How Spykar speeds up time-to-market, boosts operational efficiency with Infor’s PLM suite (2024)

In today's fiercely competitive business environment, organisations across various sectors aim to optimise operations, leverage data to combat complexity, and meet fast-paced market demands. Spykar Lifestyles Pvt. Ltd, an Indian denim fashion brand established in 1992, with a strong retail market presence, has also been at the forefront of technology innovation, utilising cutting-edge technologies to remain pertinent in the digital era.

The Mumbai-based fashion retailer originated as a men's denim brand and progressively diversified into women's denim, innerwear, and accessories. Presently, it boasts over 2,200 stores throughout India, including over 300 exclusive brand outlets, following a franchisee-based model comprising company-owned, co-owned, large format stores, and e-commerce platforms.

Recently, the company adopted an integrated product lifecycle management (PLM) suite to streamline design and development processes, as well as to standardise data.

PLM is an information management system that manages data during the development of a product from concept to manufacturing. The main purpose of the PLM solution is to provide a central place for managing the product lifecycle efficiently and cost-effectively.

Spykar sought enhanced agility and efficiency, leading to the selection of an integrated system featuring Infor's PLM for Fashion and CloudSuite Fashion from American ERP company Infor.

Skykar’s need for speed, agility

Spykar needed a comprehensive solution to increase agility and efficiency. The goal was to improve efficiency in processes that enable the design and development function and ensure seamless data flow between its PLM and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. After careful consideration, the company selected an integrated system featuring Infor's PLM for Fashion and CloudSuite Fashion from American ERP company Infor.

According to Rupendra Kumar Nigam, Head of the Information Technology Department, Spykar Lifestyles Pvt. Ltd, agility and speed are crucial in the fast fashion industry. “We also started facing data issues, particularly in warehouse management, hindering operational speed.”

“Without clear visibility into inventory status and age, making informed decisions and efficiently selling unsold products becomes difficult. Managing multiple batches of inventory purchased at different prices further complicated matters. Accurately determining the original purchase price of returned inventory was a challenge, especially when prices fluctuate. For instance, if we initially sold a product for ₹10, but subsequent costs increased, requiring us to sell it for ₹15, identifying the original purchase price of returned inventory becomes crucial—whether it's at ₹10 or ₹12, he explained.

That said, the lack of visibility into the inventory system makes it hard to identify the correct value, quantity, and locations of inventory, creating difficulties in fulfilling customer orders promptly. “Real-time insights into inventory levels and locations became a necessity for us to meet customer expectations for quick delivery,” he said.

Tracing back to the technology transition, Nigam said, Spykar initially used a homegrown system when the market was smaller and family-driven businesses were common. However, when business tycoon Apurv Bagri’s Metmin Investment acquired a controlling stake in 2014, the digital journey started changing drastically and the need for real-time insights into profitability, inventory, and sales became apparent. Spykar then transitioned to Microsoft Navision or Dynamics NAV (now known as Dynamics 365 Business Central), the vendor's ERP system.

However, Nigam mentioned that in previous versions used, 90% of the customisation was done by the partners themselves due to the product not being indigenously developed. Hence the need of the hour was to look for a vendor who not only can offer us an industry-specific solution, support us in all scenarios, across platforms, including our e-commerce business, and exclusive stores, and meet the essential customer demandswhile maintaining financial sustainability.

“Spykar was specifically looking for an enterprise-class, industry-specific solution and found that Infor was the best option. Infor excels in providing scalability, agility, and comprehensive end-to-end solutions, making it the ideal choice for Spykar to enhance their business operations,” said Terry Smagh, Senior Vice President & GM - Asia Pacific Japan at Infor.

Smagh said, “When it comes to our partnership, we offer customers like Spykar a complete 360-degree view from start to finish, and it doesn't end after the implementation is completed. What's truly intriguing is that Spykar was able to complete the implementation in a record time of seven months.”

However, he added, “We go beyond that by ensuring the entire customer care process and support structure, including best practices benchmarks and real-time application of fashion industry insights.”

Achieving speed and agility

On 1 October, we completed the implementation, just in time for Diwali. Our Spykar model operates on a source and sales framework, with third-party logistics handling warehouse management and transportation.

Thanks to Infor ERP and its integration with other applications, we can now process over 80,000 pieces per day, a significant increase from before. Infor provided exceptional support during the go-live phase, resulting in a seamless transition. We achieved complete integration with Infor, leading to improvements in invoicing and dispatch processes. Our logistic partner, KD Logistics, successfully handled 16-17 lakh pieces inwards and outwards in January, a remarkable accomplishment in our collaboration. This marked the first time in Spykar's history that KD Logistics managed such a large quantity of shipments without any system issues.

By implementing Infor PLM for Fashion, Spykar underwent a remarkable transformation in its business operations. The company streamlined its design and development process, centralised and standardised its content, and reduced time-to-market by transitioning to a digitised design and development process. The integration of PLM and ERP Solutions replaced multiple isolated technology solutions, allowing Spykar to automate processes and focus more on productive and creative activities.

Focusing on the personalisation aspects of the suite, Nigam said, “During this process, we assessed whether the business requirements aligned with Infor M3, a product specifically designed for the fashion and retail industries. Infor offers a range of products, and M3 is tailored for businesses in the retail sector.”

He said, “Since we are not solely focused on ERP, but also on the front-end point-of-sale system in the retail segment, we need to integrate multiple products. “Infor facilitated a seamless integration process, ensuring that the solution implementation and data connectivity were smooth without encountering any challenges or obstacles,” said Nigam.

Additionally, there was a noticeable improvement in collaboration. Spykar, previously operating in separate departments, now functions as a cohesive team with enhanced internal and external vendor collaboration. This increased collaboration enhances the company's agility and prepares it for future growth.

Going ahead, Nigam said that despite fulfilling the objective the company’s digital transformation journey is far from over. “We are planning to implement Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies to streamline processes like checkout, inventory count, audit, and returns.

RFID is a wireless system that uses radio waves to identify and track objects, people, or animals without physical contact. “This will allow us to track products from purchase to sale, improving efficiency and reducing costs,” he said adding that the company has set a target to implement RFID within the next year.