Coats Digital—the software business of Coats Group—leverages deep industry and technology expertise to create and deliver business critical software solutions which are proven to digitally transform the way fashion companies design, develop, cost, source, plan and manufacture. The company’s apparel, footwear and textile specific solutions harness industry best practice and the latest technology to improve agility, speed to market, efficiency, transparency and sustainability. Fibre2Fashion speaks to Coats Digital’s new Managing Director Kunal Kapur about why digitisation is vital for the fashion supply chain and his plans for Coats Digital’s future.
Why software solutions are critical for today’s businesses, especially for those operating in the textile and garment sector?
The COVID-19 pandemic literally rammed home the fact that fashion brands, sourcing houses and manufacturers need to adopt digital processes quickly, to stand any chance of surviving in an increasingly complex and uncertain future.
It was clear that the industry needed greater collaboration and data connectivity between design, development and production partners to provide the full visibility and accountability required to not only manage the potentially short-term disruption of the pandemic, but also enable it to become more resilient, agile, efficient and sustainable in the future to meet the growing expectations of a more demanding consumer and investor.
Although the disruption caused directly by the pandemic may have begun to recede, we are now witnessing the negative impacts of geo-political risks, energy crises, high and rising inflation, high surplus stock levels, and continuing global supply chain disruption.
Evidence increasingly suggests that all players in the fashion supply chain will be unlikely to successfully navigate this consistently changing landscape or meet the exacting expectations of a more demanding consumer, if they don’t invest – and continue to invest – in technology and digitisation programmes that will help to mitigate the challenges ahead.
As a result, a rapid digitisation of the fashion industry continues to advance at break-neck speed. New solutions are evolving fast and existing technologies are being consistently enhanced to ensure that brands and manufacturers can solve critical pain points together quickly – and seamlessly.
The textile-garment supply chain is very complex, with various operations carried out in multiple countries. How do Coats Digital’s software solutions help in overcoming supply chain problems?
Supply chain visibility has become increasingly important for brands and manufacturers across all categories as global supplier networks become more complex, and in some cases, operationally siloed.
The COVID-19 pandemic was undoubtedly the catalyst which shifted the focus of brands’ attention towards the supply chain. It exposed the truth around the lack of visibility and transparency down the supply chain, which ultimately resulted in a massive failure to effectively utilise the parts of the supply chain that were up and running – even at the most basic operational level!
In terms of recovery, brands have been very focused around how to get the level of data and visibility they need to support delivery against fluctuating consumer demand, and potential further supply disruption! This has driven brands to assess the current digital backbone of their existing supplier base, and rationalise accordingly – with the priority being basic operational level digital collaboration, such as: capacity availability and utilisation, existing order fulfilment, material availability and location, manufacturing capabilities and transport infrastructure etc.
Our goal is to quickly establish a valued ecosystem of superior, connected solutions that provide the real-time data insights and transparency that the fashion supply chain increasingly needs to deliver real growth, more efficient operations and meaningful sustainable practices across all its global concerns. Our eco-system of market leading solutions supports design and development, fabric optimisation, method-time-cost optimisation, production planning and control, and shopfloor execution. These solutions continue to deliver significant ROI to our customers and ensure that their business processes are robust, enabling them to adapt and withstand any market dynamics that evolve in the future. Our customer success is paramount.
Which are the critical areas that need to be addressed in a fashion supply chain, if a brand wants to deliver optimal performance?
Most supply chain companies are experiencing different stages of their digitisation journey. Brands and manufactures have responded with varying degrees of urgency to address ongoing supply chain challenges around speed, cost, customisation, order complexity, innovation and transparency.
In terms of systems, many garment manufacturers face the major challenge of disjointed systems and far too many gaps in the process, that are currently filled by manual documents such as Excel, emails etc, to be able to effectively cope with changing consumer demands. The only way to achieve true speed and efficiency is to eliminate the manual disconnects from the business process and ensure proper procedures are in place that provide true visibility and greater collaboration across departments.
The reality is that modern apparel companies will require at least four or more best-of-breed solutions to meet changing consumer demands for faster, shorter run, high-style-variation fashion if they want to compete in an increasingly volatile global trading environment.
Ultimately, each business needs to look at its end-to-end processes and their buyers’ needs to identify where they have the greatest pain – and then quickly ascertain where the potential for immediate improvement is greatest.
What are the various solutions that Coats Digital offers to various brands and manufacturers?
Five years ago, GSD and FastReact were acquired alongside other leading solutions to become the core of Coats Digital and to deliver a unique, new, robust, multi-faceted ecosystem of best-in-class technologies that enables brands and manufacturers to step up their digital agendas quickly and solve their critical pain points seamlessly.
With the acquisition of these leading software solutions, we can offer a rare combination of industry depth and technology expertise to make a real difference in addressing key pain points across the supply chain – not just specific, select areas – but those that help eradicate key problems from plan to pack that the industry has been contending with for years.
The industry knows FastReact and GSD as being the go-to solutions for solving planning and costing areas in the supply chain.
Now called FastReactPlan, our production planning software supports a faster, more reliable order confirmation process and production plan which is optimised for delivery, efficiency and speed. Indeed, our customers are generally realising a reduction in lead times of up to 30 per cent, improvements in OTDP (On Time Delivery Performance) between 10-30 per cent, and around a 10 per cent increase in productivity – simply by implementing this one business-critical solution.
GSDCost remains the de-facto international standard for establishing accurate method-time-cost benchmarks; but as with all our acquisitions, we are continuing to develop and enhance functionality so that we continue to offer added value. We recently developed a Fair Wage Tool for GSDCost, for example, in partnership with the Fair Wage Network, so that manufacturers can effortlessly factor in fair wages in their countries of operation to order quotes, which we hope will be instrumental in helping to not only meet impending new global compliance legislation, but also increasing consumer expectations around sustainability and ethical working practices.
We have continued to build on this fantastic heritage, by adding and again, enhancing, a unique fabric optimisation solution, FastReactFabric, which offers an effective way to maximise fabric utilisation and reduce waste by accurately estimating fabric consumption at the buying and cutting stages. With between 70-80 per cent of fashion manufacturing investment down to fabric costs, this solution offers a sure-fire way to significantly reduce costs and unnecessary fabric wastage in one swoop.
My role is to continue our growth and innovation mindset by expanding our portfolio into relevant new areas and continuing to forge key strategic partnerships such as the one we have with Res.Q – which provides robust, digitised shop floor execution and control solutions – in the bid to create one business, one organisation, one culture and one strategy.
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
