If you’ve been in the U.S garment industry a while you’ll remember the days when the product life cycle took a year at best.  We were trained to think it took that much time to design, manufacture, ship and prepare quality product.

Then we saw inexpensive and super speedy manufacturers like Zara, H and M and Forever 21burst onto the scene.  Their speed to market left traditional companies in the dust.  Consumers got excited…and their demands for fast fashion upped the ante for all manufacturers.

Retailers like our cheap and Chic friends mentioned above somehow managed to take that year long design to point of sale cycle and chop it down to 4-6 weeks.

Technology, Company Culture and a Trump Tight infrastructure all add to a company’s ability to sprint their product into stores.

When’s the last time you took a look at your capability to turn trends around?

Even if you are a small manufacturer I’m sure you’d be surprised at what advanced software or a little extra organizational planning could do for your turn around time.

Big and Small manufactures are picking up speed…. and consumers are expecting trends to arrive as often as US Weekly.

Think about what you need to do so you don’t get left behind.