Collaboration Station

Headnote

From working together on product performance innovation to streamlining finance operations, apparel manufacturer TAL and gofwear designer Ashworth team up to form a "true partnership."

Constant innovation, shared vision, open communication. These are some of the hallmarks of successful collaboration.

They're phrases that well describe the type of thought leadership driving the relationship between Carlsbad, CA-based Ashworth Inc. and Hong-Kong-based TAL Apparel Group.

These two companies have learned to work well together, and they're each the type of company that strives to make all of their business-to-business relationships as beneficial as possible, for everyone involved.

On the cutting edge

TAL, with annual sales of $600 million, is the largest manufacturer of dress shirts in the world, according to managing director Dr. Harry Lee, and it also makes many other items, for labels such as Liz Claiborne, Brooks Brothers and L.L.Bean. It is the largest supplier of outerwear for the latter, and one of the major holders of Phillips-Van Heusen. "We make approximately 50 million garments a year, so we [are manufacturing in a lot of different categories] for our customers," he notes.

Founded in 1947, TAL is a pioneer in research and development, always striving to improve its processes, whether that means improving the technical design of a dress shirt or its ability to analyze POS data, manufacturing more efficiently or coming up with new innovations for its customers.

As recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, TAL's relationship with partner JCPenney is so cutting edge that TAL now uses JCPenney's POS data to determine how many shirts and in what colors, sizes and styles to make them for the retailer. It manufactures and ships the shirts directly to the stores, without involving the retailer in the decision-making process. For these garments, JCPenney no longer has to store inventory.

Moreover, the relationship has evolved further such that TAL is now designing new shirt styles for JCPenney, testing them in selected stores and making determinations based on sales about which styles to ramp up manufacturing for, and which to drop. Again, all of this is being done without intervention from the retailer.

On the other side of the supply chain, Ashworth, designer of "golf-inspired" lifestyle sportswear, holds the No. 1 position in market share...