Global supply chain optimisation provider, Manhattan Associates, Inc. and its apparel brand customer Semir, have jointly won the award for "Best IT Project in 2012" from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing. This is the third year in succession that Manhattan has been a co-recipient of this prestigious award, having won the award previously for successful projects at leading Chinese pharmaceuticals distributor Sinopharm (2011) and pre-eminent Chinese 3PL operator Tingtong Logistics (2010).
The awards event is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on some of the most successful deployments of innovative technology in China and illustrate new ways in which the country’s supply chain industry is evolving. The 2012 awards event, which was hosted at the Shangri-La hotel in Wuhan, China, attracted nearly 1,000 participants.
The recent Manhattan Associates project at Semir was singled out for the way in which the Manhattan technology has helped Semir optimise its distribution infrastructure and given the leading Chinese apparel brand a competitive edge using a supply chain systems capability that effectively supports its multi-channel business operations.
The Semir Group, founded in 1996, manufactures a range of apparel clothing and childrenswear and sells its merchandise via 7,500 sales outlets trading under the Semir and Balabala labels and via a strong online offering. Given the increasingly short lead times that exist within the casual apparel industry, the increasingly discerning nature of customers, the complexity of SKUs that exists within Semir’s operations and a need to streamline its overall distribution function, Semir needed an advanced supply chain systems platform to replace the manual approach it had relied on previously. More specifically, Semir needed better inventory accuracy, improved productivity levels, greater visibility of data across its distribution operation and a systems platform that couldsupport business growth.