A Chinese Men'S Wear Brand Opened The Door Of The Factory. What Did We See?

Supply chain is the lifeblood of brand. From luxury brand to fast fashion brand, efforts are being made to create a high-quality and sustainable supply chain system. Supply chain is not only the guarantee of product quality, but also increasingly become the cornerstone of brand building. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and increasing interest in labor rights, consumers want the manufacturing process to conform to sustainable standards and moral standards, and urge enterprises to present their supply chains more transparently to the public, even though they will face the risk of exposing key assets to competitors.
"Every factory has a story," which is the slogan of the US internet fashion brand Everlane. Since its inception, every factory information in Everlane has been released on the official website. Consumers can see not only the factory's location, but also the photos and videos of the factory's working environment. Not only are fashion start-ups, but many large fashion enterprises in the western developed countries are pushing ahead with the "supply chain transparency" process: the US apparel retailers GAP, the famous British fashion and grocery retailer Marks & Spencer, the Swedish fast fashion brand H&M, the sports giant Nike, the old cowboy Levi s, the German sports giant Adidas have announced the list of suppliers. In the past two years, Japan's Xun marketing group has unveiled the list of its main brands of UNIQLO and GU. Besides the cooperating garment factories, it has also extended the scope to the fabric factories of the two level suppliers.
It is worth noting that in the list of suppliers announced by UNIQLO, Chinese factories account for more than half of the total, while nearly 30 of the 30 factories that are currently open to Everlane are located in China.
People say that China is a factory in the world, but few people have walked into factories in China and seldom heard Chinese brands talk about their supply chains. "How can we understand the true situation of China's fashion supply chain?" Many readers have expressed this curiosity to us.
Last year, we investigated the brand's initiatives in sustainable production and social responsibility. Not long ago, at the important textile and garment production base in Fujian, Quanzhou, Jinjiang, LILANZ, China's famous menswear brand, also opened the factory door to us. It showed a typical sample of local fashion enterprises through vertical integration and continuous optimization of supply chain system to achieve industrial upgrading.
After driving for half an hour from our headquarters, we arrived at the five mile factory in Jinjiang. In mid August, before the advent of the new typhoon, the weather in the southern Fujian port was hot and humid. When we entered the clean and bright factory building, it was cool at once.
Behind the "twelve hours of Changan joint name": how can we do "three days" quickly?
In the case of Li Lang, there is a popular saying: "difficult cases are handed over to five li factories to solve them." There is a small workshop at the entrance to the five floor of the company's own factory, which specializes in all kinds of small bills and trial sheets. Compared to the downstairs mass production workshop, it is more like a studio.
The joint clothing of Li Lang and the summer hit series "Changan twelve hour joint name" is from here.
We learned from the product development department of Lai Lang that the birth of a IP joint venture would take about half a year, if it was included in the preliminary work such as market research, data integration, cooperation signing and so on. In conjunction with the summer "Changan twelve hour", Li Lang only spent 10 days.
At the production site, Yang Kunhua, general manager of the Li Lang manufacturing and manufacturing company, told us that similar factories could achieve rapid 3~5 days. On the day of the visit to "gorgeous ambition", the rapid response workshop is doing 4 products at the same time, each quantity between 100~200 parts.
Generally speaking, the "fast reverse" of garment industry usually needs to be coordinated from all aspects of supply chain, such as design, purchase, production and distribution. At headquarters office, director of production management center Shi Mei told us a set of independently developed order management software. This system implements the management of the above links, and every user can clearly see the completion of each link and the effect of his own behavior on other links. The information between suppliers and procurement is also completely transparent. After providing the partners' knowledge, we call this a set of self created "clothing fast reverse block chain system" - automatic, efficient, clear node, automatic payment in time, without any room for private tampering.
Shi Meiya led the team, 70 clothing, 15 excipients, warehousing 15 people, wash and print 25 people, a year approval of 60 tens of thousands of documents, "like supermarket stocking, subdivided into each button, after the material is complete, only after delivery, 3 days must arrive at the processing plant."
As for the order, Mr. Li implemented a very strict standard. "According to the contract, it will be on line in October 1st, before and after the 1, and it will be zero all day." After more than a year of running in, the order reached 58% in 2018, reaching 85% this year as of August.
"What we do is the fashion industry, with a lot of money, a very short period, 10000 cycles a year, with an average response of 3 months," Shi said. This intensity is higher than that of other apparel industry partners, "less than 1000, and can be prepared 6 months ahead of schedule".
Up to the top supply chain reform, grasp the right to speak and profit space of technological process.
Such an interlocking management system is a concentrated presentation of the results of the supply chain reform, which is backed by highly efficient owned factories, massive self owned data, prices and fabric files.
Traditionally, the supply chain of Chinese local brands is highly dependent on cooperative processing plants, and does not directly grasp the technology and raw material information of garment manufacturing, but also lacks the management experience of factories.
"Self built factory has two cores. First, there are people and second must have goods." Pan Rongbin, President of Li Lang (China) Co., Ltd. frankly pointed out the biggest pain point of supply chain reform to "magnificent ambition". To this end, he implemented the "three axes" reform.
First of all, by adjusting its own category of work cycle to expand production capacity, training the same batch of workers, "can not only make jackets, but also make pants" - "trousers are large, 1 million 500 thousand to 2 million a year, just after the winter down jacket is finished, starting from spring and summer order in October, to do March, and then with autumn order. Such a cycle ensures that workers can produce more than 280 days in a year. "
Second, the whole category of independent research and development, from suits to underwear, from the mold began to study, thus cultivating all kinds of talents, enough for the external processing plant to complete the production system output and technical guidance, "as long as there are workers, one month can finish learning and skilled manufacturing."
Yang Kunhua, the general manager of the five li factory, is Pan Rongbin's "godfather of mould". He worked in the Asia Group and worked in factories such as Hu Zhiming, Vietnam. It is the best thing for the old factory director who has been in the garment industry for decades to make good use of the advanced technology and digital system and transform the mold to solve the new problems.
Solving human problems is the third and core part of factory reform. Where do workers come from and how to keep them? Nine years ago, after 50 and 60, it was still the main force. After 85 this year, the young people after 90 have become the backbone. In addition to social recruitment, the factory has established cooperation with 20 schools to provide a training base to attract fresh graduates.
In terms of remuneration, the factory performs a floating system: the first month minimum wage, second months warranty and piecework wage, and third months' increase in piecework wage, and fourth months. In order to ensure the accuracy and efficiency of the pieces, the factory dismantling the production process and announces the price of each link before the payment is made. Every day, workers can know how much money they made the day before and get the piece wage at the end of the month. In addition, the factory provides a series of benefits such as dormitories, canteens, children's schooling and so on to ensure that workers live in the park.
Above: five li workshop technicians are making down garments this winter.
Ten years ago, the supply chain database of the company was still a desert. The core of product development and production is not controlled by the brand. Instead, it is "driven by suppliers, and then pushed to consumers after brand acceptance". Chen Guozhong, director of supply chain management and director of commodity regulation center, "at that time, the products of Li Lang were processed by OEM. They helped purchase fabrics and offered higher quotations. The brand had to raise the retail price and transfer the cost to consumers for the purpose of ensuring profits."
"Let's go abroad to see, do not say UNIQLO, CK's shirt is only 50 dollars, what is this concept? It's equivalent to 350 yuan, and the shirts we sell like them sell for six hundred or seven hundred yuan. What do you say we will enter the Chinese market in the future? Wang Liangxing, President of the real estate group, recalled the scene of crisis ten years ago.
On the other hand, he is facing a squeeze from the channel. Department stores and street stores are in the mainstream stage. Compared with the earlier counterparts who occupy the channel resources, the quality agent resources that Li Lang can win is relatively limited. "We are forced to do direct business by the market, but we lose money at the expense of one thing". According to the management data of the company, it is no longer possible to sell only one category of single store mode. The whole category is the new direction.
How can we keep costs down? How can we develop more categories? With a painful experience, Leon decided to go up and take a streamlined supply chain and independent research and development path.
In 2013, Li Lang ended the cooperation with all the OEM factories, and directly recommended the fabrics from the fabric trade bank. Because of the loose and small scale of the trade, the fabric quality was difficult to control, so we had to find a large fabric factory again.
"I didn't get through before, I just said color, touch and style. All of them felt something. The fabric factory didn't understand it. It had to tell the density, composition and weight of the yarn." Chen Guozhong said.
In order to express the brand demand clearly to fabric suppliers, Li Lang is determined to train his own edition teacher and engineer. From 2013 to 2015, engineers increased from 2 to 30. There are two layers of space in the hit center. The designers here translate the designer's draft into a production line for the sample shop. "At the very beginning, the development of the ten paragraph only three can be made, very difficult", Chen Guozhong said that this process is like raising a child, "even at the beginning of the stupid point, but also slowly nurtured."
Further, fabric suppliers will no longer meet the needs of the brand, "they are more vulnerable to the market than the trade. When we need new yarn materials, we will be restricted and can only make changes in pattern, color and yarn density. Therefore, we will further integrate yarn processing from yarn to dyeing, printing and so on.
The research team of the textile research and development center of Li Lang showed us a large number of brand exclusive color card books. Because the surface structure of textile fibers is different and different dyes are used, the color effect will be different. Li Lang's fabric color distribution system can create color cards according to different fiber components and different categories.
The whole reform has made great pains for the group. "Originally, hundreds of cooperative suppliers completed their work in a hurry and concentrated on our own hands. We were in a hurry." Chen Hongsheng said, "the fabric is finished, the accessories are not in place, the match is not matched, and the delay in the delivery period of the factory".
Such specific problems continue to challenge the supply chain nerves of the company. The production management center has become the most high-pressure sector of the group. In the past seven or eight years, the turnover rate has been as high as 70%. "It is too bitter for us to buy it all by ourselves. Until 2018, we can solve all the big problems and find out a solution to the software problem".
With the integration of the supply chain, there is also a dull pain to cut off the family relationship and interests. Pan Rongbin said that this process was extremely tortured and the reform was carried out. The opening and decentralization of the three brothers of the founder of the royal family were very important. With the adjustment of the board structure and governance system, "all of their research strategies and tactics are handed over to us", and the team of professional managers led by Pan Rong bin carries out a flat and efficient management. "In this manufacturing industry, the most important thing is to keep the internal mechanism alive, clear and responsive," he stressed.
Now, in addition to some of the key production capacity of its own factories, the company has given priority to the top three top quality suppliers in all sectors of the category, and the total number of suppliers has decreased from about more than 400 in the peak period to about 50. According to the 2019 interim results report, the net profit of the company rose by 14% to 390 million yuan and 25.2% net profit as of June 30th.
Before the quality inspection, make the clothing with the determination of "food safety level".
On the corridor of the lab, all kinds of goods are displayed on the wall. Common problems include red, panchromatic and pilling. Quality control officer Gao Bing tells us that these problems are visible to the naked eye, but there is another problem that consumers can't identify simply by naked eyes.
In 2008, the melamine incident broke out. Pan Rongbin asked sensitively whether the food safety problem existed in clothing. He asked to detect a batch of garments produced during the season, and found that the azo content exceeded 47 times. He made up his mind to burn out 60 thousand unqualified clothes. The product safety problem of clothing supply chain is shocking, such as the alarm bell hanging on the head.
It is reported that there are dozens of carcinogens such as formaldehyde and aromatic amine in textile fabrics. In the process of garment production, due to the introduction of certain chemicals into the fabric finishing, if the content is not well controlled, the problem of excessive chemicals will occur.
Gao Bing said that the difficulty of solving clothing safety is not only the cost burden of importing relevant inspection equipment for enterprises, but also the implementation of testing itself is very difficult.
This is one of the main purposes of the lab itself. This lab only serves for Li Lang, and its detection value standards for chemicals are many or even above national standards. For example, for clothing fastness requirements, in addition to comply with the national textile basic safety technical specifications of water, sweat, friction and other indicators, Li Lang also added a lot of specific requirements, such as light resistance, heat and pressure.
"Quality inspection front" - this is the saying that "gorgeous ambition" is frequently heard at the scene and in charge of various links. In traditional mode, quality inspection links usually take place in the finished product stage, in the form of "sampling inspection". That is to say, quality inspection is free from production. Even if the problem is tested, we can only use the way of passive prevention. It is too late to make up for the whole batch of goods.
And the "quality inspection front" emphasized by Li Lang is "integrating quality inspection into production", moving the link forward to fabric research and development before large goods come out. All fabrics need to pass the laboratory internal quality check before they can flow to the garment production process. From tailoring to semi finished products to washing, the production process of a product must undergo six tests.
Li Lang believes that the front-end intervention is better than the back-end prevention, which actually avoids greater losses to the enterprise itself. The premise of achieving the "quality inspection front" is the depth of the brand to the supply chain, the right to speak and design and R & D and the control of raw materials.
"We make clothes according to the requirements of food safety. For consumers, this is a basic requirement that will not be mentioned, because it can not be recognized by feeling. But we know we have to do this, "Pan Rongbin said to" magnificent ambition ".