South Asia’s largest socks manufacturer and exporter Interloop, has implemented Align Planning solution from FastReact as an initiative to establish itself as a lean organization and to improve their efficiency substantially by reducing lead time and WIP. FastReact provides solutions to help companies enhance their enterprise operations and ensures exceptional returns-on -investment. The system was also adopted earlier this year by apparel manufacturers in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – namely Brandix, Far East Knitting & Dyeing Industries, Cotton Blossoms, Gupta Exim and KDS Garments.
Interloop currently operates 4 factories based in Faisalabad, Lahore and Bangladesh. With over 3000 socks knitting machines, they produce an estimated 360 million pairs annually. With a 20-year history as an exporter, Interloop is highly regarded by its customers. Because of large demand, managing customer forecasts vs. actual order receipts had become a major challenge for the company. In addition, managing multiple critical paths through numerous spreadsheets led to poor visibility and coordination, creating an uncertain environment. As a result, both WIP and material inventory levels were relatively high.
Flexibility, speed to market and cost control are the corner stones of Interloop’s success. “In order to achieve these goals and support its initiatives to become a lean organization, Interloop decided to employ the Align Planning solution from FastReact,” says Musadaq Zulqarnain, Chief Executive Officer at Interloop. Align has clearly prioritised and managed their activities to meet their customers often demanding requirements. This has improved coordination internally and reduced both response time and overall lead time.
Musadaq Zulqarnain continued, “Since using the Align Planning solution, we have improved efficiency and productivity by 35%. In turn this has reduced WIP by 20% and lead time by 33%.This is a huge achievement; we are now able to serve our customers market needs with a lot more flexibility and plan our operations much more efficiently.”
