What does it take for an Innovative Brand to move to an Innovative Quality Inspection Platform?

Business Situation

Consumers are more and more aware, demanding, and connected. Manufacturing is changing faster than ever before. Time is limited, and the amount of data available is overwhelming. Quality is a given, and brands all over the world have to find innovative ways to get the best products to market, faster than their competitors.

Under Armour is constantly improving its processes and technology in order to maintain its excellence standard.

Under Armour's journey to standardize quality inspections started in 2013, when the first Tech Packs were created, followed by Corporate Manuals, SOPs and Vendor guides. It took two years to implement the same quality practices globally, but in order to sustain the new processes, suppliers had to enter inspection results manually. This resulted in poor data due to human error and subjectivity, very limited search capability, and growing paper archives.

In 2016 a Sharepoint was introduced for the UA Quality Field Team, but a huge consolidation work had to be carried out manually, resulting in poor correlation data and slow performance for the global team.

Solution

“It started with a simple plan to make a superior T-shirt. A shirt that provided compression and wicked perspiration off your skin rather than absorb it. A shirt that worked with your body to regulate temperature and enhance performance.” Quality is at the center of Under Armour’s reason to exist, and they needed to find the most effective way to guarantee and maintain quality across the board, with 200+ different suppliers and thousands of workers and auditors.

Under Armour saw a demo of TradeBeyond in December 2016. The project was kicked off in May 2017, and the Go Live was on 1st November. In three working weeks between 9th November and 6th December, TradeBeyond delivered training to 193 factories in four countries (China, Vietnam, Jordan & Panama). Once training was completed, adoption time was 24 hours, also thanks to the fact that the platform is in nine different languages. As of January 2018, 100% of Under Armour’s final inspections were carried out in TradeBeyond. Today, the solution is implemented in 271 factories and used by more than 2,200 users.

Results

Building quality instead of inspecting quality. The deployment of TradeBeyond at Under Armour happened in less than 3 working weeks, and the results were immediately visible:

• Trust between suppliers and UA quickly improved due to standardized processes and tracking

• Online and real-time data: no more paper archives, no more “last month’s reports”. Better data correlation, quicker identification of problems, and faster reaction

• Non-conformity plans: once defects are identified, UA can develop corrective action plans and implement them quickly, reducing the impact and cost of non-quality

• Transparency and Social Audit: knowing and trusting suppliers is key to comply with UA’s CSR at all stages of the value chain

• Process Consistency: The same process can be followed throughout the supply chain, across suppliers

  
  

“This is truly the best Quality Inspection Platform in the industry. The un-lock of supply chain visibility, correlation tools and unparalleled analytics gives you the ability to process quality production at the speed of data. In this new world of quick-turn, endless aisle, fill-or-kill retail, Pivot88 (TradeBeyond) gives you the tools to be successful. I don’t even know how we operated before having access to the filters for inspection, defects and delivered quality information at our fingertips.”

Jo Anne Benson
Senior Director, Global Quality, Under Armour Performance Inc.

About Under Armour

Founded in 1996 by former University of Maryland football player Kevin Plank, Under Armour is the originator of performance apparel - gear engineered to keep athletes cool, dry and light throughout the course of a game, practice or workout.

The technology behind Under Armour's diverse product assortment for men, women and youth is complex, but the program for reaping the benefits is simple: wear HeatGear® when it's hot, ColdGear® when it's cold, and AllSeasonGear® between the extremes.

Under Armour’s mission is to make all athletes better through passion, design and the relentless pursuit of innovation.