How the web is reducing time and costs at the sourcing end of supply chain
While manufactures and retailers know that web has opened up a new shopping and management channel, many are finding the web is helping them even at the start of the process of getting items made. Online sourcing software, from such companies as Miami-based New Generation Computing Inc. or the GlobalNetXchange’s collaborative development product, is cutting production and management time for companies that manufacture retail products.
"The biggest savings is in the reduction of process time," says Doug Schwab, vice president of technology at S. Schwab Co., a Ralph Lauren children’s wear licensee and owner of the Little Me brand. The company has been using New Generation Computings eSPS sourcing software to improve the efficiency of production communication at its various factories around the world since the beginning of this quarter.
The software allows every person in the production line to go to one source for updated information on the development of an item being manufactured, rather than having to follow a trail of e-mails that may get sent to a dozen or more people involved in the sourcing, supply chain and fulfillment/delivery process, Schwab says.
Alan Brooks, president and CEO of New Generation Computing, says the sourcing product can lower the cost of production by reducing communication and information management costs. Benefits of having the real-time web contact solution include reducing travel times for company agents, reduction of costs for satellite-based telecom lines in remote global locations and reducing redundancy in the communications process, he says.
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