In recent years, China's clothing industry has developed rapidly and has made remarkable progress. At the same time, clothing manufacturers are also facing fierce competition. Many clothing companies are also exploring new ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Relying on its powerful information network, professional operation mode, high-efficiency distribution system and comprehensive service mode, modern logistics has shown great power in increasing the frequency of product circulation and reducing enterprise inventory costs.
"In the process of transforming from an extensive market economy to an intensive market economy, the most obvious manifestation in the apparel brand market is that many niche brands will replace those large-scale brands. Whether it is large-scale apparel brand enterprises or niche brands. The original clothing brand enterprises, logistics and distribution management determine the pace of brand development, and also affect the lifeblood of clothing brand competition." Chen Dapeng, president of the China Garment Association, said in an interview with reporters.
At the 2009 China International Apparel Expo held not long ago, reporters tried to understand the logistics status of some apparel companies at the exhibition site. However, among the more than a dozen exhibitors of large and small clothing companies that have been consulted, only a few company representatives can talk to reporters about the current status of the clothing industry and the logistics of the company, while most of the other people who have been consulted are just simple logistics Land is understood as transportation or warehousing, and even some companies have not established a dedicated logistics department.
Compared with the brands sold online, clothing brands with traditional sales methods have been hindered in R&D, inventory, information and other aspects due to insufficient logistics links.
The era of focusing on production and neglecting logistics is gone forever
An economic expert in the industry told reporters: "Three years ago, the situation in the market was that the demand for logistics exceeded 5% of the supply. If there is no supplier directly looking for a freight forwarder, the goods will be stranded. Of course, the logistics of clothing is only one part of logistics. Branch. China's logistics is still a sunrise industry. Logistics has great development potential in China, and the application of logistics in clothing has great potential. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places regard logistics as economic development. This is a very important aspect of economic development. This is a good opportunity for economic development."
Because of the rising land price, businessmen prefer to let the goods run on the road instead of staying in the warehouse. A trader from a women's clothing brand in Guangdong said: "The annual sales of a women's clothing company is about 150 million yuan, but its inventory occupies more than 150 million yuan. If the company uses a 10% annual profit rate to calculate In other words, the occupation of inventory funds is equivalent to its 10-year profit. Even if the inventory funds of new products in the current season are about 60 million yuan (reversed from its sales), the funds occupied by its sluggish inventory It also exceeded 90 million yuan."
It can be seen that most of its funds are occupied by inventory, and this company will face a severe test of inefficient capital turnover.
The logistics cost of the enterprise remains high, especially the high inventory cost, which is directly related to the large amount of sluggish goods stored in the warehouse. But at this time, many corporate executives will ask: "How much is our company's inventory? What if the inventory is small and the store is out of stock and not enough to sell? If the inventory is large, the cost is high, and there may be a backlog. I know this. But because I am facing a large number of customers. My customers require me to be able to respond quickly and be able to replenish and distribute goods in time for customers. If the response is slow, I may lose my customers. This problem is not solved and only discuss inventory The height is meaningless."
Today, the development of the logistics industry has become an important part of the clothing industry. However, many large-scale clothing companies still maintain the original distribution method of goods, that is, the logistics method of shipping to provincial agents two or three times a year. Several well-known men's clothing companies in Fujian have ordered their products for one year mostly four months ago. The replenishment delivery method is only implemented by women's clothing brand companies in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
Significance of logistics management in brand strategy
"In local garment processing enterprises, people often attach importance to design and production, but as an indispensable logistics system that provides support to the garment production system, it has not received much attention. With the advancement and wide range of modern logistics management concepts, methods, and technologies Apparel production and processing companies are beginning to pay attention to their own logistics systems. China’s logistics market still has some inefficiencies, partly because the inventory system is not sound enough, and the cost of warehousing is higher than in developed countries." Management consulting industry expert Yang Dayun said, “General logistics costs in China will account for 20% of the entire cost, much higher than 10% in the United States. The clothing industry is often due to insufficient logistics conditions, so that part of the value of clothing is in transportation. Lost in the process."
Indeed, it is meaningless to simply consider the inventory problem, because the inventory of the clothing distribution company serves customers and the sales business of the company, so another factor that needs to be considered here is customer satisfaction. The logistics execution of many clothing brands does not meet certain requirements. Some shop assistants and store managers personally pick up and deliver the goods. "Some brands have talked about the issue of supply from the 16th to the 18th band each year. They rely on logistics management outsourcing to complete the refined distribution work. It can be said that logistics outsourcing is a good idea." Yang Dayun told reporters, "However, logistics management is in progress. What is needed is a balance between inventory and customer satisfaction, and the logistics management of clothing distribution companies is mainly to manage the two ends of this scale."
Regarding how to grasp the situation in a timely manner, companies need to make specific business strategies from the perspectives of customer satisfaction and inventory costs. Yang Dayun told reporters: "ERP systems can help brands, because only ERP systems can measure employee performance, customer satisfaction, and company inventory costs in a timely manner, and make decisions after comprehensive evaluation."
Of course, the ERP system is only a tool in the process of enterprise operation and management. Although it is a relatively intelligent tool, it cannot replace other factors of enterprise operation after all. If you want to deal with the core issues of enterprise logistics management, you also need to do a good job of management from the three levels of strategy, planning, and operation.
"In fact, what more large-scale clothing companies have to solve is the management awareness of selling and fixing production." The person in charge of the Fujian Jinba brand told reporters. "By 2005, China will build 200,000 kilometers of roads and spend 120 billion US dollars to upgrade infrastructure. Construction, this signal is a very good opportunity, which means that it will be easier to manage logistics in the past few years. However, more large-scale enterprises are starting up in production clusters, and their strong point is production, which solves the problem of upstream logistics distribution. The advantage of cost control of companies is in the process of turning fabrics into ready-to-wear garments, which will cause large quantities of waste after the goods are completed."
ERP measures for customer satisfaction
Due to the long industrial chain of the clothing industry, clothing distribution companies may be clothing brand companies whose main energy lies in brand building, product design and production organization. Of course, they will also set up functional departments similar to marketing companies (marketing centers). Perform the functions of channel expansion, market management and commodity distribution. There is also a clothing distribution company that is just a professional clothing agent, which acts as an agent for several well-known domestic and foreign brands in a certain area. Its main functions are product procurement, channel expansion, market management, product distribution and retail.
The Rimula brand introduced ERP in 2007. The purpose is to make the information from brand owners to consumer terminals unimpeded. The person in charge of the brand said that the establishment of the company's internal ERP system is mainly to guide the accuracy of logistics management. He said: "What we said Customer satisfaction refers not to the satisfaction of final consumers, but the satisfaction of downstream distribution companies (general agents, agents, franchisees, and distributors) of the company. As a clothing distribution company, it is related to downstream distribution companies The main business includes: ordering (futures), replenishment, distribution, allocation, return, reconciliation, checkout and after-sales service. In these business links, what problems will make the customer's satisfaction low?"
Many industry insiders interviewed by reporters expressed their views on the development of clothing logistics with "there is still a lot of room for development in clothing logistics". Many industry insiders have said that in the current apparel industry, entrepreneurs are in a transitional stage in their understanding of apparel logistics.
"With the development and promotion of brands in the clothing industry, logistics has become more and more important in the development of the entire industry. This is undoubtedly. Some operators, due to changes in their business philosophy, pay more attention to logistics than before. With greater improvement, some companies have also regarded the logistics link in the process of their brand operations as an important topic to study, and some even put logistics on the very important agenda." Wang, Secretary-General of the China National Garment Association Zhuo gave a full affirmation of the importance of logistics by apparel companies. In Wang Zhuo's view, the increasing emphasis on logistics by business leaders reflects the clothing industry's earnest hope for the development of clothing logistics. However, Wang Zhuo also said that entrepreneurs still need to further improve their correct understanding of clothing logistics.
"In fact, although many apparel companies attach great importance to logistics and are willing to invest, many responsible persons do not know how to use logistics resources, nor do they know the value that such investment can bring, so that many companies are It seems that the investment is relatively blind.” According to Luo Zheng, the director of logistics of Qipai Group, the current obstacles in understanding logistics are no longer the question of whether enterprises attach importance to logistics.
In fact, on the issue of how entrepreneurs understand clothing logistics, there are many people who have the same views as Luo Zheng. In these people’s eyes, the transformation stage of entrepreneurs’ consciousness is whether they can understand logistics. To a higher level of understanding, whether we can truly realize the true value of logistics for apparel companies.
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