Guidelines to Effective Merchandising- First Steps

Please see here with brief guideline of the possible SOP (Standard Operating procedures) for sourcing office based on below types of different  orders

• Regular Orders
• Chase orders ( short lead time orders)
• Orders against Liability
• Vendor managed Inventory ( vendor keeps inventory ready with them based on forecast and we pull orders every month  based on brand requirement)

Macro – Factors:

• Establish Vendor Matrix based on SWOT analysis of each vendor
• 3-6 monthly vendor evaluation systems to be put in place
• Benchmarking Costing against previous styles to arrive at costing/placement strategy for each vendor.

 Regular Orders:

The activities are divided broadly into three parts for regular orders

1. Pre- order confirmation
2. During Order Confirmation
3. Post – Order confirmation

Pre order Activities: Below is the list of activities to be chalked out

• Establish Vendor matrix clearly defining strength/weaknesses of vendor
• Style Allocation
• Capacity Reservation
• Lead time Calculations to ascertain broad delivery dates
• Brief T& A closure with vendor
• Lab dip & Trim approval status follow up with brand
• Color/trim development
• Print/Embroidery Development
• Wash approvals/Direction
• Target Cost sharing with vendors based on costing strategy
• Development Testing/ Call outs

 During order Activities:

• Finalize Vendor allocation
• Final Cost confirmation
• Payment terms closure
• Exact Delivery dates closure with vendor/mills
• Fit Timelines to be established
• Final GSS/BOM/Sample to be followed to be established
• Wash/Print/emb/ colors to be landed
• Order Quantity/flows to be finalized with GAS
• Final detailed T & A to be closed
• Generate POs and share with vendors

Post Order Confirmation till Production Onset:

• Weekly Calls to review T & A
• Line review with QA team to pre- empt any production call outs
• Line review with vendor to fix up production line plan and any concerns on production
• Testing Status review
• Monitoring Fabric/ trims/fit movement
• PO Tracking

 Production onset:   

• Work with vendor on factory allocation/line planning/process plan
• Review production shade bands/ goods movement through the line
• Share weekly status with Corporate office at style level to monitor any deviations
• Share monthly on time report
• Share Vendor level defect rate- Visual/Measurement

Will continue in detail in the subsequent publications as guidelines for merchandisers to follow for non-regular orders. Stay tuned !!