Dyeing with IT

Technology in textiles? How strong and relevant is the connection?

Technology intextiles is more important than anytime. Specially when you see it from the lens ofhuman resources. Textile is an unorganized industry where the major part is consisted of SMEs. Very few companies in this industry belong to the large-scale league. So technology in textiles can apply and empower a lot of areas from manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, to quality control, production planning and costing etc.

How much has the IT dye worked in this sector? Where else can the colour work?

It has a definite role to play. In a low margin business, there is a lot of potential. We as a company have seen so much in the last four decades. Technology is important to sustain business, to manage employees, to expedite business in a proper way and a lot more.

Organizations and businesses are more interconnected and interdependent than ever before, and the amount of data being generated and stored by them is almost beyond comprehension. Manufacturing needs a lot of technology enablement on processing, integration etc. Also product costing in a huge industry is not possible without technology.

Could you tell something about your latest investment?

We were seeking a new way of doing business as it planned to transform itself into a much more professionally managed organization from that of a family run business. With an ambitious strategy to accelerate growth, the company had plans to seamlessly integrate its manufacturing facilities in Surat, distribution centers and depots in and outside India. To distinguish itself from its competitors, the company intensely focused on manufacturing excellence by ensuring its processes, standards and systems are integrated rapidly as possible, improving efficiency, profitability and quality.

Previously, we were having a manual system in manufacturing which meant a huge processing batch management and repetitive areas. Technology makes a difference in such areas, specially when you can integrate everything between purchase to finished products.

What are the milestones intended now?

We are expecting a lot in areas like change management, in exploring possibilities of business processes, in improving profitability and reducing product costs. The implementation has empowered us with the necessary tools to gain clear insight into virtually every area of its business – from enterprise resource planning and supply chain management, business intelligence, customer relationship management, human resource management, industry-specific requirements and much more.

What next areas you would be looking at?

Areas like material management, quality management, production planning and control, sales and distribution etc have already been covered. Now we can also look into planned maintenance, HRM, next generation modules for SCM or CRM etc. Technology can help us to manage plants in an efficient way.

Why IBM and why SAP?

 

When we selected IBM, we were looking for a large pool of expertise. In 2001, we had already invested in SAP 1. It was a good experience but then we didn’t have a big-bang approach. We then wanted to explore SAP in standard business processes, mapped by SAP itself. Colourtex selected IBM to provide a framework for its intended growth.