——Interview with Hu Hongfeng, Senior Logistics Director of Zhejiang Semir Apparel Co., Ltd
The establishment of an agile and flexible supply chain is the key to building the core competitiveness of footwear and apparel enterprises, and the logistics system plays an important supporting role. In order to respond more quickly to market demand and achieve more efficient upstream and downstream collaboration, the logistics center of the footwear and apparel industry is facing multiple challenges from both internal and external sources.
Preface
Zhejiang Semir Apparel Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Semir Apparel") is a comprehensive private enterprise focusing on multi-brand apparel operation and featuring "virtual operation", and has two core apparel brands, "Semir" and "Balabala". In recent years, the company has built a multi-brand matrix covering different consumption levels, different consumption ages and different consumption scenarios through acquisitions, cooperation, agency and self-operation, and has established an online and offline omni-channel retail system including specialty stores, supermarkets, department stores, shopping malls, outlets, e-commerce, mini programs, etc.
Semir Apparel has always attached great importance to the construction of the logistics system, and regards the logistics center as a key node to integrate channel resources and quickly meet the market demand of various brands. In this issue, Hu Hongfeng, Senior Logistics Director of Zhejiang Semir Apparel Co., Ltd., analyzes the latest development trends of footwear and apparel logistics, as well as the challenges and coping strategies it brings to the operation of footwear and apparel logistics centers.
Hu Hongfeng
Senior Logistics Director of Zhejiang Semir Apparel Co., Ltd
Reporter: What are the obvious changes in the development of the footwear and apparel industry and market demand in recent years?
Hu Hongfeng: In recent years, the development and market demand of the footwear and apparel industry have mainly seen the following obvious changes:
1. The demand for sports and outdoor shoes and clothing has increased significantly, functional and comfortable products have been welcomed, children's clothing has become a channel and category that almost every brand has to expand, competition has intensified, the personalized demand for women's clothing has become more prominent, and the growth of adult clothing and business wear is under pressure.
2. Consumers pay more attention to the function and material source of the product, are more willing to pay for the personality and brand, the personalized demand is more prominent, and the niche products usher in good growth.
3. After three years of the epidemic, the overall consumption level has decreased year-on-year, consumers' willingness to buy has declined, the big promotions of various channels have shifted to daily sales, the atmosphere of big promotions has decreased, various sales channels and brand merchants have become more involuted, and the overall price fight has become more powerful, and whether it is a search channel or a live broadcast channel, the lowest price on the whole network is taken as a key consideration.
4. In terms of sales channels, the growth rate of consumer orders in the cross-border market is much higher than that in the domestic market, and in the composition of domestic online orders, the sales composition of e-commerce channels has further shifted from search e-commerce to content e-commerce, and the proportion of orders generated by live broadcast has further increased.
Reporter: What are the new requirements for the efficiency, function and other dimensions of the logistics center?
Hu Hongfeng: Due to the intensification of competition on the sales side, the pressure is further transmitted to the logistics end and the production side, which is manifested in:
The first is the pressure transmission of costs, when sales are sluggish, the brand for the logistics link service requirements are more efficient, the average performance cost is lower; The delivery time of each batch is more tight, the sales order service requirements are higher, the personalized service requirements are more, the value-added services are more, the delivery time requirements are further shortened, the return ratio is also increasing year by year, and the sending, receiving, depositing and returning is facing higher timeliness requirements.
Semir Jiaxing Logistics Park
For logistics centers, the need to cope with more complex task fulfillment at a lower cost means that logistics centers need to consider improvements in all dimensions, which are manifested in the following aspects:
1. Logistics operation: a single warehouse is required to meet the order operation of all channels, and the operation capacity of the whole system is more flexible, which also puts forward higher requirements for the original warehousing planning, and it is necessary to consider the optimization of multi-warehouse distribution and single-warehouse storage functional area to meet the more complex needs of a single brand.
2. Logistics and transportation: As each brand compresses the timeliness of the supply chain, it has higher requirements for the timeliness of transportation and delivery, and can meet the increasingly high proportion of scattered flexible supply chain orders, which puts forward higher requirements for the ability and scale of transportation service providers. At the same time, on the shipping side, orders from all channels and categories require a single point of delivery, so transportation needs to integrate and rationally arrange various needs such as truckloads, LTL, express, express delivery, and air transportation.
3. Logistics equipment: the introduction of large-scale integrated equipment, become an effective means to replace manual efficiency, in the current situation of sales and profit pressure, large-scale and large amount of equipment investment pressure, single-link small equipment investment has become the main means, such as small packaging, parcel sorting, seeding and other equipment. In addition, the current market for the development of AGV has been very mature, in the performance and function have been greatly improved, in the future integrated logistics overall solution, AGV will have more entry scenarios and play space, such as standard box replenishment and shelf, box and single box goods to person, reverse return cross-storage and picking processing and other scenarios.
Large-scale integrated equipment introduced
4. Logistics system: The complexity of orders has higher requirements for logistics informatization, and the logistics system not only needs to meet the functional requirements of conventional sending, receiving, storing and returning operations, but also supports the matching and setting of various operation strategies, and collects and extracts, cleans, and analyzes the data of each link to form effective decision-making. At the same time, the logistics system needs to consider more complex middle office functions to provide logistics operations, matching resources, operation services, operation link data and various core indicators.
5. Logistics employment: The combination of basic employment and flexible employment to cope with the uncertainty of the business side. On the one hand, the overall labor is reduced through automation and intelligence, and on the other hand, higher technical training is carried out for the operation and employment, so that the combination of man and machine can produce higher efficiency. In addition, it is also necessary to consider the composition of employment in irregular periods and the method of piecework and salary, so as to stabilize the source of employment.
A combination of basic and flexible employment
Reporter: In recent years, what work has Semir focused on in the construction of logistics system, especially in the construction of logistics center, what is the original intention and purpose of these work, and what results have been achieved?
Hu Hongfeng: In order to bring better service experience to consumers, greater added value to brands, and higher demand satisfaction and efficiency improvement for internal customers, Semir has mainly carried out the following work in the planning and construction of the logistics system in recent years:
1. In terms of logistics system planning: the mode of total warehouse + sub-warehouse is adopted, and two CDCs in Jiaxing and Wenzhou are set up according to the characteristics of online and offline channels, as the two central warehouses of Semir, responsible for the processing of online and offline sending, receiving, depositing and returning operations, and at the same time setting up RDC warehouses in the northeast, northwest, southwest and central China to meet various types of orders in the region, including store replenishment and C orders, and at the same time try to produce the mode of factory direct delivery terminals.
2. In terms of the construction of logistics centers: Jiaxing CDC will be used as an online order distribution center (400,000 square meters of storage space), and Wenzhou CDC will be an offline order distribution center (500,000 square meters of storage space). Integrated logistics equipment is invested in two central warehouses, combined with the characteristics of goods and orders, storage planning and operation area function settings in a single warehouse, and matching of operation links and integrated equipment. On the one hand, we have integrated equipment to achieve efficient operation of daily orders, and on the other hand, we have introduced RFID channel machines, light and voice seeding walls, balance wheels and narrow-band express parcel sorters, express parcel automatic packaging machines, large-scale automatic packaging machines for footwear and other link equipment to improve the overall operation efficiency.
Judging from the current results, our logistics system has achieved a balance between cost and service to a large extent, and has improved operational efficiency through equipment upgrades, planning upgrades, and operation upgrades.
Reporter: What are the logistics center operation and management work you are currently responsible for, and what are the most difficult and accomplished aspects of your work?
Hu Hongfeng: I am currently responsible for the middle office and part of the warehouse operation of the logistics center, including logistics planning, planning, systems, transportation and part of the warehouse operation.
If you mention the most rewarding or the most difficult thing to do, it is the planning and implementation of our entire warehouse network model, and the difficulties of this project are mainly reflected in three aspects:
First, there are many linkage departments, the setting of the warehouse network is related to the front-end production plan layout and factory distribution, and the type and quantity of production orders are closely related, and the planning and setting of the warehouse network is also closely related to the sales store arrangement of the back-end channel, and the order replenishment mode of the store is closely related, plus the positioning of the logistics center warehouse is to meet the operation task while maintaining cost savings, so the coordination of the front and back end to reach an agreement, in the overall link to achieve the best service and cost is very challenging.
Second, there are many dimensions involved, many and complex system docking, in the whole system to open up and inventory order data linkage, there are many types of systems that need to be docked, such as SAP, OMS, WMS, TMS, BMS, etc., there are the company's systems, and there are also outsourcing to undertake the company's various systems, which involves docking is not only a simple data and interface development problem, but also a more complex process standardization reset and process system standard optimization work for various departments and links, which is very complex and the challenge is great.
The third is that this matter has been on the ground for a very long time, because the matters involved are complex and changeable, and the company also needs to ensure the normal business promotion, this matter needs to consider long-term planning and continuous investment and Baishan, to span multiple time periods, and at the same time to face the challenges brought about by the continuous changes in the product side and the business side in the implementation process.
Reporter: With the introduction of AGV, shuttle and other automation equipment, there are more and more scenarios of human-machine collaboration, the scale is getting larger and deeper, what new challenges does this bring to the operation and management of the logistics center?
Hu Hongfeng: Automation and information technology are constantly updating and developing, and logistics centers need to keep up with the application and changes of new technologies, and have a keen market-oriented perspective to maintain competitiveness. At the same time, the technological update will indeed bring new challenges to the operation and management of the logistics center, and I think we can focus on the following aspects:
1. Data management and security: The use of information systems and the expansion of more complex automation equipment have greatly increased the amount of data processed by logistics centers, and the management and protection of these data has become an important task. An effective data management system and security safeguards need to be established to prevent data leakage and loss.
2. Operation and maintenance costs: on the one hand, in terms of automation equipment input, it is necessary to have a more comprehensive input-output analysis, combined with its own business implementation; on the other hand, the operation and maintenance costs of automation equipment and information systems are high, and a lot of manpower and resources need to be invested to ensure the normal operation of equipment and system maintenance.
3. Personnel training and management: The introduction of automation and informatization requires the introduction and training of professional and technical personnel to adapt to the use and operation of new technologies. At the same time, establish a corresponding management mechanism to ensure the correct use and management of personnel.
4. Risk management: more advanced automation equipment and information systems mean that possible failures and errors in operation need to be solved in a more timely manner, and the operational risks and major promotion risks should be fully considered, and emergency plans should be made, and daily problems need to be dealt with and solved in a timely manner, so as not to affect the normal operation of the logistics center.
5. Integration of production, supply and marketing at the front and back ends: Automation and information systems enable the logistics center to better coordinate and interact with the front and back ends, but at the same time, it also brings greater data interaction, data monitoring and daily communication face more challenges, and an effective supply chain management system needs to be established to solve related problems.
Reporter: How do you view the future development trend of footwear and clothing logistics, as well as the application demand for logistics technology and equipment?
Hu Hongfeng: I believe that footwear and apparel logistics will continue to develop in the future, and show the following trends:
1. For the rapid delivery of sales orders: With the rise of e-commerce and the continuous improvement of consumers' requirements for delivery timeliness, footwear and clothing logistics will pay more attention to fast delivery. In the past, the single online and offline logistics function will be further weakened, and it has become a trend for a single warehouse to meet the demand for various categories of orders in all channels. In order to meet the needs of consumers in various channels, logistics companies will adopt more efficient management models, such as upgrading systems, setting up more warehouses and distribution centers, and introducing intelligent equipment and robots.
2. The application of intelligent technology will be more extensive: With the continuous development of big data, artificial intelligence and logistics integration technology, footwear and clothing logistics will be more intelligent. Through the Internet of Things technology, the tracking and monitoring of goods can be realized, and the efficiency and safety of logistics can be improved. Big data and artificial intelligence will help logistics companies to conduct data analysis and prediction, adjust logistics plans in advance, and improve distribution efficiency and accuracy.
3. The development of cross-border logistics: With the advancement of globalization and the increase of cross-border e-commerce and cross-border transactions, cross-border logistics will become an important development direction of footwear and apparel logistics. The logistics company will strengthen cooperation with overseas partners, build more overseas warehouses and distribution networks, and improve the efficiency and reliability of cross-border logistics.
4. Environment-friendly and sustainable development: As people's attention to environmental issues increases, footwear and apparel logistics will also tend to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Logistics companies will adopt more green delivery methods, such as electric vehicles, bicycles and pedestrian delivery, to reduce their environmental impact. In addition, logistics companies will also promote recycling and material saving measures to reduce resource consumption.
In short, the future of footwear and apparel logistics will be more rapid, intelligent, environmentally friendly and cross-border. These development trends will provide consumers with a better shopping experience, and will also promote the rapid development of the footwear and apparel industry.