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The Road to Transparency: Vendor Onboarding

McKinsey and Company’s State of Fashion Report 2019 recognizes radical transparency as one of the top trends that will shape the fashion industry for the year ahead. As a result, presenting a transparent supply chain has become a mark of success for apparel companies. In our last two blogs, we touched on the need for product compliance and vendor compliance. The final component in bringing transparency to a supply chain is the vendor onboarding process.

The Road to Transparency: Vendor Compliance

On July 6, 2018, the U.S. implemented its first round of China-specific tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods. Throughout the past year, trade wars sparked by the U.S. increasing tariffs on goods imported from China have thrown the fashion industry into a state of flux. The longtime sourcing hub for brands and retailers—China—is becoming less dominant due to tariffs and the ongoing trade war. Now, 83% of fashion companies say they plan to reduce their sourcing from the country, up from 67% in 2018.

The Road to Transparency: Product Compliance

Transparency is one of the top consumer demands in today’s fashion industry. Retailers and brands putting the key tenets of transparency into practice are winning the hearts, minds and even the wallets of consumers. Take H&M, for example. The fast-fashion brand announced this year that it launched an initiative to share product information across all garments on its website. It publishes key supplier factory information to prevent labor abuses or dangerous working conditions. Meanwhile, apparel companies across the board are setting goals to eliminate carbon emissions, reduce landfill waste and eradicate single-use plastics within the next decade.

NGC Recognized for Its Andromeda PLM Deployment with Jockey International, Inc.

NGC was selected as a recipient of Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s SDCE 100 Award this year for our work with Jockey, a 143-year-old brand recognized around the world for its premium underwear and apparel. Take an inside look at this award-winning project and learn how Jockey is using Andromeda PLM® to improve product development and supply chain processes.

Break Through the Corporate Silos with Digitization

The fun of shopping is that every store has a unique mix of styles and products to choose from. Each brand and retailer has its own preferences in terms of which items to sell and which target market to aim for. But if there’s one thing common to fashion retailers across the board, it’s the mass amount of information needed to run a fast-paced supply chain. Without an end to end platform that connects everyone in the value chain, companies are stuck relying on spreadsheets, fax and email. One leading footwear company, for example, previously sent hundreds of faxes every night to an agent in Hong Kong—from tech packs to sampling and costing information to sourcing logistics.

Just In Time: Support Postponement Techniques With a Digital Platform

“The early bird gets the worm,” or so the saying goes. However, this isn’t the case for retailers when it comes to making decisions in the supply chain. The concept of just-in-time manufacturing encourages retailers and brands to wait until the last possible moment to make key decisions about production, based on the most recent sales results. If a particular item isn’t selling, companies should cut their losses and stop producing it; if it’s selling quickly, the key is to accelerate replenishment and take advantage of the trend. As retailers focus increasingly on just-in-time, sales-driven decision making, they should be equipped with the proper tools to make the best decisions.

The New Fashion Imperative: Vendor Compliance

Improving speed to market may be a top priority for retailers today, but there are other critical concerns as well. Ensuring vendor compliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Good Manufacturing Practices is an imperative that’s equally important. As such, modern-day retailers should take measures to prevent unsafe working conditions, tragic factory accidents, or products that contain banned substances.

Concept to Customer: Execute Faster With a Connected Digital Supply Chain

The steps between the time a product is designed to the moment it reaches the consumer ultimately determine the return on investment. Traditional siloed processes yield longer lead times, but today’s apparel brands and retailers are all after one thing: speed. Within the supply chain, time is arguably the biggest risk factor. The pressure to react quickly to changing consumer demands adds another layer. If a retailer can’t keep up with what their customers want, they put themselves in danger of losing customers. A digital supply chain reduces these risks by enabling companies to make faster decisions and manage all the complexities of today’s retail and fashion supply chains.

On the Hunt for Quality and Sustainability? The Solution is Digital

Contrary to the assumption that low price is the prime selling point for apparel, good quality is even more of a driving factor for consumers. Almost 40% of millennial consumers say quality is the most important factor that attracts them to products, according to a Deloitte study, reported by Women’s Wear Daily.

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.