ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Software in Textile Industry
Rashedul Hasan Shuvo
B.Sc. in Textile Engineering, 2nd Batch
Textile Engineering College, Noakhali
ERP Software:
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a revolutionary concept in the contemporary world. All the information of an enterprise under one roof for assisting planning and implementing decisions having complete visibility-that is the main object of ERP. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a computer application specifically designed for the industrial and manufacturing units. It consists of several modules that operate in collaboration with each other and look after the overall industry. For each department ERP contains a dedicated module. ERP is the automation of a manufacturing industry from raw material to end product and all the procedure that are directly or indirectly involved in this process.
Nowadays, it has been proved that ERP is an obligation for any manufacturing industry, specifically it can be mentioned with no doubt that ERP is necessary in the apparel and garments industry, as in this sector finished apparels are outcomes of many interlinked processes in the supply chain handled by different factory types and a good number of people are involved in this process. In order to meet on time delivery dates of customer orders, entire supply chain management should be well practiced by the correspondents.
ERP is not only helping in the design (CAD) and manufacturing (CAM) process of the product but it also looks after the overall process of the textile industry. ERP deals with almost all the departments starting from procurement, production, distribution, accounting, human resource, corporate performance and governance, customer services and sales. It also covers the areas of business intelligence, enterprise assets management, e-commerce and other business related strategies.
When lots of information are moving in the air i.e. all information is tracked manually, then it is almost impossible to find out the exact situation of customer order, then it is almost impossible to find out the exact situation of customer orders, which steps is the blockage, therefore often delay occurs in specific decision making due to lack of the visibility.
Industries often face difficulties to find out answers of following queries-
- Do we know that our bottom lines profits are down but we do not know why?
- Do we have clear visibility of all our orders through all stages of production and fulfillment process?
- Can we keep optimum inventory level in warehouse?
- Are we able to plan appropriate of all the orders through all the resource available in the production floor (like sewing lines/dyeing machines/weaving looms)so that every production step completes on time and delivery dates can be met?
ERP Software in Textiles:
ERP software’s are available in different sectors in textile. Such as
- ERP software for home textiles
- ERP software for spinning mills
- ERP software for weaving mills
- ERP software for textile processing mills
Benefits of ERP in Textile Industry:
- Easily monitoring of an industry
- Compiling report within a very short time
- No chance for data manipulation
- Saving time
- Easy access anywhere from the world
1. Easily Monitoring of an Industry:
A large number of textile and garments are coming into operations every year in Bangladesh, and entrepreneurs are moving towards expansion of their business. Therefore, it is too tough for management to monitor closely since there are so many divisions-like for o knit composite knitting, dyeing, sewing, all are maintained in separate plant but in synchronized manner; again there are so many departments marketing, merchandising, production, commercial, administrative-it is quite difficult to maintain MIS (management information system through manual operations and it is yet time consuming to prepare all reports manually for the management.
You may also like: Application of ERP in Garment Merchandising
2. Compiling Report Within a Very Short Time:
ERP enterprise resource planning can handle exclusive report both on daily basis and summary type to give operational visibility, and take a good second to find out any of reports from the system.
When the reports are compiled manually(even through excel sheet), it often so tough to get the actual scenario of order wise production process, planned dates item availability in warehouse etc. since a concurrent date has been entered in the system on-time huge time will be saved and management will get a perfect picture online of what is happening actually in the production flood and again optimum inventory level can be maintained, therefore that allocation of money can be invested in order areas of concern.
3. No Chance for Data Manipulation:
With the use of ERP data manipulation can’t take place as authorized users will use the system and there will be a log file maintaining which person is dealing with what, so in that way it would be easy to track. And as all the departments are integrated under one crown, it should be an orchestrate process flow
4. Saving Time:
Any information once entered in the system, need not to re-enter again. Among many ERP solution vendors, datatex is one of the leading ERP solution providers keeping in mind the necessities of textile and apparel industry. Datatex ERP solution now network oriented world has been dedicated only towards textile and apparel sector and has been able to build large customer base (400+customers in 42 countries worldwide).
5. Easy Access Anywhere from the World:
It is completely web based solution so can be accessed anywhere from the world .crucial area that need more attention by management.
6. Problems in Production Planning:
With many rushed production orders, it is difficult for a planner to plan the tasks to carry out in the production floor considering both the resources (machineries and equipment, raw material) and limitations at hand.
Obscurities face by a production planner
- Where can I schedule this rush job?
- Will the supplier be late with our raw material?
- Will we miss our order ship dates?
- How do I schedule around this unexpected machine breakdown?
Now if we can give example of planner in garments division, it is almost impossible to plan manually 20-30 sewing lines considering so many factors at hand.
Functions of ERP Software in Textile and Apparel Industry:
1. Sales order entry: considering color size combinations, creation of preformed invoice, shipping document, sales invoice, picking of finished goods, packing list generation, handling letter of credit facilities.
2. Inventory: Availability of raw materials/work-in progress/ finished goods per lot, container, batch wise, order wise.
3. Procurement: Requisition, approvals, purchase order creation, receiving goods through receiving document.
4. Production: Production steps with consumption breakdown, starting and end dares, waste calculation, and production progress tracking.
5. Costing: Pre-costing by merchandisers and actual costing from raw materials in reality utilized in production floor.
6. Managing dye house: A lot of wastage comes from dyeing industry that certainly increases the fabric price. ERP software facilitates dye house management. Providing chemical inventory, batch management system, daily production report with waste calculation, recipe creation, lab-management, actual cost calculation reprocess dyeing etc. in their recognized ERP system.
You may also like: Dyehouse Management Software: Function, Process and Treatment
List of Famous Textile and Garment ERP Software Manufacturers:
- Oracle Netsuite
- CANTEL Apparel Software and ERP Solutions
- Datatex
- World Fashion Exchange
- Aria Systems
- Royal Datamatics
- Infocrat Solutions Ltd
- CSL Software Resources Ltd.
References:
- ERP for Textiles and Apparel Industry by R. Surjit, R. Rathinamoorthy and K. J. Vishnu Vardhini
- Information Systems for the Fashion and Apparel Industry Edited by Tsan-Ming Choi
- Textile Engineering – An Introduction Edited by Yasir Nawab
- Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Systems, Life Cycle, Electronic Commerce, and Risk by Daniel E. O’leary
You may also like:
- ERP Software for Textile and Apparel Industry
- Application of ERP in Garment Merchandising
- Benefits and Importance of Computer Aided Design in Fashion Industry
- PROTRACKER – First Bangladeshi Software for Apparel Industry
- Dyehouse Management Software: Function, Process and Treatment
- Pattern Digitizing by Using Gerber Scientific’s Digitizer and AccuMark Software
- Rapid Prototyping and Free-form Deformation Techniques
Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.
