Customer relationship management as key element for intelligent manufacturing.

Pelau, Corina ; Pop, Nicolae Alexandru ; Ghinea, Valentina 等

1. INTRODUCTION

In order to be successful, it is not enough for a company to offer qualitative products, but products which correspond to the needs of the customers. In order to achieve these, the company has to set a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy by which the needs of the customers are determined and the according products and services are offered. Only by a customer oriented production a company can manufacture its goods and offer its services in an intelligent way, by offering exactly the products and services the customer needs.

In business literature there are many models for customer relationship management and its implementation in the company. The common issue of all these models is the need of a customer orientation in the company (Peelen, 2005; Helm & Giinter, 2003). Customers have become one of the most valuable resources without which a company can not exist (Bruhn & Homburg, 2008). It is not enough to satisfy the customers, but to create a long term relationship in order to gain success for the company (Cornelson, 2000). By this change, there is a switch from the transactional approach to a relational approach of marketing, by which the company concentrates its efforts on keeping the existing customers and increasing the sales per customer (Pop & Pelau, 2006).

One of the most complex models, which contains the most important elements for a successful CRM strategy, is the 6I's model by Diller (Diller, 1995). The elements of this model will be presented in this article with its implementation in the garment industry. Only by knowing the customers and their needs a company is able to create an intelligent manufacturing system, which will contribute to the overall success of the company. The research concentrates on the implementation and applicability of the 6I's in a garment factory. Several discussions with managers from this industry confirm the fact that the six I's are very important for a good relation with the customer. Besides this it is analyzed in how far the 6I's are applied and can be used to improve the relation with the customers in a garment company. For the future, it is important to analyze the impact of the implementation of the 6I's on the performance of the company.

2. THE 6I'S CRM MODEL BY DILLER

According to Diller a company can have a successful CRM strategy only if it takes in consideration six elements. As it can be observed in fig. 1, these six elements are the information, the investment, the individualisation, the interaction, the integration and the overall idea of the concept.

According to the CRM model by Diller one of the first aspects which a company has to take in consideration is the information about the customers and their needs. Only by knowing the needs and the preferences of the customers a company can offer individualized products and services. Actually, in the relation with the customer it is important to have a high transparency of information. On one hand the company should know information about the customers; on the other hand the customer should know all the offers and services of the supplier in order to work in an efficient and performing way (Diller, et al., 2005).

Depending on the information a company has, it should select and prioritize the customers in order to determine the most profitable ones (Diller, 1995). For a successful customer management, a company should know which the best customers are in order to be able to invest in them. It should also know which the less good customers are in order to reduce the costs with these (Pop & Pelau, 2005).

Another important aspect according to the 6I's model by Diller is the individualization. Due to the development of the technology and the emancipation of the population the consumers have a wider range of needs and preferences. In order to increase the satisfaction of the customers and to improve the relation to them, a company has to take in consideration this individualized needs and preferences. Especially in the business-to-business field and in the industry, it is important to take in consideration these particularities of the production process of the customer and offer them the needed technologies. Often, it is possible to offer these individualized goods only by a good interaction with the customers and by their integration in the production process.

By a permanent interaction with the customers, it is possible for a company to find out all its individualized needs and its particularities. Practically, the customer will be integrated in the production process, by taking over a part of the conception of the production process. By this the customers can correct during the production process all the differences between its needs and the offered product (Diller, 1995). With this integration, many mistakes can be avoided in time.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The last element of the 6I's model by Diller is the idea. It plays the role of an integrator by containing, structuring and putting together all other five elements. It consists actually of the institutionalisation of the customer relationship management system in the company, by setting the management of the CRM system, the instruments, the features and the responsible persons for the implementation and functioning of the system.

3. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CRM ELEMENTS IN THE GARMENT INDUSTRY

Especially in the business-to business field it is important to create a good relationship with the customers and work with them as partners. In the garment industry it also important for a producer to have a good relationship with its customers, which are the fashion companies with their own brands. In the following, there are presented the results of the research regarding the implementation of the 6I's in a garment factory. Each of the six elements is analyzed and there is presented its application in the factory. All results are based on interviews with managers of garment companies and observations.

Taking in consideration the fact that the garment producers sew the designs of the fashion companies, it is almost impossible not to interact or integrate the customers in this process. Actually in this field some parts of the production process are done by the customers and others by the producer. More than that, the fashion companies make a permanent control of the production process and consequently are involved indirectly in it. This system is institutionalized by the presence of a technician in the factories of the producers. When working new and difficult procedures, these technicians take the role of a consultant by finding common solutions and by giving advices to the workers. All these procedures are sustained by a permanent interaction between the producers and the fashion company.

Because of the uniqueness of the collections of the fashion brands, a garment producer has to offer individualized products and not to copy them. The garment industry is one of the domains with a high dynamic in the change of products. Practically, a garment producer manufactures every second day a new product. Although the main processes are approximately the same, each product has its particularities, which have to be taken in consideration in the production process. Practically, the production process has to be re-planed and re-organized at each product. Without taking in consideration the individual characteristics of each product and brand, it is impossible to have an intelligent manufacturing system.

Investments are another element which is important for the relationship with the customer in the garment industry. On one hand a company has to invest in the visits to the customers, meetings, events and promotion products. On the other hand, a garment company has to invest in many new technologies in order to satisfy the expectations of the customers regarding the standards of the production process. Another aspect which has to be considered is the conformity between the software used by the customer and the one used by the producer. Besides this, new technologies have to be acquired in order to satisfy some individual needs of the customers.

In order to be up-to-date to the needs of the customers, the garment producers have to gather information about the existing customers, the style and the quality of their products. With the help of the information, the company can prioritizes the customers in order to know in which customers to invest and where to reduce the costs. Besides this they have to gather information about the general developments of the markets and the new style directions.

All these elements have to be integrated in a certain concept, in a certain idea, which should coordinate and organize this whole system.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The intensification of the competition on the world markets, impose to company to implement an efficient customer loyalty strategy. The 6I's model by Diller offers a good direction of what a company should do in order to keep the customers and increase their satisfaction. By knowing more information about the customers, the company will be able to manage in a more efficacy and more efficient way the production system and consequently it will have a more intelligent manufacturing system. Besides this, through the collaboration with the customers, new innovations might appear. Actually the company will benefit from a CRM strategy in many ways which will improve the overall performance of the company.

The implementation of this model depends very much on the field of activity and the particularities of the company (Pelau, 2009). Each company should consider all six elements if it wants to increase its orientation towards the customer. As observed in this article, the garment industry needs all these six elements in order to have an intelligent customer oriented production process.

Even if a company has a high degree of innovation or qualitative products and processes, if it doesn't take in consideration the needs of the customers, it is difficult to say that it is "intelligent". Actually the customer orientation and integration is a component of intelligent manufacturing, if the company aims an economic performance. It is not enough to produce qualitative or innovative products, if it is not possible to sell them.

5. REFERENCES

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