$($concluded$)$

readers or scanners. As computing power became better, the

power of Universal Product Code $($UPC$)$ was born to help track and

manage inventory improved exponentially.

$($Bar codes help retailers and vendors track inventory.$)$

During the mid to late $1990$ s$,$ retailers began implementing

modern inventory management systems, from purchase tracking

to invertory monitoring to re$-$ordering and back around again.

In recent years, another promising technology for tracking in$-$

ventory, Radio frequency identification, or RFID, has come into

stores, warehouses and factories. It uses a microchip to trans$-$

mit product information $-$ such as type, manufacturer and serial

number$-$to a scanner or other data collection device. It's supe$-$

rior to bar codes in several ways. For instance, a scanner reads

the information from an AFID from several yards away, making it

ideal for tracking items stacked on high shelves in warehouses. It

also can encode more data than a bar code and in some systems

tell merchants if an item is out of place in the store, providing

excellent anti$-$theft characteristics.

Another popular means of automated inventory control is

vendor$-$managed inventory. In this arrangement, the vendor is re$-$

sponsible for keeping its products stocked on a store's shelf. The

vendor and retailer work closely together and share proprietary

information.

This system also has many advantages for vendors. It allows

them to ensure their products are properly displayed and avail$-$

able, and it also puts them in close contact with the retailer and its

sales data. The feedback the vendor receives can play an impor$-$

tant role in its marketing, research and development.

Questions

How is business performance affected by poor inventory

management?

What are the reasons for poor inventory management for linge$-$

rie retailers and companies in China?

What can be done to improve inventory management for linge$-$

rie retailers in China?

Source:Kelly, "How Chinese Lingerie Retailers Manage Inventory," www$.$

globalintimatewear.com, $10,302012.$ Copyright $()$ Guangzhou New Eye

Information & Technology Co$,$ LTD$.$ All rights reserved. Used with permission.In the cut$-$throat fashion industry, many companies have to fift up

their collection renewal rate to catch up with the current trends in

the market. However, the high renewal and restock rate may cer$-$

tainly arise some inventory problems.

In fact, many Chinese apparel and lingerie companies have got

entangle with this problems for a long time. But most of them are

still on the way to improve and finding better solutions...

The Current situation of China's Inventory

Problems

Many lingerie companies and retailers in China have complained

that the poor inventory management has raised the cost of their

business. And an excess of inventory overstock have made their

business hard to move forward. Most of these are usually due to $3$

problems below.

Firstly, retailers find it hard to predict the market and fail to

balance the demand and supply. As a matter of fact, lingerie is

a fashion business with very unpredictable demand. If they over

optimistic about the market's enthusiasm for a certain kind of prod$-$

uct, they will definitely invested a lot of inventory that had to be

disposed off at heawy reduced price because of lack of demand.

On the other hand, if they fail to maintain adequate volume and

a wide range of size and color for the product on hand, once the

lingerie hit the market, they will have no time to manufacture or

restock. As a result, they will either lose their customers or caught

up by competitors.

Secondly, slack inventory systems in Chinese lingerie compa$-$

nies make it hard to manage. Huang Daxiao, the regional manager

of ShenZhen ForYou Science & Development Company, told us

that the ERP $($Enterprise Resource Planning$)$ system in China's lin$-$

gerie companies is far leg behind. "I found that there is not any

domestic lingerie companies can manage their inventory $100\%$ ac$-$

curately." Huang said, "Various size, cup, color and catalog ask

for a much complicated system to manage the inventory. However,

nowadays, few software companies can provide the excellent

management solution to them, even there is$,$ the effect is not good

enough. $"$So$,$ there is still a long way to streamline the system.

Thirdly, lock of personal that is professional in inventory man$-$

agement lead to the serious inventory problem. In China, many

supervisors or managers in inventory department are grown up

from low level of education background. They usually do and judge

things by their own experience and lack of systematic inventory

management knowledge. As a result, their subordinate probably

cannot receive adequate trainings from them and make a poor

performance.

Development of Inventory Management in lingerie

industry in China

The concept of Inventory Management

To better manage inventory, we should firstly know what inventory

management is$.$ Here we give out a brief description of the inven$-$

tory m