Challenges faced by manufacturing teams in the apparel industry

Alongside the challenges we mentioned above, the apparel industry often faces fast-changing customer demand in terms of designs, sizes, and colours. It is easy, but expensive, to end up with obsolete stock that needs to be sold at a significant discount.

On the other hand, material availability can be challenging as well. A successful company needs to manage the complex puzzle of what materials are available against what is the current situation of demand.

Often there are core products that can be made in larger quantities to reduce costs against one-off products that are needed to meet specific demands. In addition, lead times need to be kept short and inventory to the minimum to avoid obsolete fashions.

One of the biggest challenges with apparel manufacturing is the variations of the product. For instance, if you multiply the number of different styles by the number of sizes and the number of different colours and the answer could come up in the thousands.

Because there are so many variations yet the volumes might not be that huge, a complete make-to-stock manufacturing policy can be unrealistic even though it is tempting to reduce costs by manufacturing in larger volumes.

This is where Manu Online ERP can help. A business system for manufacturing like Manu Online can help keep your sales demand in close synchronization with your production even as demand fluctuates.