Retailing And Merchandising In Textiles And Appare

Retailing and Merchandising in Textiles and Appare 3(2+1)

Lesson 13 : Merchandising

Interfacing with Manufacturing

The number of U.S. apparel companies that maintain their own manufactur­ing facilities decreased dramatically during the 1990s and early 2000s. Most firms have opted to source their production with domestic or off-shore con­ tract manufacturers. For those companies that do have their own facilities, maintaining low levels of work-in-process (WIP, the number of garments that have been cut but are not finished and available for shipping) and still pro­ viding a shippable-mix (the necessary assortment of styles including all sizes and colors for each style required to make a shipment) is critical to risk reduc­tion and optimal customer service.

Since in many companies the merchandiser authorizes production, it is important for the merchandiser to maintain close communications with man­ufacturing. A mix of styles must be issued that can optimize manufacturing ca­pabilities as well as satisfy customer requirements. The goal of the merchan­diser must be to maintain a mix of styles in the factories that will achieve low production costs and still meet shippability criteria. This requires the merchandiser to have a solid understanding of manufacturing processes and a keen sense of marketing and sales requirements.