The key element for handling work peaks in logistics is planning. Over the last years, this delicate phase has had to adapt to the steady growth of e-commerce and the birth of sales events such as Cyber Monday. Hybrid peaks must therefore be taken into account – in addition to seasonal work peaks – during planning.

E-commerce has experienced rapid growth in the fashion industry, mainly because of quick delivery and the permanent availability of goods. In order to meet challenges such as multi-channel distribution and work peaks, Movimoda has developed a customized system of modular solutions for intralogistics in the fashion industry. Our state-of-the-art services and technologies enable efficient storage and handling of hanged or folded garments, as well as stable efficiency despite daily and seasonal fluctuations in the volume of orders. With our industry-specific know-how, we develop and implement customized, flexible solutions that can easily adapt to your future needs. Our team of experts designs, implements and delivers high-quality services thanks to properly trained resources and a high-performance WMS.

Movimoda takes care of managing the whole fashion supply chain as part of integrated logistics, from raw materials to finished garments. The timing of the design, development and manufacturing phases of a given collection has surely an influence on the operational flows and the entire organization of the warehouse. Movimoda has succeeded in satisfying the market demand by combining customer demand with the need for companies to obtain a plurality of customized services. These strengths allow us to manage seasonal peaks effectively and, above all, to react promptly whenever new needs arise.

If we follow the evolution of the fashion industry over the years, we can see that seasonality has changed, leading to adjustments and versatile strategies in warehouse management. Seasonality – since the fashion industry traditionally works in two distinct seasons – became even more evident to logistics providers when manufacturers began to produce outside national borders. Up to that moment, production took place almost exclusively in Italy, managing to satisfy market demand thanks to the proximity between producers and customers. Today, with a longer time to market, there is a tendency to produce or supply larger volumes to optimize time and costs, the replenishement for retail chains, and the management of returns and inventories for outlets. Therefore, work peaks not only continue to exist, but are in some ways even more marked than in the past, especially after the birth of the so-called capsule collections.

In the last years, online sales have been the real driving force for the entire fashion industry. Movimoda expects a further increase in online sales that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, have “helped” manufacturers to have an “active” sales channel. Although there have been periods of stronger demand, we will never be able to predict future volumes, with obvious consequences for logistics and handling activities. Movimoda, thanks to the integration of all processes, is able to cope with these unplannable peaks that need quick pick & pack service. Internalization and the plurality of services allow us to manage reverse logistics and its unpredictable flows in a very short time.

In order to keep up with market developments and to be able to sustain periodic fluctuations and guarantee to all its clients consistency in the quality of the services offered, Movimoda draws on its most efficient strategies and its 40 years of experience. The main strategy is themaximum flexibility and versatility that through know-how, planning and specialized technicians is able to make us face the unpredictable variations in terms of volumes and order processing time. Movimoda boasts several tools to meet these challenges: advanced storage management features, automatic or semi-automatic picking methods, RFID tags, and a proprietary WMS that allows us to track warehouse operations and enables the operators to switch from the management of one client to another, thus increasing the efficiency of the service offered.

We are witnessing a radical transformation in the world of fashion that affects the entire value chain and that is mainly due to globalization and digital technologies. This is also demonstrated by the progressive abandonment of the very concept of seasonality and the emergence of a 365-day season. Collections now change at shorter and shorter intervals, and the consumer preferences that are here today will be gone tomorrow: trends require intelligent and flexible supply chain management systems that can respond to these rapidly changing needs. Movimoda manages work peaks through:

• Excellent planning
• Performance analysis and forecasting
• Accessing and reading data

In this new emerging scenario, manufacturers have to cope with work peaks that are no longer seasonal but distributed at different times of the year. Manufacturing and distribution processes must be adapted to the speed of digital sales so as to minimize the lead time between the presentation of the collection and the availability of that collection on the market. Lean and modern logistics facilitates distribution to the end customers. Movimoda accompanies the most renowned fashion brands in this challenge, supporting them in their strategic choices and execution phases. Together with them, we design new flows to facilitate and organize the operations by drawing on the long-lasting experience gained in the industry.