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As technologies that enable Internet commerce, virtual merchandising and collaborative forecasting change the way retailers and their sewn products vendors do business, the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards (VICS) Association is attempting to develop voluntary standards designed to streamline and bring order to the pipeline.
At the most recent National Retail Federation convention, Bobbin interviewed four members of VICS' board of directors concerning the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for retailers and their sewn products suppliers. The participants included: Paul Benchener, vice president of marketing, QRS Corp., and chairman, VICS; Tom Cole, chairman and CEO, Federated Department Stores Inc. Logistics and Operations; Joseph Coyle, formerly head of quick response for Burlington Industries and now a consultant to the company; and Joseph Fabrizio, senior vice president and director of stores, Boscov's Department Stores Inc.
BOBBIN: What aspects of the retailer-sewn products supplier relationship have made the most progress in the past five years?
FABRIZIO: There has been a great deal of additional information flow between the retailer and the manufacturer of sewn products. We share more information, and there are more opportunities to grow businesses, to stay in stock and to improve margins because of that information flow.
BOBBIN: In looking ahead to the next five years, what are some of the greatest challenges and problems that remain to be overcome between retailers and their sewn products suppliers?
COYLE: We're beginning to see much more [information] come down the line to the fabric manufacturer, and of course we're working more down the line with the raw material manufacturer ... But we haven't cut the manufacturing lead time as much as we'd hoped. ... With better collaboration, we'll better know what the market is looking for.
BENCHENER: From a technology perspective ... I think a lot has happened over the past 10 years in terms of sharing of information and the benefits that we've seen with electronic data interchange [EDI]. There's still quite a bit of room to grow and improve in the areas of forecasting and sales analysis. ... [Also,] right now, a good portion of the business is done electronically, but it's not...