How K3 optimises inventory management for manufacturers and wholesalers

Fashion companies turn over countless styles every year, resulting in innumerable stock-keeping units (SKUs) that are difficult to stay on top of for manufacturers and wholesalers.

With at least two to four seasons per year, each comprising hundreds, if not thousands, of SKUs, it’s an understatement to say that effective inventory management is paramount to success.

However, most Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems aren’t built to handle the sheer volume of SKUs that fashion demands. That’s why brands need help from expert solution providers like K3!

Full channel visibility and systematic inventory splitting

Manufacturers and wholesalers often have to manage inventory across multiple channels, which presents several challenges in traditional systems. K3 Fashion, embedded in D365 Finance, Supply Chain Management and Commerce, addresses these issues in several ways.

To start with, the solution provides full channel visibility, allowing businesses to see their entire inventory in one comprehensive view. Such visibility ensures that inventory can be managed and allocated effectively, reducing the risks of stockouts or overstocking.

K3 Fashion also allows companies to systematically split inventory until separation is no longer required. By applying specific rules to separate inventory streams, businesses can ensure that stock is allocated to the right channels and customers.

For example, total warehouse inventory can be reflected as one comprehensive number within the system while still maintaining rules to avoid certain customers or orders. This approach enables wholesalers to proactively reserve or promise production to sales and customer groups without physically reserving the inventory.

In doing so, K3 Fashion eliminates purchasing uncertainty while guaranteeing that inventory is allocated in the most efficient way possible.

Proactive inventory management, prioritisation and allocation

With products coming to market at a rapid pace within fashion, it’s imperative that companies proactively manage their inventory to maintain optimal stock levels and meet customer demands.

K3 Fashion enables businesses to manage inventory dynamically, responding swiftly to changes in demand and market conditions. The system’s prioritisation settings ensure that inventory is allocated efficiently across all channels to mitigate excess stock or shortages.

This provides several benefits to manufacturers as they can better manage production schedules and raw material supplies, ensuring the right materials are available when needed. Likewise, wholesalers benefit from improved inventory visibility, allowing them to make smarter decisions about stock allocation and replenishment.

The proactive approach to inventory management helps companies maintain their competitiveness by ensuring they can meet demands promptly.

Advanced logistics and warehousing capabilities

We’d be remiss if we didn’t also cover the essential role logistics and warehousing play in a robust inventory management strategy and how we support that.

K3 Fashion enhances these capabilities by providing tools for order allocation, warehouse management, and data transparency. The interoperability between any selected Warehouse Management System and D365 Finance and Supply Chain Management’s landed cost module ensures a seamless flow of information and processes.

Furthermore, the solution’s automated workflow processes streamline order allocation, reducing the need for manual intervention and minimising potential errors. By providing a single source of data truth, K3 Fashion ensures all stakeholders have access to accurate and up-to-date information, enabling better decision-making and coordination.

For manufacturers and wholesalers, this means improved efficiency, reduced operational costs, and the ability to easily manage large volumes of orders and stock.

Strategic risk management

All the above points compound into another key element for fashion companies, that being the ability to strategically address risks.

For instance, the solution’s ability to manage multiple purchase order types and split inventory based on needs allows companies to navigate supply chain disruption with greater agility.

Crucially, by tracking critical data and providing real-time insights, K3 Fashion helps manufacturers and wholesalers foresee potential issues and take pre-emptive action to mitigate them.

Leveraging tech to boost efficiency

Given the complexities associated with fashion (such as the points detailed above), companies need to keep their tech stacks as simple as possible. We opted to embed natively into D365 so that we could deliver exactly that to fashion businesses.

Together, K3 Fashion and D365 present a universally powerful platform that is tailored to meet the unique needs of the industry.

The combined solution eliminates the need for third-party solutions or API plug-ins, simplifying the tech stack while ensuring users work within the same UI and all receive the same seamless flow of information.

Want to know more?

The functionalities discussed in this article represent just a small sample of how K3 supports companies in all facets of fashion.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can support you, feel free to drop us a line today!