The Importance of Supply Chain in the Apparel Industry!

Apparel Industry

Apparel supply chain management is a key factor in determining the success of the apparel business. In any industry, an efficient supply chain is important to make the product reach the customer on time, and in optimum condition.

By means of optimizing the operations within the supply chain, maximum level of efficiency can be achieved, which in turn, leads to growth for the business. 

Within the apparel industry, the key operations within the supply chain concern the following:

  • Movement of Raw Materials
  • Human Resources
  • Logistics and Transportation

To track and optimize these operations, a network is required which makes these processes more efficient. Optimization within these operations can be reached through investment in machinery and equipment, technology, or by taking the help of a supply chain management service provider. 

AWL India is a leading supply chain management provider that offers world-class solutions for managing the supply chain of businesses operating within the apparel industry. They operate with modern machinery that automates various aspects of the business to improve efficiency of the operations. 

Why Is Supply Chain Management Required in the Apparel Industry?

The apparel business is a tremendous industry delivering a large number of pieces of clothing consistently. Perhaps the hardest challenge looked at by this industry is the expense of cloth-making and the cost of both local and imported raw materials used for cloth-making. To cut down on costs, it is important to optimize the supply chain operations.

Clothing manufacturers make pieces of clothing both for the local and export markets. However, the industrial scale production of clothing is mostly for export. Also, note that the clothing market is deeply competitive. 

Countries like China, Bangladesh, and India all are battling for offering a superior cost to the pieces of clothing purchasers to hold the export share high. You can compete in the market, however, as a matter of first importance, you really want to limit your immediate and indirect expenses related with the development of your pieces of clothing.

Furthermore, the right solution is to optimize supply chain management, by which you can really cut down on your direct and indirect cost of business. Also, this is the motivation behind why supply chain management is significant for the apparel industry.

Just like the present, the future is really competitive for the apparel industry. Proper apparel supply chain management is important to gain an advantage over your competitors. Supply chain management (SCM) professionals like AWL India can help you sort your SCM needs in a cost-effective and accurate manner. They use machinery which makes the operations highly accurate, so you’ll never have to worry about the quality of work too. 

The areas that are handled under supply chain management include:

  • Machinery Operation
  • Human Resource
  • Raw Materials
  • Logistics 
  • Sales 

Even beyond these areas, the scope for supply chain management can be found everywhere, in all areas of the supply chain. You can observe the extent of supply chain management in each and every spot inside your piece of apparel production line. In your business, you might expect to supply raw materials or ready materials within one division then onto the next.

Thus, there should be appropriate arrangements for a viable network that executes these operations in the apparel business. Without a dedicated network, keeping track of the supply chain operations would be difficult.

Importance of Supply Chain Management in Apparel Industry 

Here is how an optimized supply chain benefits the apparel industry:

●     Operational Flexibility 

Efficient supply chain management means that the operations within the supply chain are being carried out in the most optimum manner possible. Therefore, you will not have to worry about optimizing operations further. When such is the state of your business, you can focus on business development and get a greater degree of operational flexibility since many operations are automated. 

●     Utilization of Resources

When you manage your supply chain in an efficient manner, it means that you are utilizing your resources to the maximum. Be it the raw materials and inventory, be it the warehousing capacity, be it the packaging and be it the transportation aspect – everything is being managed in an efficient manner. This is also the reason why supply chain management is so highly regarded – because it leads to proper utilization of the business resources and minimizes the chance for wastage. 

●     Customer Satisfaction

When the customer is getting their product delivery on time, they will not find many reasons to not be happy with the business service. What this will lead to is greater rate of customer satisfaction, and hence, better business prospects. You will be able to grow your apparel business and expand it to more locations. 

Conclusion

In the apparel industry, the movement of the raw materials should be on time so that the apparel is made on time and customer demands are also met on time.

All of this, including management of resources, the movement of resources from one party to another, and supplying the required resources in the least amount of time and cost possible are the areas that should be worked upon to make apparel supply chain management efficient. 

Apparel industry article and permission to publish here provided by Depreet Singh. Originally written for Supply Chain Game Changer and published on April 20, 2022. 

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