Fashion brands are often challenged with sustaining momentum in today’s digital economy. This is especially true for small-to-medium sized fashion companies that do not have the luxury of investing in a digital-core ERP solution that is capable of scaling as the company grows. In such situations, cracks start to appear within a company’s operational processes and platforms.

It's safe to say that many fashion companies are battling supply chain issues during this period. Fashion companies must take action now to navigate the impacts of the disruption, or they’ll be in for an even more challenged future. Here's what fashion companies can expect:

The actual cost of poor quality can be staggering. Brands and apparel manufacturers continue to grapple with quality issues due to human errors under extremely tight deadlines as well as the lack of right tools to help Quality Controllers (QCs) perform audits and systematically derive results.

With the right quality management system, fashion brands and manufacturers can ensure the maintenance of quality - improving processes, reducing waste, lowering costs and cultivating a more productive team by eliminating manual, repetitive tasks.

Sluggish store traffic, intense competition from online retailers, dynamic pricing strategy and evolving consumer spending patterns are the headwinds plaguing the retail sector. But some brands are continuing to take the leap by investing in their growth plans despite the challenges faced by the retail industry. From understanding the core customer to keeping up with the latest trends, what's driving them to make the decision and why now?

Since its founding in 1995, Maxport has grown into a major manufacturer, producing for the world’s leading brands including Nike, Lululemon, and Asics.

Much of its success is due to its unwavering focus on quality and innovation; a constant practice of finding new ways to improve processes by leveraging new technologies. With that in mind, Maxport recently announced their decision to implement SAP S/4HANA for Fashion Manufacturing across its operations, making it one of the first Vietnamese manufacturing and exporting companies to deploy the solution. Below is the kick-off video to celebrate the first-ever S/4HANA for Fashion Manufacturing Project in Vietnam:

In a recent interview with CNBC, the CEO of Tapestry, Victor Luis revealed some of the changes happening behind its diversified multi-brand model, including an ambitious growth initiative that encompasses significant investments in systems and infrastructure. Check out the video below: 

Early adopters of S/4HANA for Fashion and Vertical Business are using their implementations as an opportunity to build a more agile IT landscape to integrate retail, wholesale and manufacturing processes and dramatically reduce TCO.

A complete re-platforming of an ERP solution is essential to face current digital challenges. It serves an opportunity to leverage new technologies for future growth. However, if the right approach is not taken, it can be a daunting task for any company, often involving significant risks and unmanageable costs. To an extent, a proof of concept (POC) helps resolve some of the uncertainties, but it is non-reusable and the effort taken does little to mitigate potential risks. 

Written by Kim MacIntosh, Senior VP - North America

With summer officially over, the attune team is looking forward to the next couple of months where we will be on the road and meeting you at several events. The first being the ASUG Apparel Footwear and Fashion (AFF) SIG meeting at Columbia Sportswear headquarters. We’re looking forward to meeting fashion IT leaders at this year’s meeting. One of the hot topics is going to be around SAP S/4HANA for Fashion and how to make the transition to the new platform.

Any time a sales order comes in, there is a requested quantity, time, and location. Fashion companies need to know this information to understand whether they can fulfill the request. But it’s often not just a simple check of inventory and fulfillment — there are many factors to consider: What if the order changes at the last moment? What if something happens in the production process that could potentially affect delivery? With a first-come, first-served (FCFS) strategy, are orders from the top customers getting fulfilled in time over lower-priority orders?