For the first time in years, retailers and brands are rediscovering the speed, reliability, and other substantive benefits of producing apparel and other softgoods in the USA and the Americas. Along with consumer demand for greater product variety and innovation, this whitepaper explores fast-rising costs and risks throughout the global supply chain that have led many companies to rethink the value of domestic and near-shore production options.
Benefits of Manufacturing Closer to Home
Some companies that shifted to full package sourcing are now returning a portion of these programs to in-house manufacturing. Many more are embracing a hands-on approach to manufacturing as they contract production to local or regional production partners. Others have remained committed to domestic production programs from the start. Regardless of the scenario, many of these companies are finding new opportunities and benefits by manufacturing closer to home.
Meeting Manufacturing Mandates
But to seize these growing opportunities, manufacturers face a tough new set of mandates to control costs, streamline processes, and improve visibility and accuracy. Meeting these requirements can be challenging for any company, especially when the production process is often shared across multiple full package, partial package, and cut and sew contract manufacturers. To ensure their ability to effectively compete, a growing number of manufacturers are recognizing the need for enterprise software solutions that offer the more robust manufacturing capabilities and controls needed to more effectively manage demand requirements, raw materials, vendor interaction, and production compliance.
Achieving Production Goals
Oregon-based firefighting and military gear manufacturer Massif, started out in 1999 as a small company with a staff of two. Today, they are a world leader in supplying flame resistant and high performance outdoor apparel and fabrics to the military, law enforcement, search and rescue professionals, and the wildland firefighting community. Massif needed a more robust manufacturing system capable of tracking and managing production and sales of its flame resistant materials and wide ranging products across its multiple subcontract production locations. After replacing a legacy business system with the BlueCherry Enterprise Suite from CGS, the fast-growing company achieved these and other material planning (MRP) and production goals; including multi-level lot traceability of all raw materials used in each product. The new system also gave Massif the tools it needed to make improvements in its product development, order fulfillment, and financial management activities.
