1. Most of
the TAL's factories are built in Asia, are there any alternatives to
deal with the increasing labour cost in Asia in the coming years?
For the labor
cost increase problem, TAL do not only built their factory in one place,
other than Greater China, the company also have a factory in Thailand,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia so as to alleviate the increased labour
cost. The company will separate their product’s part into different
factories.
2. How can you make your IT system to become a sustainable competitive advantage to help you stand out in the industry?
There are Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) and pick to light system that help TAL IT system become a sustainable competitive advantage.
VMI system
allows manufacture to receive replenishment order and to have a planning
for the store of warehouse. The VMI will have a record of the store’s
sales and the warehouse management can view the sales data and forecast
demand. While the warehouse can review point of sales and inventory
data, it can make auto replenishment to distribution center (DC) and
prepare the forecasted sales volume.
The succeed point of VMI is that it align store allocation and warehouse demand planning
Another system is called Pick to light which can simplify the sophisticated human packing system.
When the company receives a
purchase order, the pic to light machine will pick the required stock by
1 piece or by multiple inner box. After picking the identified stock,
the LCD light will then display on the box to make sure each picked item
is QC checked for 100% accuracy.
Pick to light system not only reduce the human work but also increase the accuracy of store packing process.
3. Using VMI
(Vendor-managed inventory), company can enjoy many advantages, such as
gaining the exclusive supply contracts from its retailer customers in
product line, and blocking out the company’s competitors. However, are
there any drawbacks of implementing and using VMI?
As the VMI
system allows customer to have a tailor made purchase order, it will
increase the cost and time consume. Compared with the bulky standard
purchase, VMI system will receive different order with identical
requirement, therefore, it consumes more time to differentiate and pack
the product. That is also a reason why the prices will be more
expensive than the normal one.
4. The US economy has been
deteriorating and the fiscal cliff is coming ahead. Given that US market
accounts for 78% of your Company’s sale revenue, how serious does the
bad US economy affect your company and what is your company going to
encounter and to deal with during this hard time?
The bad economy does affect
our business in United States. However, given the economic recession,
our company can still remain competitive and profitable in the garment
industry because we have been doing very well and meeting the needs of
our customers. Besides manufacturing garment for them, we also provide
lots of value-added service for our premium customers. For example, we
apply VMI and MTM systems that are relatively rare in the market to help
customer to manage their inventory and even marketing. Moreover,
maintaining a good relationship with client is also adding to our
resistance to gloomy economy. A long-term relationship with client is
very crucial for a company because clients will be loyal to your company
but not switch to other company easily.
5. What would you do to balance the huge cost in technology and other areas?
First, truly,
we have been investing much money into Research and Development. And we
managed to introduce many new technologies and applied those
technologies into our products.
As a saying
goes, “Everything comes at a price”. If you are looking for innovative
product and technology, then it is not unusual to be asked to pay for a
higher price. Given that our main high-end customers such Brooks
Brother, Burberry, JCPenny, they focus on quality of clothing and they
are willing to pay for what they get. Hence, we have no difficulty with
balancing the huge cost in technology and other areas.
6. What is your latest technology for the apparel industry?
Some of the new technologies of TAL are as follows,
SofTAL Process
A wet processing finish that
can be applied to 100% cotton, and cotton-rich blend, garments ensuring a
wrinkle free pristine appearance throughout the day. Added benefits of
our SofTAL process treatment include minimal shrinkage and enhanced
color retention even after numerous washes.
TAL Pucker Free Seam Technology
An innovative sewing
technology that utilizes adhesives along the seams to prevent pockets,
cuffs, arm-holes and plackets from puckering. Patented in the US, Europe
and Japan.
WOR-nano Technology
The Invisible Protection
We use a proprietary WOR-nano technology resin system plus nano-scale chemical treatments to produce exceptional stain resistant perform-ance. Furthermore, because the treat-ment is applied to finished garments even the sewing thread, pocketing and trims offer WOR performance.
We use a proprietary WOR-nano technology resin system plus nano-scale chemical treatments to produce exceptional stain resistant perform-ance. Furthermore, because the treat-ment is applied to finished garments even the sewing thread, pocketing and trims offer WOR performance.
SofTAL Wool
TAL’s washable wool is made
from 100% pure wool. Our unique SofTAL Wool process enables us to
provide machine wash and dryable wool garments without the headaches of
shrinkage or felting. Good fabric and seam smoothness, as well as sharp
pleats are retained after multiple wash cycles. No other manufacturers
can offer the same product.
