Information Technology Has Spawned New Channels For Garment Industry

With the advent of the information society, more and more clothing enterprises have realized the importance of information technology. Whether it is tens of billions of sales giants or tens of millions of industry rookies, they are trying their best to build their own information platform, trying to rely on the superior information platform to reduce production costs, shorten the reaction cycle or enhance the terminal control capability.

In the industry trend of information platform becoming the core resource, how should clothing enterprises develop their own information construction? The production informatization of clothing enterprises can be roughly divided into two levels, one is technology informatization and post informatization, the other is the informatization of production and operation process, and it realizes the whole process management from design, purchase to production and finished product, including logistics storage, cost and quality related content at the same time. Two

The vast majority of garment enterprises have entered the second level, and the implementation is not ideal. Most of them have made breakthroughs in the application of electronic books such as purchase and sale, and the real value of production information system is still a certain gap in the promotion of cost, quality and delivery time.

In order to improve the production and operation indicators such as cost, quality and delivery time, many garment enterprises changed the information system in 2007, and implemented second or even third times.

However, judging from the present effect, this way has not been much improved.

Beijing Strategic Management Consulting Co., Ltd., conducted in-depth research on the informatization status and management strategy of the domestic garment industry at the end of 2007. The research contents are mainly divided into 4 aspects: information input and restriction factors, IT organization status, IT application status and future considerations, IT strategy and management.

Input level and restricting factors information construction is a long-term strategic investment. It needs more than just oral attention and attention. Instead, it needs input from enterprises to ensure the achievement of informatization construction. Foreign enterprises' informatization input generally reaches at least 2% of sales and leading enterprises even reach 5% to 10%.

How is the input level of domestic garment enterprises informatization?

An enterprise informatization construction must face many resource bottlenecks, such as technology plan, human resources, enterprise confidence and capital, which factor should we pay attention to first?

The percentage of information input and sales revenue of the surveyed enterprises increased in 2007, and the information input of 55.56% of the surveyed enterprises was between 0 and 19%. 11.11% of the surveyed enterprises reached 20% to 29%, and 3.33% of the surveyed enterprises reached 30% to 39%.

To some extent, this kind of information input has led to the current situation of informatization in garment enterprises.

58% of enterprises believe that the restriction of informatization lies in "lack of technological accumulation, high technological risk and high cost of technological innovation", while 50% of enterprises consider "lack of high-quality talents", while 42% of enterprises consider it as "lack of funds".

The informatization of garment enterprises is a long way to go. The accumulation of technology and the cultivation of high-quality talents will be a long-term and arduous task for any enterprise.

From the results of this survey, the investment level of domestic garment enterprises is generally low, and the low input level determines the unsatisfactory construction of informatization.

In order to change the current situation of information technology, garment enterprises must increase capital investment. Only with appropriate capital input can it be possible to form high-quality talents, and it is possible to carry out technological innovation and create competitive power with the core of efficient information platform.

The construction of IT team IT organization is the first asset of enterprise informatization construction. It is a powerful guarantee for enterprise information planning, information construction and information project landing.

A lean, dedicated and skilled IT team can not only solve many problems in the operation of enterprises, improve the operational efficiency of garment enterprises, but also become the information messenger of high level decision makers, and provide data for high level through data mining, computer Kanban and other tools.

Based on the importance of IT organization, how should the organizational structure of garment enterprises be set up and who should control the leadership of information organization?

How big should IT departments of garment enterprises be?

How is the mobility of information departments?

The investigation of IT organization level shows that most garment enterprises are fully aware of the influence of information organization factors on informatization work. 55% of the surveyed enterprises have set up the post of information director, and are directly responsible to the general manager or chairman.

27% is responsible for "deputy general manager" and 18% is responsible for other functions.

The difference between the deputy general manager and the general manager of other functions is that the deputy general manager is responsible for information work, which is an integral part of the work of the deputy general manager.

In 2007, the number of employees in the IT organization increased by 68% compared with 2006, with the growth rate of 93% of ordinary employees, 78% of software maintainers and 40% of software developers.

In 2007, the demand for information work of garment enterprises increased considerably compared with 2006.

The mobility of IT staff showed a saddle curve, 67% of the surveyed enterprises were below 5%, 25% of the surveyed enterprises were between 10% and 15%, and two accounted for 92% of the total. This shows that while most of the garment enterprises are becoming mature, there are still many management problems in the informatization of garment enterprises.

The survey results show that most of the garment enterprises already have a IT team, and the IT organizational structure has begun to take shape. But at the same time, there are also many problems such as the diversity of organizational structure, the changing demand for information, the shortage of qualified information technology personnel, and the high mobility of information technology personnel.

The essence of these problems is the positioning of the highest level of leadership in the enterprise, positioning in the administrative affairs and positioning in the core operation platform, its organizational effect is completely different.

In the twenty-first Century management challenge, Peter Drucker pointed out that the biggest revolutionary impact of computers is what we never expected, and its impact was in the day-to-day operation.

For garment enterprises, in reality, the pformation of the operation mode of enterprises has gradually presented a trend, such as the emergence of new channels, the attempt of mass customization and the establishment of quick reaction system, which will have a far-reaching impact on enterprises.

The so-called new channel of information technology spawning new channels is a new pattern which is different from the traditional channels of garment industry, and has emerged along with the development of information technology, such as enterprise direct selling website, e-commerce website, call center, etc.

Clothing enterprises must pay close attention to these new models so as to achieve sustainable development of enterprises.

At present, there are a number of enterprises with new channels as the main marketing methods in China, such as baton clothing (Shanghai) Limited (hereinafter referred to as PPG), which sells men's shirts through the Internet and call centers. In the two years since its establishment, daily sales have increased rapidly to 10 thousand, becoming the top three sales of men's shirts.

The new operation mode of PPG has become the research object of many business schools due to its low cost and rapid response.

Compared with traditional channels, the new channel has obvious advantages in terms of cost and efficiency (see table). Therefore, the construction and management of new channels has become a key issue related to the future survival of garment enterprises.

Of course, the establishment of new channels is not easy. How can we choose a new channel suitable for ourselves?

How to deal with the relationship between traditional channels and new channels?

How to solve the conflict caused by cross channel consumers?

They are all problems that must be considered in the construction of new channels.

The era of mass customization, though the customization of garment industry has already existed, is still in the process of mass customization.

The difference between customization and mass customization is whether the cost advantage of large-scale production can be reflected in operation.

Mass customization is the ideal mode of operation for discrete manufacturers. It allows enterprises to efficiently provide variant products of a large number of standard products, and each variant product is customized according to the opinions provided by users.

As a result of mass customization, customers can get the products they want most at the ideal price in the ideal time. At the same time, enterprises can also achieve scale production savings through automated manufacturing processes, reducing inventories and shortening the lead time.

With the advent of the information society, clothing consumers can easily compare the products of various businesses through various channels. It is difficult for similar and similar products to obtain high profits. The competitive advantage of the future enterprises will come from the ability to provide personalized products in the future.

Domestic mass customization started in 2000. The production line of semi woolen linings imported from Italy for mass customization was introduced by YOUNGOR. However, due to the immature conditions at that time, the implementation effect was not very satisfactory.

In recent years, the mass customization of domestic clothing has been launched. The main representative of this time is the French school. In the hundreds of shops in the French school, people can choose their own fabrics, styles, colors, collar styles, the number of pockets, or even decide the details of small buttons to a few buttons. These needs will be sent back to the production base in time. The production base will be categorized according to fabric, style and color. Then, materials and production will be arranged according to the ordered orders, and will be delivered to the final customers within 15 days.

Through the flow of the French school, we can clearly see that the success of mass customization production depends on a series of factors such as CRM, flexible manufacturing technology, and whether the cooperation between partners in the value chain is smooth. All these elements must rely on information system to meet the needs of cross regional, large data volume and high time requirements.

Using IT to create a rapid reaction system, the rapid reaction system is the order satisfaction cycle from the surface. It is a mechanism for all departments to cooperate and meet customers' needs quickly.

For the clothing industry, the rapid reaction system represents the level of enterprise profits. The rapid reaction system is an ultimate ideal for the operation of garment enterprises. In, the famous enterprises of the famous industries such as Semir, AI and so on put forward the operation goal of "supply chain as the core and build the enterprise rapid reaction system", and the Spanish ZARA was chosen as the benchmark for their own learning.

Semir and ZARA are both casual fashion industry, but there is a big gap in operation.

Zhou Pingfan, general manager of Semir, once mentioned that the establishment of a rapid reaction system is not an impossible problem, but a matter of time. If the leading competitors operate, Semir will become the first in the industry, and the distance from the second companies will be opened. The rate of increase in the rate of clothing enterprises represents the level of enterprise profits. With the help of the rapid reaction system and the rate of 70%, Semir's ZARA rate is still very low and needs to be greatly improved.

The rapid reaction system of ZARA is mainly due to the excellent performance of ZARA in information sharing and utilization, and this depends on the accumulation of information technology in many years.

ZARA has a complete platform for planning, purchasing, inventory, production, distribution, marketing and customer relationship management, as well as a supply chain collaboration system based on this platform.

Through this system, ZARA realizes information flow, capital flow and timely circulation of logistics, so as to achieve rapid response to customer needs.

Therefore, in the construction of information technology, garment enterprises should consider not only the needs of various business departments, but also the improvement of quality, speed, cost, service and other indicators of supply chain, so as to shorten the supply chain cycle of enterprises and build a fast business system for enterprises.

New channels, mass customization and rapid response system, or rooted in information technology, or relying on information technology, both