After marking its presence in 15 countries, ThreadSol is all set to explore the African apparel industry to transform manufacturers to super vendors. This move comes at a time when the President of Kenya has decided to dedicate his energy in achieving the big four agenda as a way to improve the economy of Kenya and create more job opportunities. Manufacturing is one of the pillars in the big four agenda, and Threadsol has the opportunity to help in raising the share of this industry by providing better processes for manufacturers.
ThreadSol, the innovative garment tech company, participated in the Origin Africa event 2018 held in Kenya. During the fair, ThreadSol presented its range of innovative software solutions for the African apparel manufacturers. ThreadSol is also set to participate in the next African event of ATF (International Apparel, Textile and Footwear trade exhibition) from November 20-22, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa to present the solutions. ThreadSol’s innovative solutions work towards transforming the manufacturers to super vendors. The solutions: intelloCut and intelloBuy, helps in reducing the planning time by almost 80 per cent, reduce fabric sourcing cost by acting on data and insights.
These solutions are powered by the latest IT technologies of artificial intelligence, Big Data, and Mobility. Consequently these solutions reduce lead time and cost for manufacturers enabling them to handle more styles, cater to in-season change and at the same time, improve the topline and bottom line of their businesses.
“The current global sourcing trends are based on 3 major things: Trend injection- the reactive approach of the brand to competition’s product range, read & react- small SKUs to test market response, and in-season chase- revise manufacturing POs to focus on fast selling goods,” said Suhrud Panigrahi, Key Account Manager at ThreadSol.
To keep up with these trends of fashion brands, the apparel manufacturers need agility. An interesting term used by Panigrahi is ‘Super Vendors’. “A super vendor is a manufacturer who can work upon these trends by not only controlling costs of manufacturing, but also innovate the products to take pressure off the brands. Another compelling characteristic of a super vendor is to postpone or disrupt the order bookings for reactive trend injections,” adds Panigrahi.
The innovative solutions by ThreadSol have been implemented by over 150 apparel manufacturing facilities and they have reduced cost for manufacturers and improved their output.
Since the requirements of high and fast sourcing models are on a rise, which aims at smaller lead time and shorter order runs, it is becoming very difficult for countries like Bangladesh to keep up with these trends. The same can happen in Africa, if the manufacturers do not act towards becoming a super vendor.
“The African manufacturers have to become super vendors”, says Anas Shakil, Head of Emerging Geographies and Senior Partner at ThreadSol. “They need to reduce lead times and cost better to handle more styles, cater to in-season change and at the same time, improve the topline and bottomline of their businesses,” added Shakil.
