Written by

Daniella Ambrogi
March 10, 2022

How to Avoid Supply Chain Black Holes

How to Avoid Supply Chain Black Holes

Whether you source most of your product or manufacture it in your own factories, almost every business struggles with some “black holes” in their supply chain—those gaps in knowledge and visibility about what is happening. It could be related to costs, work-in-process (WIP), capacity, shipping time, quality, container availability, raw materials or any number of variables.

“Black holes are a common supply chain problem, caused as much by disjointed systems as by lack of visibility into data, processes and workflows,” said an article in The Manufacturer. “That may not have been an issue historically, but in today’s fast-moving, demand-driven landscape, it could mean the difference between gaining market share and losing it.”

In this digital age, we have more data than ever, but if it’s not in an accessible, usable format, we can’t make much use of it. It might as well be in a black hole.

“Manufacturers often don’t have the technical or organizational infrastructure in place to take advantage of this new level of insight. More data creates a bigger black hole of unused data,” said Douglas Bellin in a Sight Machine blog post, a business development executive responsible for Industry 4.0 and smart factory initiatives at Amazon Web Services. “They are missing ways to turn this raw new data into something that enables them to make better decisions.”

But imagine the possibilities if you could expose valuable data to the light of day and start using it to solve business challenges, capture market share and grow your business.
 

Harnessing Supply Chain Insights

Shop Floor Control’s (SFC) Role

Shop floor control (SFC) technology provides visibility to critical manufacturing milestones that previously might have been invisible to fashion and consumer goods retailers, brands and manufacturers, especially those with complex global supply chains.

The latest SFC solutions offer wireless connectivity across the factory floor, capturing data at the source, in real time or near real time. Managers and executives both on- and offsite see status immediately instead of waiting for reports and evaluating performance in the rear-view mirror. This gives them an opportunity to pivot, address problems and make course corrections in the face of quality problems, supply partner delays and other issues. SFC provides insights into key performance indicators (KPI) and WIP for production steps, such as materials receiving, spreading, cutting, sewing, quality assurance inspection and packaging.

SFC technology also empowers businesses to understand impacts of absenteeism, off-standard events, maintenance costs and more. Before implementing CGS BlueCherry® Shop Floor Control, Star Garment Group, a leading Sri Lankan apparel manufacturer, knew it had a black hole occluding off-standard time. The company was not capturing or measuring data about off-standard incidents, such as non-productive time due to thread breaks, machine downtime or operators waiting for work. After the company started using SFC, it was shocked by how it added up. “It was unbelievable — the number of off-standard minutes and hours every day,” said Star Managing Director Arumugampillai Sukumaran. By gaining greater visibility to this non-productive time, Star’s team jumped on solving the causes of the problems much more quickly. Since rolling out SFC, Star has eliminated 90 percent of off-standard time while gaining double-digit productivity increases. (See the Star Garment case study.)

SFC also enables businesses to manage payroll incentive programs across production departments. In addition to giving each production associate more visibility to and control of earnings, SFC gives manufacturers, buyers, sourcing managers and other trading partners visibility into fair, equitable pay practices, including transparency to hours worked, regular wages, incentives and overtime.

Brands, retailers and wholesalers need this granular knowledge of factory pay practices. There is rising pressure on fashion supply chains to be more accountable and socially responsible for global garment worker welfare. A study by The Industry We Want coalition found that workers in 13 major apparel-producing nations are paid, on average, 55 percent less than what they need for a decent local standard of living. New York’s state legislature recently passed the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, which calls for greater supply chain transparency from retailers and manufacturers doing business in New York and grossing at least $100 million in sales. They must:

  • map their supply chains
  • disclose the environmental and social impacts of their activities
  • share their environmental and social due diligence policies
  • set improvement targets

Technology plays a part in helping the fashion industry improve social responsibility and mitigate uncertainty around fair wages and other factors, according to The Interline article, “Redefining Risk While History Is Being Rewritten.” “The key will be forging deeper, more collaborative supply relationships built on a clear understanding of how individual workers are being treated,” the article said.
 

Product Lifecycle Management’s (PLM) Role

SFC technology goes a long way toward eliminating factory floor black holes, but what about all those supply chain processes that take place outside the plant? PLM technology, such as CGS BlueCherry® Next™ PLM, enables fashion and consumer goods businesses to collaborate with supply chain partners and gain greater control and transparency to production plans, product development, sampling, workflow and raw materials procurement.

In addition to core product data management (PDM), bill of materials (BOM) and technical specifications, BlueCherry Next PLM offers a broad set of integrated line planning, design, product development, sourcing and production capabilities. These features equip companies to streamline processes and gain greater visibility and control over collections. PLM enhances collaboration across in-house and global supply chain operations. At every step of the product’s journey, digital assets and human stakeholders are connected. Rather than time being sucked into a black hole while team members search for data, answers and approvals, projects move along faster and more efficiently.

This visibility is important for day-to-day business operations and sustainability and social responsibility initiatives. “Most retailers don’t have visibility beyond tier 1 or 2 in their supply chain, and sustainability data is often buried in unstructured formats and unconnected folders. One solution is to centralize the responsibility for these accessibility issues by creating a role that oversees the cohesion and coherence of captured data,” said Accenture’s report “Threads That Bind: Transforming the Fashion Supply Chain Through Transparency and Traceability.” “Practices and systems need to be updated through collaboration, training and digital enablement to ensure that sustainability requirements are being met across the board.”
 

Connecting the Dots

Business Intelligence’s (BI) Role

Companies gain their greatest wins when they discover and dispel black holes across their end-to-end supply chains—their universe. Similar to astronomers uncovering the mysteries of the galaxy, business leaders have exciting opportunities to use BI technology to expose and solve complex supply chain issues, such as:

  • How to translate real-time production data into more competitive terms for retail and eCommerce orders
  • How to discern why some styles run more efficiently than others and what specification changes or production strategies might improve productivity
  • How to plan for potential supply chain interruptions

Information needed to answer these and other challenging questions resides in different systems, from SFC and PLM to ERP and eCommerce. The data must “talk” across solutions, with BI technology helping to “translate” that conversation into actionable insights. Forrester Research said many decision-makers aren’t able to get the insights they need because their BI applications are “delivered in silos and without context” and are too complicated to use without assistance from analytics professionals.

But better BI technology lives, Forrester said. The consulting firm recommends that if businesses want to “squeeze every ounce of super valuable information from their data assets,” they must ensure their BI applications are:

  • Impactful via insights-driven actions
  • Based on augmented (infused with AI) capabilities
  • Unifying all decisions, analytics, data sources and data types
  • Personalized for all user personas
  • Based on adaptive, future-fit technology
  • Pervasive — scaled across the enterprise and embedded in all digital workspaces or systems of work

Don’t let your supply chain information get sucked into a black hole. Use it to ensure decision makers are never in the dark on what matters. Download our Visibility Report today to learn more about how your business can bring valuable data into the light.

 

Written by

Daniella Ambrogi

Topics

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