While many apparel businesses prefer the traditional ways of doing things, there’s no denying that change is the need of the hour. It begins with automation, an approach where the mundane processes within the supply chain operate like clockwork so that businesses can strategize and innovate. Truth be told, the task of supply chain automation has never been easier. Let’s delve into it.
What is Supply Chain Automation?
Supply chain automation basically refers to the process of utilizing technology to streamline your supply chain. Automation utilizes multiple technological advancements such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to reduce manual work. It can significantly improve the performance of your supply chain by making it more efficient.
What are the Benefits of Supply Chain Automation?
Automating the supply chain of your apparel business offers a wide variety of benefits for organizations. Here are the top benefits of automation in the supply chain:
Automating Manual Tasks
The best part about implementing supply chain automation solutions is that they can be used to automate manual tasks which can help organizations to save valuable time and effort. Moreover, automation can be used to execute several tasks in a shorter span of time. This way, the organization can use their human resources in areas they are needed the most.
Minimizing Human Errors
To err is to be human but from a business standpoint, that isn’t ideal. When cyclic tasks get automated as per pre-defined SOPs and have minimal human intervention, the chances are human errors get reduced as well.
Improves Customer Experience
Automation of the supply chain can also help organizations achieve better customer satisfaction. From an end-consumer standpoint, automation results in timely and virtually error-free execution of customer orders which eventually leads to improved customer experience.
Understand the Scope of Supply Chain Automation
Automation of your apparel business’ supply chains offers numerous benefits but there are two aspects to consider:
- It is meant for specific tasks and there is still a requirement for human effort for the completion of certain tasks within the supply chain.
- There are different types of costs involved in supply chain automation that might not be affordable for SMEs when the total supply chain cost is factored in. This means that certain organizations might not be able to benefit from the automation process in the supply chain.
How much Automation is Possible?
As far as automation is concerned, here are some tasks that can be automated within the supply chain:
Back-office
There are several back office tasks that can be executed through automation such as financing and accounting. Automation can also be used for supply chain analytics as it can help track key performance metrics using relevant data in a shorter span of time.
Transportation
Automation can also bring down the shipping costs by choosing the best route for shipments and reducing the transit time. You can also track your shipments on a real-time basis and find out if there are any delays.
Warehouse
Automation can be used to not only receive but also confirm orders. Automation can also be used to send the tracking information to the customer as soon as the order is confirmed. It can also be used to assign the goods to person (GTP) through automation to the nearest fulfilment center as per the customer’s delivery address.
LTLabs is a digital solutions provider that possesses decades of experience in apparel manufacturing. Our vast network of manufacturing software and hardware solutions empowers organizations to optimize their performance and streamline their business operations.
Links used for reference:
https://www.shipbob.com/blog/supply-chain-automation/
https://www.bizagi.com/en/blog/supply-chain-automation-what-is-it-how-can-it-benefit-me
