Time Is Money: Increasing Your Speed to Market

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Time Is Money: Increasing Your Speed to Market Speed to Market

samples in last week?” Communication

Why is it so important?

is like the electricity making your

Decreased speed to market means giving

business run. In order to take control

the competition the upper hand when it

over your business and avoid potential

comes to innovation, allowing them to

chaos, it has to be flowing in an

reach consumers with new products

uninterrupted stream between employees

before you do. This gives other

and departments in order to keep things

businesses the opportunity to dominate

running smoothly. Internally you need to

the market, even with a substandard

make sure that the appropriate people

product—simply because they got there

know when a task has been completed,

first.

what needs to happen next, and whose

Slow speed to market allows your

responsibility it is to make it happen.

brand’s aesthetic to become stale before

Externally, such as when dealing with

it ever hits shelves, preventing you from

any vendors, factories or customers, you

staying on top of the design curve. It

need to facilitate effective

allows you to develop a reputation for

communication for the issuing and

being a follower rather than an industry

receipt of production orders, purchase

leader. Sounds like a pretty critical issue,

orders and customer orders.

right? Because it is. So what can be done to speed your time

You can achieve this by establishing a

to market?

protocol requiring that any and all messages, necessary paperwork or

Streamlining Communication

completed projects be reported and

Communication is truly the foundation

submitted to the necessary parties in the

of speeding time to market. Take a

same predetermined manner. This way

situation in which communication is not

instead of a lot of confusion,

flowing effectively. You’d probably be

misunderstandings and

hearing complaints like, “I thought that

miscommunication, all parties involved

those lab dips were already approved”;

know both how they are expected to go

“I thought you were working on that”; or

about notifying others of the status of

“Weren’t we supposed to get those

their work, and they can also know how

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Time Is Money: Increasing Your Speed to Market to expect to be receiving information

No one knows where the right

themselves.

information is or who has the most upto-date version of an item. You end up

Eliminate Redundant Processes

wasting a lot of time (potentially hours a

It is also extremely important that you

day) just searching for data—and you

eliminate the need for any redundant

might as well throw that time & money

processes. For example, a measurement

right out the window. What you can do

on a garment changes, and there are six

to alleviate this issue is have everyone

different locations in which it needs to

work within the same system or network

be changed. This not only wastes a lot

so that everyone is seeing and has access

of time and labor, it leaves room for

to the same information. You could

tremendous, potentially damaging errors.

utilize personal folders or privacy

You can make strides away from

settings for work in progress, but have

redundant data entry by establishing

completed work posted to a public

links between all like pieces of data, so

forum. This way if something is missing

that when a piece of information is

from the main network, we know it is

entered or changed in one location, it

not ready to be taken to the next step.

will be reflected everywhere that that

When the completed document appears,

specific piece of data appears. You can

the next individual in the workflow who

also find out if it is possible to get any of

needs that information in order to

the various software programs you may

proceed may do so.

be using at your business to interface, or speak to one another, so that data will no

Dealing with Bottlenecks

longer need to be entered into two or

Certainly you’ve been in situations

more separate programs or databases.

where things aren’t happening and you don’t know why, and it can be hard to

Creating & Maintaining A Uniform

trace the source of the issue. The

Database of Information

resulting dialogue might sound

Imagine you’ve got employees working

something like, “Why weren’t those

on items simultaneously and saving their

samples ordered?” “Because they needed

work to their own individual computers.

to make changes to the design first.”

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Time Is Money: Increasing Your Speed to Market “Well why hasn’t that happened?” “It

employee who saves their work in

has, but the new design hasn’t been

desktop folders and organizes their work

approved.” “Well who is in charge of

alphabetically. If either of these

that approval?” Truly, if your

employees projects are in any way

communication system is working, you

contingent on the other’s, you’re dealing

should always know where a project

with an “organizational language-

stands and thus if there is a delay, where

barrier” and progress comes to a

it is occurring. This also ties in to having

standstill while they try to make heads or

a uniform database of information

tails out of the other’s system. Ideally

(discussed above). At any given point

you will establish a company-wide

any employee should be able to look at

method of organization and all

an item and its apparent level of

information will be stored using the

completeness should be accurate,

same system so employees only need to

because there is not, for example, a more

adapt to one way of doing things so

complete document saved in a different

there’s a continuity and a flow to the

location. You should be able to pinpoint

way business is conducted.

where work has stopped, figure out why, Sample Tracking

and address it accordingly.

Another seemingly obvious yet often Have An Organizational System

neglected way to speed your time to

It is one thing to simply be organized; it

market is to be more diligent about

is another to have a company-wide

keeping tabs on your samples.

organizational system in place. Every

Fortunately it’s one of the simpler things

employee in your company could be a

you can do to speed time to market. How

highly organized individual, but that

often have you wanted to tear your hair

won’t necessarily translate to an

out because you couldn’t find the

organized business. For example, if you

samples you were looking for? Part of

have one employee who saves

achieving better results with sample

everything to separate flash drives and

tracking is dependant on effective

organizes their work by its start date,

communication between you and your

unfortunately that does no good to the

factories (another indicator of how

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Time Is Money: Increasing Your Speed to Market absolutely crucial good communication

or enforcing impossible deadlines upon

is in speeding time to market!) When it

it, but also without allowing it to become

comes to receiving samples in-house,

such a prolonged process that it throws

there should be formal receiving process

off your production calendar.

that is followed each and every time, and it doesn’t have to be fancy or time-

Bridge the Gap: Design, Production

consuming to prove valuable. It could be

and Merchandising

as simplistic as ticking items off on a

Without putting greater importance on

check-list and sending an email

any one aspect of your business, out of

notification, or as technical as an

all of the veins of communication in

automated barcoding system.

your company, these are irrefutably some of the most vital to the success of

Facilitate the Design Process by

your business and in achieving greater

Utilizing Creative Tools

efficiency & quicker speed to market.

Your designers will probably be the

When these three departments are not on

most reluctant to get on board with a

the same page, it is like production

speed-to-market initiative. Everyone in

gridlock. In addition to the umbrella

the apparel industry knows that the

system of communication we suggest

design process is not something that can

you implement at your company, these

be rushed, and so one might be inclined

three departments should have their own

to leave it out altogether when

sub-system within the greater scheme of

considering time to market. But that’s

things, which will allow them to

not to say that the design process can’t

communicate directly with one another.

be made more efficient. You can get

When these three areas of a business fail

your designers on board with your

to communicate it can cause a great deal

speed-to-market initiative by

of stress & tension between these

encouraging the use of creative tools

departments that are so important to one

such as inspiration boards, storyboards,

another. There needs to be a hub of

color tools, etc. Tools such as these can

information where at any given time

help keep the design process flowing

these departments can view how many

more effectively without interrupting it

bodies have been designed for a current

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Time Is Money: Increasing Your Speed to Market season and the types of garments they are, and how many more of which garment types still need to be designed. It’s just one more example of how communication truly is the life-blood of speed to market.

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