Why Training ?
Retailers and Brands
Retailers and Brands are coming to terms with the ‘omnichannel’ phenomenon. Supply Chains need to be not just ‘lean’ but also ‘agile’ and responsive. A downward pressure on prices mounts. So does the pressure to source in a ‘sustainable’ and ‘ethical’ way. How to tackle the inherent contradictions successfully will determine the winning edge.
Apparel Manufacturers
Apparel suppliers on the other hand are aware that price, on time delivery and quality of merchandise is a given. In this extremely competitive buyer driven fashion business, differentiation will come from the customer experience that an organization can provide. The sheer feeling or perception that your customer will have about ease of business. And the customer experiences your organization through the millions of interactions and transactions that occur between your customer facing people and the customer’s counterparts, right from the R & D inquiry stage to the final shipment. An investment in improving their skills can directly impact your bottom line indeed!
Fashion Industry is ripe for disruption and change. The dynamic and sweeping changes across the global apparel landscape can be challenging if individuals and organizations are not up to speed with the new game and the new rules of the game!
Story of a Typo Error
A merchandiser types 0.059 instead of 0.59 for a certain leather patch in a cost sheet amongst the 100 odd costings that he prepared for a development season. A pretty innocuous mistake which got overlooked by one and all. But hey, wait a minute! There are serious implications hidden here!! The mistake remained unnoticed and the order was confirmed for 50,000 pcs. If you do the math the error amounted to $ 26,550 which was left on the table!! Have you wondered how much money your organization may be leaving on the table like this?
Story of Lost Business
You had a great meeting with buyers in USA. Lots of samples and swatches were selected and like by customers. You flew back to your factory satisfied with the outcome of successful meeting, hoping the money spent to go all the way was well worth it. You hand over the follow up work to your team and get busy with running your business. A few months have passed and you are wondering about what finally happened to all those samples / swatches selected. How many of them resulted in real time business? Maybe things fell through the cracks due to unprofessional follow up on the part of your team.
Story of Who moved my Profit Margins?
Your organization boasts of 99.8% on time shipments. Business is pouring in. Are you wondering why your business profit margins are so low after putting in so much effort? May be the multiple sample rejections and all the crisis management your people did to make that shipment go on time, during the entire order cycle, costed you a lot of money in the end?
Story of 85 on 101
Out of the 101 steps involved in an apparel product life cycle right from step 1, when the designers shop for trend information and inspirations to step 101-the goods sell on retail shop floor, there are 85 steps involved which are manned by pre-production merchandising team. While you may have invested a lot of money on lean six sigma improvements on production floor, when was the last time you invested in improving the skills of people manning these 85 steps?
Courses
We offer apparel industry specific ‘on the job’ skills training workshops to individuals and organizations involved in apparel and fashion industry manufacturing and sourcing. We bring deep expertise and understanding of the industry based on 16+ years of solid experience of working with industry leaders like Li and Fung, Tommy Hilfiger, J C Penney and many suppliers across varied geographies. We have designed, developed and delivered several practical skill based modules which can be further customized to suit your needs.
This module stresses on ‘deadline management’ in apparel supply chain. How to use some of the tools from Project Management like WBS and CPM and how the basics can be applied in day to day TNA management in a merchant’s life to keep track of the timelines.and have a system in place to raise alerts early in the game instead of too late when nothing can be done.
Often a lot of money is left on the table due to careless mistakes made in the costings. We take the participants through a 20-point program to enable them to do a detailed and thorough job of costings and negotiations. We also cover how an understanding of buyer profit margins can be applied in accurately estimating buyer targets and arriving at workable fobs and securing win-win deals.
This module focused on how merchants can become customer service professionals to improve their career path as well as bring in more business. In every job they do, how they can make a difference at an individual level to delight the customer. Also, how they can improve their work by applying the same principles to the ‘internal customers’ – colleagues, suppliers etc.
Communication is key to managing and delivering on expectations on the buy as well as supply side. In this module we focus on how to communicate in an objective, unadulterated and accurate manner. Emails, phone, instant chat or in person, we cover it all.
Filing and methodical record keeping is a mundane but essential part of a merchant’s job. If not done properly can cost a lot of money in terms of lost productivity as well as ‘not having facts’ at hand can be dangerous when settling disputes and claims. So this session will cover how they can get to deal with this ‘necessary evil’ in the most efficient and effective manner. Clutter control tips are a part of this module.
This module is all about productivity enhancement so a merchant can have a life outside the office as well. Covering time management tips on prioritization, 80/20 rule, urgent vs important matrix etc. and their application in a merchant’s daily life.
Fashion and Apparel Sourcing involves its own specific lingo. This module focuses on equipping participants on all aspects of international apparel sourcing. Trade terms, International Trade Agreements, Vendor Evaluation, Vendor Management, Compliant, Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing, Tools, Tips and Tricks. We cover it all.
Giving the right product to your customer at the right time, price and place is the fine art and science of merchandising. Product Development is an indispensable ammunition that any smart apparel merchandiser must be equipped with to deliver effectively to customer expectations in the dynamic and rapidly changing fashion world. From understanding your target customer, to knowing what they need, to creating a product that will meet their needs, this module will take you through the essential elements of fashion apparel product development process.
Fabric accounts for 60% of an apparel costs. Knowing this component well makes a big difference to how you will fare in the apparel and fashion industry. We equip the participants with practical working know how about the fabric types, properties, testing parameters, quality, lead times, minimums and everything else that they need to know about fabrics to become effective fashion and apparel professionals.
Fashion Industry is ripe for disruption. New emerging trends like fast-fashion, on-line shopping, virtual fitting, fashion blogging are changing the industry landscape. Lean and Agile supply chains are the key to success. What it means for apparel professionals? New Game = New Rules. Are you ready to play?