IMPACT OF IT ON APPAREL MARKET

PRESENTED BY: ANKITA BISWAS (13) P.M. SHABNA (19) ASHISH K. VERMA (24) DIANA TERONPI (27) IBADAHUN MARBANIANG(28)

INTRODUCTION
The Fashion business faces the challenges of how to keep profits and the plans for growth in line with expectations while facing up to the demands of modern consumers. If creativity could take care of the problem, one would be fine. But thats not where to look, the problem lies in the structure and so does the solution. This is where Technology comes in. It helps in making the process from design to manufacturing structurally impeccable and highly effective through Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems a solution more or less tailor made for the apparel industrys challenges.

Business Challenges
Todays consumers are the most enlightened in history. Not only do they have huge demands on product development, fashion levels and environmental friendliness the price tag has to be right, too. The walk across the street is short. So to be able to deliver on all these requirements plus meeting increasingly tough global competition, more and more companies in the fashion business are streamlining their management of design, production and information by applying a PLM solution. Through this, theyll be able to meet the demands from the market, become more effective, more competitive and more profitable.

Changing Apparel Market

The recent changes that have occurred in the apparel market are: Demographic change Shrinking disposable income ( in real term ) in many markets Increasing competition

How Textile Software help Fashion & Apparel Companies: Information Technology is at the core of any company across any industry today, helping retailers, brands & manufacturers ease their flow of operations and refine their functioning. When we talk of the apparel & textile industry, the situation is no different. Textile software is being increasingly used to help producers foster efficiencies of cost and time in their processes.

INCREASED COMPETITION As competition stiffens, more and more companies are taking support of IT to enhance their Supply Chain Management as well as data storage systems. A growing number of textile companies are leveraging the power of technology to add value to their business.

The softwares that are used in the apparel market are:

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Warehouse Software Retail Software Pattern Making Software Embroider Software Fashion Design Software Costing Software Point of Sale (POS) Software Knitting & Weaving Software Bar Code Software Mail Order Software Auction Software Supply Chain Management Logistics / Transportation Software Import / Export Software

Inventory Control Software Computer Assisted Design (CAD) o ERP Enterprise Resource Planning o PDM Product Development Manag. o PLM Product Lifecycle Manag. o Ecommerce Software Solutions o Ecommerce Virtual Stores o Ecommerce Shopping Carts o Trade Show Management Software o Production Management Software o Quality Assurance Software
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Major Software's resulting in Economic Benefit

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PLM software SCM software SAP ERP CAD RFID EDI 3-D Scanner Internet as a tool

PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) offers a complete design and data management solution from concept to delivery. PLM (Product Lifecycle Management software) provides a holistic view of product-related business processes and information throughout the product development lifecyclefrom product conception, design to production, product change management, delivery and analysis. WFX PDM PLM is a fitting Apparel Product Dvelopment Software. Web apparel PLM (product lifecycle management software) is a web based solution used by fashion businesses from retail to manufacturing to mange the entire product lifecycle across offices/locations, and for collaboration with suppliers

SAP
Stands for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing It is an enterprise-wide information system designed to coordinate all the resources, information, and activities needed to complete business processes such as order fulfillment or billing

With the SAP software, a company can, Improve planning, forecasting, and logistics Shorten product-to-market cycle time Improve gross margin performance. Easy access and analyze information and share data globally. o Closely managing raw-material suppliers. o Accurate information to manufacturers and retailers on stock levels, enabling them to save time and money. o o o o

Financial and Strategic Benefits

o Ability to respond to market conditions more flexibly and quickly o Greater visibility of demand changes o Ability to manage up to 50% variance in supply forecast o Wider and more diverse customer base (e-commerce) o Real-time analyses and reporting o Ability to track individual customer purchases o Increased availability of financial, supply chain, and customer data o Higher fulfillment rates

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Companys main product is SAP ERP It is the integration and extension of a business's operational IT systems, with the end goals of o Making information flow within (and beyond) a company more immediate and dynamic; o Increasing the usefulness and shelf life of information o Eliminating redundancy and automating routine processes o Making information system components more flexible Thereby leads to cost reduction and profit generation.

ERP is a suite of applications including ofinancials, ooperations, ohuman resources and other modules that together automate the back-office business administration functions of an enterprise.

Economic Benefit Analysis

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

o Pre-production CAD software package for design, patternmaking, and marker-making. o Earlier a base pattern was made out of cardboard and then placed on a digitizing table and its coordinates traced out to obtain a digital image of each pattern piece. o Alternatively, instead of making the base pattern by hand, a new pattern can be made by electronically manipulating an already digitized pattern. o Developing new but not radically different styles and patterns can be done with relative ease. o The computer can grade the pattern and enlarge or shrink the base pattern to obtain the pattern pieces for other sizes.

The benefits of CAD technology are Efficiency and accuracy. Businesses can develop products faster. Since grading and marking is automated, the patterns are more accurate The percentage of material usage is higher.

Retail Management Software

Increased sales as a result of better inventory control, reduced stock-outs, lost sales and happier customers Managing the merchandising mix so that it reduces the problem of over stocking or under stocking.

Increased profit margins through better understanding of buying trends and stocking

Minimum stock outs which leads to increase sales

Understanding the customer purchasing pattern to plan an optimum merchandise mix

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

It is a generic term that is used to describe a system that transmits the identity (in the form of a unique serial number) of an object or person wirelessly, using radio waves. It's grouped under the broad category of automatic identification technologies.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

It is the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic documents or business data from one computer system to another computer system, i.e. from one trading partner to another trading partner without human intervention.

EDI Process

3-D Body Scanner

o o o o o o Automate measuring body dimensions. It increases the accuracy of Quickly measures a vast number of body dimensions. Body scanning equipment, referred to as booths, ranges in price from USD $25,000-$225,000. Body scanning technology is the perfect complement for electronic clothing boutiques. An individual can use his or her data to either order custom-made clothes online or determine whether a particular ready-made style fits their own body properly. It is estimated that 38%-40% of all clothing purchased online is returned. Body scanning technology will significantly decrease the return rate and increase profits of online stores.

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Internet as a tool
Buying Process: Crowdsourcing Styles, Better Projections. Online Shopping: Smarter Tools Mean Fewer Returns Online Shopping: Customization Yields Better Sales

Buying Process: Crowdsourcing Styles, Better Projections

Online Shopping: Smarter Tools Mean Fewer Returns

Conclusion
IT plays an important role in the apparel market by helping to analyse the pulse of the changing customers , and help produce the products accordingly. As the customer has become smarter, these tools help the sector to craft the products according to their preferences and make hem available for disposal to the customers. These tools also help in he smooth functioning of all the components of the market by binding them together and by helping to collect and analyse all the data collected so as to produce better outputs to handle competition.