ERP for Apparel Industry- Scope and Benefits for Your Garment Business

The apparel industry is one of the evergreen sectors in the world. According to official research, The apparel market has shown continued strong growth. It reached $655.7 billion in 2023 and is projected to climb to $702.11 billion in 2024. This momentum is expected to persist, with the market size, reaching an impressive $918.71 billion by 2028. Though the sector is constantly growing, it brings many challenges for business persons in terms of managing inventories and ordering processes. There, ERP for the apparel industry lends a helping hand!

It is way more difficult than before to mark your presence in a thriving apparel business due to increasing competition. If you want to make your apparel brand the first choice for customers, you need to get the assistance of evolving technology. You can opt for a robust ERP like SAP Business One solution to get a competitive edge and streamline various processes in your apparel enterprise.

In this blog, we are going to discuss the scope and benefits of ERP solutions for the apparel industry. Let’s start from scratch.

Why ERP is a Game Changer for the Apparel Industry

The apparel industry consists of many departments including production planning, CAD, merchandising, accounting, fabric, sampling, production, quality assurance, and HR department. Also, you need to maintain the warehouse and inventory for managing the supply chain effectively. For a business person or an entrepreneur, it is quite a task to streamline all the processes across different divisions and simplify complexities.

Here is an example. A seller who owns a warehouse or uses a 3PL requires robust inventory control and management. It is not sufficient these days to know that all black trousers are in aisle 15 when tens of styles and sizes are available in different shades of black! In this scenario, managers should exactly know what is available in the warehouse and where is it in real-time. Here, a seller can count upon ERP software for the apparel industry.

Most apparel industry owners tend to establish separate systems for different departments. However, this can not only kill productive time but also remains expensive. It is not viable for setting up a separate system for accounting and another system for order management. What if you want to expand your business and open a new franchisee or branch in a different region? This is highly cumbersome, and therefore, it is imperative to have a single solution.

An ERP for the apparel industry can serve this objective effectively. Here are the top business benefits of ERP solutions for the apparel industry.

Streamlined Operations

One of the biggest challenges for the apparel industry is managing raw materials effectively. A feature-rich ERP software like SAP Business One can help you address this challenge by giving real-time information on different aspects like labeling, packaging, printing, and sewing to streamline manufacturing processes.

Hassle-free Payments and Receipts

Just like other industries, the apparel industry also involves multiple payments and related complexities. When managing multiple customers or preparing many orders at once, it is cumbersome for the accounting department to produce various bills and receipts quickly. A customized ERP system can create a multi-rate pricing list with prefixed discounts to.

Reduced Operational Costs

Proper planning and execution can save money for your apparel company. ERP software can remove unnecessary human effort by bringing automation and streamlining processes. It also makes it possible to reduce the risks associated with human errors while standardizing functions like inventory control and audits.

Real-time Reporting

This is one of the most remarkable benefits of ERP solutions for the apparel industry. The cloud-based ERP system offers high visibility into sensitive information and analyzes the data to show the reports in real-time. Sales and marketing executives of your apparel industry find this feature highly useful for expanding business.

Better Planning for Production

An ERP for the apparel industry is designed to enhance production planning. You can manage the supply chain more effectively and get complete control over the production. An ERP solution can assist you to keep all the departments on the same page for better coordination and planning for the production process and other activities.

Improved Inventory Management

Customized ERP software is useful in handling inventory by arranging products into different sizes, colors, designs, and vendor availability. Thanks to the ERP solution, you can dynamically handle the stock activities and ensure that stakeholders or customers can receive the right product on time.

Increase in Sales

A feature-rich ERP system for the apparel industry enables users to track the customer’s information including frequency and transactions. This data can enable the apparel industry’s owner to understand garment trends and people’s interests. Also, an ERP system is useful to handle loyalty programs and promotional offers. All these aspects contribute to increasing in sales.

What are the Key Operations in an Apparel Company?

The apparel industry is full of various activities. Here are some of the top sections of an apparel company that helps it run various processes seamlessly.

1. Production Planning Department

Once the sample is approved and the order is confirmed, this department schedules a pre-production meeting with the heads of other departments. Here, they plan order quantity, plan cut date, operation breakdown, etc. on the basis of the order size.

2. CAD (Computer Aided Designs) Department

It collects various inputs including fabric details, pattern, tech pack, etc., and comes up with a report on output design as good consumption of material per garment.

3. Merchandising Department

It gets the data related to the buyer’s interest and likings to make things as expected by customers. It involves planning, developing, and dispatching the order to the buyer.

4. Accounts Department

It acts as a lifeline for the apparel industry. It manages the letter of credit, invoices, and receipts while preparing financial reports and managing expenses.

5. Fabric Inspection Department

It analyzes fabric defects using various methods and protocols. Usually, 4-point inspection methods and 10-point inspection methods are in practice for assessing the quality of fabric.

6. Production Department

We can consider it as a center of the apparel industry. The production department is the largest unit in the industry and it strives to achieve maximum productivity with minimum wastage to meet the deadline.

7. Maintenance Unit

This unit ensures zero breakdowns by practicing preventive maintenance. This unit attempts to reduce downtime and increase the equipment’s lifecycle.

8. Quality Assurance Department

It is aimed at maintaining and controlling the quality. It divides the quality assurance task into four different stages- pre-inspection, inline inspection, end-line inspection, and final inspection.

9. HR Department

It recruits new employees as per the requirements of different departments. They look after employee engagement, salary, and other policies.

Apart from these departments, the apparel industry has a separate fabric department, design department, and industrial engineering department for improving productivity and quality.

ERP with Apparel Manufacturers for Cutting Costs & Maximizing Efficiency

ERP for the apparel industry can save a significant amount of time and money for textile and garment manufacturers. Features like real-time tracking and reporting of resources can help to reduce costs. The ERP system enables the apparel industry to make better planning and thereby reduce administrative costs while improving business process management.

ERP solutions like SAP Business One have inventory management features along with supply chain management functionality. It assists manufacturers to fulfill purchase orders quickly and assign tasks to the most suitable resources. It helps the industry reduce errors and avoid manual repetitive tasks that save a lot of time.

The Benefits & Challenges of implementing SAP Business One for the Apparel Industry

SAP Business One is one of the most preferred ERP solutions for core business sectors including manufacturing, retail, chemical, healthcare, and apparel or fashion. It has different modules like production, operations, inventory, CRM, analytics, and finance to meet the typical challenges of the apparel industry.

Here are the five ways SAP Business One solution benefits the apparel industry and assists it to overcome various challenges.

Effective Supply Chain

Most apparel industries have customers spread globally, and therefore, they need to manage the supply chain more effectively without compromising on quality. SAP Business One can provide users with supply chain efficiency by coordinating different departments and activities. A centralized database and demand forecasting tools make the supply chain robust and resilient.

Reduced Operational Costs

SAP Business One ERP solution can increase employee's productivity and keep all the stakeholders on the same page. Also, it is easy to leverage the benefits of cloud technology with the SAP B1 solution. Altogether, SAP B1 contributes to mitigating the additional costs related to the installation of hardware and software while reducing operational costs.

Efficient Manufacturing Process

Streamlined processes are essential for every industry and the apparel industry is no exception! The apparel industry needs an integrated response to demand fluctuations, customer expectations, and even last-minute hiccups in raw materials. Here, SAP Business One can assist the apparel industry to optimize its processes to meet all the challenges effectively.

Better Customer Experiences

Seamless customer experiences with an omnichannel strategy are a must for thriving in the competitive environment of the apparel industry. Better inventory management, compliance-related features, and higher visibility of SAP Business One enable apparel industry owners to offer high-quality customer experiences with responsive performances.

Improved Return Product Management

It is necessary for the retail and apparel industries to streamline the returns process. You need to manage and control return policy terms, shipping, and account credits-related processes. SAP Business One provides users with a consolidated database for return products to manage agreements and handle returns to improve customer relationships.

5 Most Sought-after Features of ERP for the Apparel Industry

A tailored ERP system for the apparel industry can integrate various processes, streamline workflows, and increase visibility. It also offers a range of features that enable your apparel enterprise to thrive in a highly complex scenario.

Here are the top five features of the ERP for the apparel industry-

1. Material Requirements Planning

Also known as MRP, this feature is helpful for gaining complete control over raw materials and inventory. It also facilitates you to manage bills of materials across different categories. MRP-based systems can handle the entire timeline ranging from conception to procurement to production. It results in better planning and resource allocation.

2. Inventory Management

Varieties in colors and sizes of clothes make this industry more challenging and unique than other industries. Also, the apparel industry deals with trends and interests of customers. Therefore, you need to stay ahead of the demand curve every time. With the ERP solution, you can easily achieve this objective using inventory management tools.

3. Vendor Management

A dedicated vendor portal in the ERP software can streamline production operations while ensuring effective vendor communication. You can easily upload images or write comments to notify vendors about the changes you want in the specific items. The vendor management portal also includes features related to procurement and bidding to simplify complexities.

4. Demand Planning

It is almost impossible to predict fashion trends and customer expectations when it comes to the apparel industry. Market trends and apparel life cycles keep on changing, and therefore, you need to focus on creativity. ERP software for the apparel industry has the necessary forecasting and demand planning tools that integrate with historical data and sales forecasts to get a clear picture on the customer’s purchasing decisions.

5. Warehouse Management

An apparel ERP has a built-in warehouse management functionality. It assists you to track and control the warehouse activities. The ERP solution needs to be scalable so that it can grow with the increasing business. Advanced ERP like SAP Business One solution has additional capabilities including returns management, shipping -and logistics integration, etc.

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Conclusion

Silver Touch Technologies is a reputed SAP Business One Partner in India. We have gained fame for installing tens of hundreds of SAP Business One software across different industry sectors globally. As a leading SAP Business One solution provider in Ahmedabad, we take care of every aspect of the workflow and daily business activities while providing users with advanced SAP ERP solutions.

We also develop add-ons for SAP Business One for manufacturing industry and other industry sectors. Silver MFG for manufacturing and Silver Warehouse Management System are some of our popular add-ons in core industry sectors globally. Do you want to schedule a free demo for our SAP Solutions? Simply drop us a line at sap@silvertouch.com and we will get back to you with your demo of an SAP solution.

FAQs for apparel ERP software

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