The biggest problem for Lofty Manner was that Excel was just not working for them. Michael Vinke, CEO and Founder of Lofty Manner says, “We were mainly working with Excel. So it was a lot of sheets up and down with our, with our own colleagues in HR. We were communicating on too many different platforms and now we combine them in one. When we have the information or two or two or three different platforms, the risk of losing information, of forgetting stuff is greater than when you do it in one.”
Working on Tech Packs was becoming frustrating
Michael recalls wanting something more easy-to-use and simpler to communicate with while making tech packs. “Sometimes you want to add information or send something fairly simple and you don’t want to do that in 10 or 20 sentences. You just want to put out one line, one dot or one picture, to make it clear. And I think that’s why the tech pack in SupplyCompass is very helpful for us.”
“And with the whole Excel thing, you don’t have the ability to add multiple pictures and multiple comments. I think that was a struggle when you want to add information to the tech pack, but you still want it to be clear. You don’t want to have to add 30-40 lines with comments. So I’m very happy we left the whole tech pack-in-Excel thing, and we moved to a more flexible environment.”
Sometimes you want to add information or send something fairly simple and you don't want to do that in 10 or 20 sentences. You just want to put out one line, one dot or one picture, to make it clear. And I think that's why the tech pack in SupplyCompass is very helpful for us.
The After: Shorter, more flexible processes, and increased accuracy
Software replaced: WeChat, WhatsApp, Excel, and Emails
The first thing Lofty Manner saw improving immediately was communication.
“Communication is a big improvement for us. I prefer the way we are NOW working—we have a clear process and the steps are clear. “
Lofty Manner also saw their production process becoming shorter, freeing up their time. “SupplyCompass saves a lot of time. If you have everything in one line sheet, especially for a production manager, it saves a lot of time instead of searching for the latest version. There’s no space for confusion and you don’t miss out on any information.”
“Before we had, say, six steps and every step has its own time limit which you need to check before starting production. Now we can cancel two of those steps, with the time we have and we can spend it on the making of the product, searching for new fabrics and adding new details. It gives us a little bit more space to do what we love most.”
Streamlining production and becoming more agile
What Lofty Manner could see was that there was a huge benefit in streamlining their production and bringing everything together in one place. “For our company, SupplyCompass is the system where all information comes together. It’s our starting point, and also our last point of production. So it’s where we begin, we add everything, we adapt, we control, we manage, and eventually it’s a product. And I think that’s really helpful, for every fashion brand, to have a system that works through the whole process, where you don’t get lost.”
As a fast-growing fashion brand, Lofty Manner was also at first uncertain as to how software could adapt to what they needed as they grew and could provide all the functionality they needed. Michael now heaves as sigh of relief as he says, “Every fashion brand has its own process and how they work. SupplyCompass has given us the ability to grow in our own way—it’s very important for us to have the ability to be flexible.”
We finally found a system that matches our ambition.
