventory turnover

Lower administrative replenishment cost

Lower inventory cost

Less inventory in channels

Benefits to retailerLess stock out with higher inventory turnover

Lower administrative replenishment cost

Lower inventory cost

Less inventory in channels