functioning of various merchandising departments

MERCHANDISING DEPARTMENT

The function of the merchandising department begins with the sourcing for the new order or the repeat order, and continues till the shipment deadline has met. Merchandisers act as mediators between the export house and the buyers. They know what buyers want and what the company is able to and willing to deliver. They are responsible for timely execution of the orders.
• The main function of the merchandising department is a follow up process. The merchandisers serve as mediator between the buyer and export house. They carry out pre production planning with the help of the production manager so that the order gets completed in a smooth and organized manner on time.
• The merchandisers keep track of all the departments' progress with their orders. They maintain a copy of the documents from all the departments, which show the status of the orders in those departments.
• The merchandisers discuss the details of the tech pack with the QC's and pattern masters and negotiate with the buyer if there are any changes to be done.
• They get the samples made under there supervision.
• The job of costing the garments is with the senior merchandiser and it has to be approved by the divisional merchandising head.
• Placing orders for sampling fabrics and trims is also merchandiser's responsibility after getting the approval for the same.
• At Orient Craft the merchandisers have to maintain various documentation for their own as well as for the reference of quality and production purpose. At the time of production they have to do a file handover along with a sealer sample that is approved by the quality head of the company. This file contains all the details of the garment from fabric entrance used to the washing specification. A copy of this file is handed over to the production manager and another copy is given to the Qc concerned
• Various documents, files that merchandisers maintain are fabric files, trim files style master files, format files, art works files etc.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Forecasting sales.
• Planning the product range with the buying team.
• Liaising with buyers, store managers, distributors and suppliers
• Visiting manufacturers, stores and suppliers
• Setting budgets using figures and forecasts new range.

computer system that can serve all those different departments particular needs. ERP vanquishes the old standalone computer systems. In finance, HR, manufacturing and the ware house, and replaces them with a single unified software program divided into software modules that roughly approximate the old standalone systems. finance, manufacturing and the warehouse, all still get them own software, except now the software is linked together so that someone in finance can look into the warehouse software to see if an order has been shipped. Most vendors ERP software is flexible enough that you can install some modules without buying the whole package. Man; companies for example, will just install an ERP finance or HR module and leave the rest of the functions for another day. However Orient Craft has all the modules installed in this system.

ERP is used at all stages from raising a purchase order to ordering trims and fabrics to follow ups talking about the use of ERP system in the merchandising department, all the merchandisers are given an ERP code and password which they use to access their ERP account. Even for placing an order for trims and sampling, it has to be done through the channel of ERP.

HEIRARCHY OF MERCHANDISING DEPARTMENT
1. BASICALLY COMPRISES OF CONSTRUCTION OF THE GARMENT

POST PRODUCTION
1. FINISHING (THREAD CUTTING)
2. RESSING
3. PACKAGING
4. INSPECTION (RAW MATERIAL INSPECTION

ALSO INCLUDING FABRIC INSPECTION BY 4 PPOINT SYSTEM, IN PROCESS INSPECTION, FINAL INSPACTION)