The Hindu Business Line : Textile cos seek IT tools to spruce up supply chain

IN an effort to counter shortened product life cycles and increased efficiency demands, Indian textile companies are extensively shifting to use of diverse information tools (IT) to spruce up their supply chains. For instance, Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd (LMW), the largest textile spinning machinery manufacturer in the country, claims to have increased revenues to the tune of nearly 20 per cent during last year by extensively using Oracle's e-Business Suite.

A number of textile retail chains have started using the hi-tech Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) solution as a demand and supply chain process improvement technique. Major garment manufacturers have also started adopting the globally accepted EAN.UCC standards to streamline their supply systems and make themselves more cost-effective.

Brands like Levi's, John Player, Arrow, Wrangler, Allen Solly, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Peter England, San Frisco, and Byford as well as top retailers like Shoppers' Stop, Piramyd Megastore, and ITC Lifestyle are in the process of working towards collaborative supply chain practices using the IT solutions, industry players said.

Marking one of the largest Oracle e-Business Suite deployments, LMW — which has a 68 per cent textile machinery market share in India — has reported improved efficiencies in the manufacturing operations. Following implementation of the software , LMW is targeting a 15 per cent reduction in lead time required to market new products by creating a globally accessible information repository of products, components, bills of material, change requests, and project status. LMW is encouraging the reuse of components and now expects to bring down its research and development costs significantly.

Garment manufacturers and retailers using the EAN.UCC standard, which has been brought in by EAN India (a non-profit entity run jointly by the Commerce Ministry and the apex chambers of commerce and industry) are eliminating use of item barcodes on their garments and other merchandise. This saves substantial amounts in direct barcode labelling expenses.

The RFID solution, according to industry players, is a demand and supply chain process improvement technique and enables remote sensing of product with minimum manual intervention. The RFID tag, which contains a small chip and a coiled antenna to broadcast a signal, is attached to the product and the signal emitted by the tag is captured by a detector to track the product. The technology also helps in improving back-end store operation, inventory management and customer service, thereby helping retailers reduce costs. The tag will go a long way in improving order forecasts for the garment-retailing sector, industry players said.

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