Textile Tales

"From the time we get an enquiry to the time we deliver the product, data is live.So we can follow it up aggressively," says Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman of the Lalbhaigroup. "For any progressive company, the quality of decision will depend on thequality of information available." AML manufactures garments through franchisees whosell to a 200- strong distributor network which in turn sell to around 10,000 retailoutlets. It was, therefore, critical for the company to capture the data live and get thatinformation back to the franchisees. If manufacturing is not in sync with what is sellingat the retail outlets, the company would end up with obsolete stocks.

With a core team of chosen professionals, called SAPFIRE , AML managed to click thesystem into action exactly seven months later, on April 16. Says AML chief financialofficer Jayesh Shah: "We could go live within such a short time because the systemwas user-driven rather than IT- driven." The project had been designed such that SAPwould take up a turnkey assignment and draw up a weekly definition of milestones. Thesecond phase of the entire process will begin when the company will seek to measure theprocesses and lead the way for a complete rehaul.

For SAP , its first job with a textile conglomerate was a learning experience. Willthat be the industry standard? The answer may take some time to come.