Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 02.07.2026 
Author: Himanshu Mehrotra, Managing Director, Coats Digital
We are absolutely delighted that Coats Digital has been shortlisted in four categories at the UK Business Tech Awards 2026: Best Use of Data, Tech Company of the Year (Medium), SaaS Company of the Year, and Best Manufacturing Tech Company of the Year.
These nominations acknowledge Coats Digital’s commitment to developing advanced technologies that address some of the fashion industry’s most complex operational challenges. It is recognition that comes at a critical time, as apparel brands and manufacturers face unprecedented pressure to connect seamlessly to make better data-driven decisions around sustainability, efficiency and throughout the global fashion value chain.
An Industry Under Increasing Pressure to Evolve
Unfortunately, fashion manufacturing remains a highly fragmented industry. Core processes such as costing, planning, production and supply chain coordination still continue to be managed through disconnected systems, spreadsheets and individual expertise.
This fragmentation is becoming harder to sustain. Lead times are shrinking, cost volatility is rising, and expectations around transparency, speed and sustainability continue to increase. In this environment, the ability to make decisions based on incomplete or isolated information is no longer sufficient. What is required instead is clarity across the entire value chain — not just within individual functions.
Building a Fashion Intelligence Platform
Our long-term vision is to build the industry’s first Fashion Intelligence Platform — a unified digital foundation that spans the full manufacturing lifecycle.
From product costing and material planning through to production execution, delivery and performance analysis, the platform will, ultimately, bring data, workflows and insights into a single operational environment.
This creates a shift from fragmented decision-making towards a more continuous model of insight, where decisions are informed by live operational context rather than historical or siloed information.
This journey is evolutionary. Best practice means first digitizing core processes and connecting data across functions, before developing predictive capabilities and applying AI to enhance operations at scale.
Built on a Proven Scientific Foundation
At the core of our approach is the globally recognised GSD methodology, developed over more than 45 years to standardise labour operations and production efficiency analysis.
This provides a consistent framework for Standard Minute Values (SMVs), enabling a shared language of efficiency across global supply chains. It is already used to process thousands of styles and tens of thousands of operations every month.
This depth of structured manufacturing data ensures that intelligence is grounded in real operational behaviour, not abstract modelling.
Intelligence Already in Action
We are already realising this vision through a suite of solutions that are in active use across global fashion supply chains.
Our GSDCost solution brings scientific standardisation to garment costing, improving accuracy, consistency and transparency across complex supplier networks.
FastReactPlan helps manufacturers sequence capacity, allocate orders and adapt production schedules as conditions change in real time.
Together, these solutions strengthen the link between costing and planning, improving the quality and speed of decision-making across operations.
AI is now extending our capabilities further. Our GSDQuest solution applies artificial intelligence directly to costing workflows, generating Bills of Labour from garment images and expanding access to specialist knowledge. In addition, our new AI Analytics toolturns operational data into real-time insight, helping fashion manufacturers understand performance trends, surface risks earlier and respond with greater precision.
Collectively, these capabilities form an evolving ecosystem that becomes more intelligent with every order, every cycle and every decision.
The Role of AI in Manufacturing
AI is already reshaping how decisions are being made across fashion manufacturing by scaling expertise – making specialist knowledge consistently available across global operations while improving visibility in complex environments.
Rather than displacing human judgement, AI strengthens it. It allows best practice to be applied more consistently, supports earlier risk identification, and improves the reliability of operational outcomes. Used in this way, AI becomes embedded in the fabric of manufacturing itself — supporting decisions as they happen, not after the fact.
From Fragmentation to Connected Intelligence – Every Order Processed Becomes Training Data for Tomorrow’s Intelligence
Fashion manufacturing is operating at a level of complexity that traditional systems were never designed to support. Addressing this requires a shift in operating model — away from disconnected tools and processes towards connected intelligence that spans the entire value chain.
The most successful manufacturers of the future will not necessarily be those that adopt the most technology. They will be those that unify their data, solve real business problems and build a foundation for continuous improvement. Every order processed through a connected system today becomes the training data for tomorrow’s intelligence.
As we celebrate these UK Business Tech Awards nominations, we remain focused on helping the fashion industry move beyond simply recording what has happened and towards shaping what happens next.
That is the future we are building through the Fashion Intelligence Platform, and we are only just getting started.
Connect With Coats Digital
Author Bio
Himanshu Mehrotra is Managing Director of Coats Digital and a technology leader with more than 23 years’ experience in supply chain software. He specialises in scaling cloud and AI-powered platforms that transform how manufacturers, retailers and logistics providers operate and compete globally.
