Lawson M3 Fashion

ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion is intended for the solution of key tasks of the enterprises of light industry: creation of the supply chains focused on demand, service quality improvement, reduction of time of an output of a new product and minimization of warehouse stocks. As the independent Lawson M3 Fashion direction develops Lawson Software company since 1992 and today accumulates in itself experience more than 300 companies worldwide.

For the enterprises of light industry with geographically distributed holding structure Lawson M3 Fashion offers following features:

• Multicurrency, multilingual capability, support of different time zones;
• Determination in the system of legal and managerial structure of business;
• Internal settlement between divisions of holding;
• Maintaining the general and specific normative reference information for specific divisions;
• Work of remote divisions in the uniform centralized database in real time.

Information on specifics of the ERP solution Lawson M3 Fashion for light industry is included below.

Lawson M3 Fashion for light industry: ERP solution bases

Style: In the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion the style defines target clients for whom products are intended: age, sex, profession, social status, belonging to subculture, individual preferences, etc. For each style in Lawson M3 Fashion dimensions (analysts) are defined three additional: options of color, sizes and packaging.

Seasonality: Many goods in light industry are characterized by seasonality of demand. In the Lawson M3 Fashion system styles and goods for a specific season are set and sales management, is in connection therewith exercised of production and supply. The nomenclature in the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion may contain also all-weather products (for example, accessories).

Work with the commodity nomenclature: The enterprises of light industry need to manage a large number of the goods items (Stock Keeping Unit, SKU) having short lifecycle. An ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion allows to execute the majority of transactions at the high level (for example, at the level of style, color, the size and packaging) and only if necessary to pass to work with a specific position (SKU).

Supply

In the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion all necessary opportunities for purchase management of raw materials, materials and finished products are implemented: accounting on batches, quality control, delivery time management, monitoring of the status of execution of orders and many other things.

Maintaining agreements: The functionality of maintaining agreements in Lawson M3 Fashion allows the enterprises of light industry to define commercial conditions of vendor relations, including purchase prices and supply rates taking into account style or a goods item (SKU). At the same time the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion automatically controls volumes of the actual contract supplies and reveals deviations.

Purchase orders: Based on accomplishment of the procedure of planning of Lawson M3 Fashion automatically creates requests (recommendation) about purchases. Having analyzed and having selected the necessary parameters, it is possible to group purchasing requests in uniform orders (for example, in style and color), at the same time it is possible to define independently selection terms of the supplier and also priorities of execution of the order.

Control of the status of execution of the order: Depending on requirements, the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion can fix:

• Order confirmation by the supplier (including quantity, prices and dates);
• The shipping notification of the order from a warehouse of the supplier (quantity and dates of m b. are changed);
• Notifications on a delivery status (arrival on the railway station, passing of customs, etc.). At the same time quantity and expected delivery dates of m b. are corrected.

Delivery time management: Delivery time generally depends on the supplier, 3PL-provider, conditions and a delivery mode. An ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion executes purchase planning taking into account standard time of delivery and based on input of actual data about passing of control points (confirmation by the supplier, shipment from warehouse, arrival on the station, passing of customs and so forth) automatically recalculates expected delivery date.

Revenues to a warehouse: For example, goods receipt of m b. it is executed directly in storage locations in a warehouse, or the batch at first is placed in an acceptance zone, and placement in storage locations is executed based on incoming inspection of quality.

Cost value of purchases: The ERP solution Lawson M3 Fashion allows the enterprises of light industry to define model of accounting of cost value for each type of the purchased nomenclature (raw materials, materials, goods) by specific style and also options of color, packaging and the sizes. Generally — cost of stocks is determined by the price of purchase and the connected overheads (cost of transportation, a customs clearance, etc.).

Management of warehouse stocks

The ERP solution Lawson M3 Fashion for management of warehouse stocks is the cornerstone respect for three basic principles: real-time operation, accurate differentiation of responsibility of divisions and management of different types of goods items (raw materials, materials, semi-finished products, finished goods).

Commodity nomenclature: Use of styles in the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion allows to get a goods item (SKU) once. For example, the position "A jacket men's UB40 fall-winter 2009/2010" is entered into the reference book of the nomenclature and becomes attached to specific style. Thus, possible options of color, the size and packaging for this goods item (SKU) will be defined by style. In addition Lawson M3 Fashion gives an opportunity to define groups, subgroups and hierarchy of goods items.

Inventory: The ERP solution Lawson M3 Fashion allows the enterprises of light industry to determine not only inventory cycle, but also and its volume (by commodity groups, by storage areas in a warehouse, etc.). For the purposes of additional control it is possible to define limits of the actual deviations when which exceeding a system will request confirmation.

The adjusting transactions: The ERP solution Lawson M3 Fashion allows to execute correction of stock balance "on the fly", without mentioning data of other system modules. For example, such transactions can be used for write-off of defects and the damaged goods, return on a warehouse of materials, etc.

Movements: It is possible to perform movements of stocks as in a warehouse (for example, between cells/racks and zones), and between other platforms (warehouses, workshops, outlets, etc.).

Reclassification of stocks: Allows to manage availability of goods items (SKU) to work (it is approved, removed from sale, etc.) and also it is used for the purposes of quality control (change of batch number, the article, quantity, etc.).

Sales and shipments

Price lists: For any client (or customer groups) in the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion a set of price lists is defined and also priorities of their application are configured. The prices can be defined both at the level of goods items (SKU), and at the level of a combination the analyst "style – color – the size — packaging". Price lists can be defined in different currencies and automatically be converted into currency of the specific order and also contain absolute and relative price values (for example, 250 rub or 80% of the retail price list).

Discounts: Types, the sizes and the conditions of application of discounts in the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion can differ depending on the client (customer group), SKU and parameters of the order. For example, it is possible to configure the following discounts: to order in general or on a specific order line; for specific clients or a customer group; on a position (SKU) or a commodity group; on type, date or total amount of the order and so forth.

Maintaining orders: The functionality of the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion is optimized for order management, containing at the same time seasonal and nonseasonal positions (SKU). Information input is performed in the form of a matrix (table) which measurements are style, color, the size or packaging, and on intersection – the shipped quantity. Here only some advantages which gives to the user of Lawson M3 Fashion:

• Free stock balance is visible directly when entering the client order;
• The prices and discounts are applied automatically;
• Automatic control of goods items on compliance to a season;
• Calculation of forecast date of shipment of goods items;
• Automatic reservation in a warehouse taking into account priorities (depending on clients and so forth).

Mass adjustment of orders: As a rule, the enterprises of light industry operate with a significant amount of orders, each of which contains a large number of positions (SKU). An ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion allows to execute effectively adjustment when it is required to change in large quantities the statuses or to delete orders (for example, at the end of a season), or to change selling prices, warehouses of shipment, the delivery date and so forth.

Check of a credit limit: In practice situations when a necessary condition of shipment of the order to the client is the arrived prepayment very often meet. An ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion controls receivables value, gives to the user reports about credit overdrafting and blocks shipment of the order.

Management of shipment: An ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion automatically groups positions (SKU) of orders in shipments in date and delivery location that significantly simplifies further the organization of work of a warehouse for a complete set, packaging and shipment:

• A system automatically creates tasks for replenishment of a zone of a complete set according to the diagram of shipments;
• Sheet of a complete set of shipment of m b. it is created automatically or manually;
• Based on accomplishment of transaction of packaging the structure of each shipment is visible: of what packagings (containers and so forth) it consists and also quantity of positions (SKU) in each packaging.

Information on packaging of m b. is included in structure of the accompanying documentation (delivery notes and so forth) which forms at shipment confirmation.

Production

ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion in a complex solves a production management problem in light industry: from cutting of fabric before finished product output, quality control and packaging. A system keeps detailed account of the used raw materials and materials and also the spent time on each production operation. Key features of a system:

Process charts: The material specification and a process flow of production together form the process chart of a product in Lawson M3 Fashion. The process chart in a generalized view of m b. it is defined at the level of style and to be specified automatically by certain rules depending on a goods item, color, the size and option of packaging.

Production orders: Based on production planning of Lawson M3 Fashion automatically creates planned production orders – the recommendations of the ERP system about production of specific items in a certain quantity to the set date. It is possible to execute their consolidation (grouping) then to approve. Based on the approval of planned orders a system will create the confirmed production orders and also will execute reservation of necessary capacities, raw materials and materials.

Accounting of rolls of fabric and cutting: The fabric accounting procedure in the ERP system of Lawson M3 Fashion differs from accounting procedures of other materials. Fabric is, as a rule, considered on batches and at the same time in two units of measure: rolls and square meters. Reservation of specific batches of fabric under production orders is executed manually, and for the purposes of accounting of the material consumption the user also specifies quantity of the rolls which are released in production. For the purposes of production planning of transaction of cutting are grouped depending on a type of the used fabric. This measure allows to integrate production of the products/procurements relating to different styles in one cutting.

Production lots: After cutting transaction accomplishment, further transactions (for example, sewing) can be grouped in production lots (packets). The size of a production lot is defined in quantitative expression (in pieces). Accounting of the used raw materials, materials and working time is performed by method of "the return write-off".

The cost accounting on production: The ERP solution Lawson M3 Fashion allows to keep the cost accounting both on standard, and at actual cost. For accounting of material costs (for example, a consumption of fabric, other materials) during implementation different tunings are performed. For production costs Lawson M3 Fashion keeps detailed account of labor costs (persons/hours) and machine-hours.

Planning

Procedures of planning in the ERP solution Lawson M3 Fashion are defined by a type of the made / purchased goods. Let's give several examples:

Planning of seasonal goods for owners of brands: Seasonal goods in light industry are characterized very short lifecycle and usually are on sale during the certain period. Demand value originally is determined by the sales budget by each style on the basis of which the sales forecast forms further and also production volumes and purchases are estimated. During the subsequent demonstrations, exhibitions and commercial negotiations preorders on the basis of which adjustment of the forecasts created earlier is executed form.

Planning of seasonal goods for producers (a cut and sewing): Demand value which is initial data for production planning is defined by the confirmed client orders. In some cases the value of demand can be defined by preorders at the level of style that gives to producers the chance to sign framework agreements with suppliers of raw materials and materials. Then client orders are specified to the level of color then order placement on purchase at suppliers of raw materials and materials is possible. After detailing of client orders to specific positions (SKU) the detailed production schedule forms.

Planning of nonseasonal goods: This group of goods is called still by Never Out of Stock (NOS). Production and purchase of this type of goods is, as a rule, executed on the basis of sales forecasts (MRP, MRPII) or on the reorder point (Re-order Point, ROP) determined by the minimum and recommended stock in a warehouse and also time of execution of the order (time for order placement, production, delivery, etc.).

The solutions Lawson Software in Russia and the CIS countries are submitted by BSC company.