VT Garment Improves Productivity by 95% with FastReactPlan

Founded in 1981, VT Garment Co. Ltd.,  is an award winning global manufacturer of outerwear, sportswear and protective equipment, such as: ski jackets and pants, boardshorts, polyester padded jackets, woven jackets and pants, knitted jackets and bulletproof armour-plated materials. Around 20 per cent of VT Garment’s electricity usage comes from solar energy and it has ISO 9001 certified facilities in Thailand and Myanmar which produce over 136,000 pieces per month. The company boasts an annual turnover of 50 million USD and its customers include: Patagonia, Jack Wolfskin, Montbell, O’Neill and other big and small brands in the United States and Europe. VT Garment supports a workforce of 2,000 and has one of the largest Original Equipment/Original Design Manufacturing (OEM/ODM) factories in the world with Fair Trade certification. The company’s dedication to innovation, local sustainability, environmental protection, fair wages, and advanced digitisation has secured it a raft of awards including: Thailand Lean Award (Golden), Thailand Quality Award (Golden) and the Thailand Kaizen Award (Golden).



Prior to implementing FastReactPlan, VT Garment found that the lack of automation and real-time visibility in the production planning process not only meant there was limited information sharing between different departments, but also that manually produced capacity plans based on unreliable historical data, were time consuming and cumbersome to produce and not accurate enough to make informed production decisions from. As a result, VT Garment’s management and planning teams found that capacity was often over-booked or under-booked, causing late deliveries and unnecessary staff overtime costs.

Insufficient tools and resources for monitoring and optimising production efficiency, lengthy reporting times and limited information sharing and coordination between departments also meant that VT Garment was unable to respond to customer demands for quicker order confirmations, resulting in lost business and poor customer satisfaction levels.  This led to increased pressure on staff, wasted resources and decreased profitability. An inability to make informed business decisions consequently not only negatively impacted overall company performance, but also its potential for growth..



Following the implementation of FastReactPlan, VT Garment now has the ability to view capacity plans from multiple perspectives, resulting in a comprehensive understanding of its production capabilities and limitations. The solution has enabled VT Garment to easily compare different plans and select the most optimal option based on factors such as cost, efficiency and delivery time. The automation of planning processes has also freed up time for staff to focus on other important tasks, such as improving customer satisfaction and supporting new innovations and business growth.

A significant reduction in errors and a more accurate representation of its production capabilities has also led to a 92% improvement in plan accuracy which has improved VT Garment’s ability to meet customer delivery expectations. The ability to quickly review and revise plans immediately by monitoring late order requests and on-time items has also increased its OTDP performance by 50%.

Since the implementation of FastReactPlan, VT Garment is now able to quickly evaluate the efficiency of each plan variation, which has reduced the time spent on planning from four hours to 10 minutes. This has helped the company reduce planning time by 57%, reduce order plan loading by 67% and improved its overall productivity efficiency by 95% across the whole business.



The solution has enabled VT Garment to save significant staff hours by streamlining the planning process, from order placement and checking delivery dates to tracking production activities, which has meant that extra time can be dedicated to delivering an enhanced customer experience.
 
VT Garment found that the FastReactPlan implementation had a positive impact on staff morale by simplifying the challenging task of planning and reducing unnecessary and unplanned overtime hours, so that staff had a more consistent, stress-free working environment.

With the ability to anticipate future plans and understand available capacity, VT Garment can now accurately calculate working hours effectively to take on additional business orders that it would have previously shied away from. FastReactPlan has also enabled the company to handle a wider range of orders, including shorter and more complex order requests, as it has the visibility and agility needed to make informed decisions based on accurate plan variation assessments.

The adoption of FastReactPlan was instrumental in helping VT Garment secure the coveted 'Golden Award' at the 'Thailand Lean Award 2017,' - an influential government-subsidised nationwide awards ceremony covering all manufacturing industries. The annual Thailand Lean Award recognises companies that have undertaken strategic changes to their businesses to adhere to lean management principle. Award winners serve as exemplary leaders to others who are looking at adopting lean management for quality, savings, delivery and speed.

“Hyperinflation leads to softening market conditions leaving large amounts of excess stock for brands and retailers. This, in turn, adversely impacts order volumes for manufacturers. Against this backdrop, apparel manufacturers need to rethink and overhaul their operations.  To combat the current ‘fluid’ fashion environment, it is inevitable that we needed to be more lean, digital and agile. We, consequently, chose Coats Digital as our transformation partner because of their experience in delivering innovative solutions that support our journey towards operational excellence. One of the defining reasons for our selection of Coats Digital was to support our entry at the ‘Thailand Lean Awards 2017’. We were subsequently delighted to win the prestigious ‘Golden Award’ for recognition of our adoption of FastReactPlan. The award is a testament to the effectiveness of how the FastReactPlan system has been instrumental in supporting our Lean Manufacturing objectives to help us achieve significant improvements in our production processes.” Chalumpon Lotharukpong, Managing Director, VT Garment.