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NGC Named Inbound Logistics Top 100 Logistics IT Provider for 10th Year

We are proud to announce that Inbound Logistics has named NGC a Top 100 Logistics IT Provider for 2019. This marks the tenth year that NGC has been recognized as one of the “best of the best” supply chain and logistics solution providers in this annual list. The award demonstrates NGC’s continued leadership in providing digital supply chain solutions that transform the concept to customer lifecycle for retailers and brand owners.

Staying Ahead of the Trend: How a Digital Platform Can Help

Trends, especially in retail, are exactly what the name implies: ephemeral and subject to change. However, predictions concerning the next round of trends are actually often released months or even up to a year in advance of the season! Retailers that base their product development on these forecasted trends put themselves in a risky position since the far-out predictions don’t always turn out as planned. To account for this, real-time updates on fast-selling items allow retailers to not only keep up with the latest trends, but also capitalize on their findings so they can put the hottest items in the hands of shoppers faster.

Don’t Rip and Replace, Let Andromeda Close the Gaps in Your Concept to Customer Lifecycle

It’s no secret that fast and sustainable supply chains are essential today. As a result, retailers are under tremendous pressure to be more agile and responsive to their customers. They can no longer afford to take 12 or 18 months to develop new products; instead, the process must be compressed to a matter of months, or even weeks. Digital supply chains are essential to making this shift, enabling brands and retailers to shorten the timeline from concept to customer.

Digitizing PLM Alone is Not Enough: Why Connecting Every Part of Your Value Chain is Crucial

While digitization closes the product information gap and extends the PLM to the entire product development process, digitizing PLM alone is not enough to reap the full benefits of a true end-to-end digital solution. Instead, fashion retailers and brand owners should scale their business by bringing together all departments, including merchandising, product development, sourcing, compliance, purchasing, production, quality, logistics, marketing and sales. By connecting vendors, suppliers and other providers, a cloud-based solution that powers every part of the business streamlines processes, improves collaboration and reduces lead times.

Combatting the Social Compliance Problem With Digital Supply Chain Vendor Management

Whether it’s failing to provide safe working conditions, treating employees unfairly or producing products that contain banned substances, social compliance remains an issue for many fashion companies outsourcing production of apparel, footwear and textiles across the world. For the approximately 75 million people laboring in this industry, the lack of a well-regulated supply chain may make workers subject to forced labor. In return, these conditions could tarnish the reputation and degrade the brand value and revenues of any company who fails to prioritize ethical sourcing and social compliance.

The Biggest Trend in PLM Today is SCM

What’s the biggest trend in PLM software today? In a word, it’s SCM: supply chain management. As NGC noted in Technology Evaluation Centers’ Supply Chain Predictions 2019 report, incorporating product lifecycle management (PLM) software into digital supply chains was a big trend in 2018 and will only continue to get bigger in 2019. We recently shared our thoughts on the integration of PLM software into digital supply chains with TEC principal analyst PJ Jakovljevic for his annual report. Our viewpoints highlighted the reasons why PLM increasingly means SCM.

Quality Worldwide Finds A Better Way to Manage Information

We might sound like a broken record, but until everyone is on board, we’re going to keep singing the same tune – it’s time to leave spreadsheets behind. We drove this point home recently in a blog about how inefficient it is for companies to use spreadsheets to manage product development and supply chain operations. We shared why dealing with hundreds of spreadsheets inevitably wastes time and prevents employees from fulfilling more high-level tasks. Consequently, companies lose days, and sometimes even weeks, of valuable time.

Looking Ahead: Key Sourcing Strategies for 2019

Coming off the heels of a monumental year, supply chains have big shoes to fill in 2019. As apparel retailers and brands prepare for a year of new tariffs, evolving customer demands and more competition than ever, they should keep in mind the key strategies that will help them streamline their processes and reach their goals. Based on developments throughout the past year, we’re predicting four sourcing strategies that will unlock success for apparel companies in 2019.

Learn More About NGC’s Digital Supply Chain Solutions at NRF

It’s the beginning of the new year, which means brands and retailers everywhere are getting ready to make 2019 the best year yet with new opportunities. And on top of every retailer’s New Year’s resolutions list is to achieve retail’s holy grail: the perfect alignment of supply and demand. But how do retailers achieve a goal that continues to be elusive?

Meet Industry Standards and Decrease Risk with Digital Vendor Management

Reports of poor working conditions in overseas factories, a lack of sustainable products and delayed delivery times prove that when vendor accountability and transparency aren’t up to par, a company’s sourcing strategies can quickly go awry. Suppliers, vendors and additional third parties involved in the design, manufacturing and delivery of your product set the precedent for a company’s success. Thus, keeping close watch on them will become crucial in the long run. Working to maintain ethical behavior through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and ensuring Good Manufacturing Practices can help companies avoid the problems that are all too common in the sourcing industry. In pursuit of this goal, making sure vendors comply to certain standards sensibly fits into the picture. A digital vendor management solution can help centralize the process of evaluating, managing and reporting on all the details, which simplifies complexities and makes for a more seamless approach.