Omnichannel
Honeylove modernizes production chain with Inspectorio management platform
The intimate apparel brand replaced a manual, disconnected system and can now enable predictive analytics and automated assessment to improve efficiency.
February 11, 2025 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
As any retailer and brand can attest, growth is good. But with growth comes operational pain points, many of which lay within production and supply chain operations.
That's the situation in which Honeylove found itself.
Honeylove is a venture-backed DTC startup founded in 2018 by EDM artist Betsie Larkin that offers stage-worthy shapewear. The brand has grown quickly over the past couple of years and attracted a customer base approaching three million.
While enjoying growth, it also felt pain in its production chain, specifically between the planning and logistics stages, as growth meant increasing production volume and expanding the supplier base.
So Honeylove set out to find a partner with the best solution.
Choosing the right partner
"Honeylove was looking for a way to scale in building the supply chain structure we need for the next 10 years," Russell Lyzak, VP of supply chain, Honeylove, said in an email interview. "In our search, we realized the answer was not just adding headcount but scaling with systems that can improve accuracy and the speed of data collection. From there, we quickly reached out to several solution vendors to begin the vetting process."
One non-negotiable was to have a single solution for all current and future needs.
"Not just a quality and production system, but also a system that could support us with social compliance, testing and transparency. After months of vetting, Inspectorio was the clear winner for us," said Lyzak.
Honeylove chose Inspectorio's AI-powered supply chain platform and deployed the Quality Risk Management and Production Management solutions. The solutions replaced Honeylove's manual production chain that lacked transparency, quality control and necessary tracking.
"Inspectorio provides us with visibility and fast, clean data," said Lyzak." More specifically, this means that Honeylove can see every inspection and associated results in real time, which includes not only finished goods inspections at the factory, but also multiple types of inspections such as returns, top-of-production, pre-production and any other inspections that reduce the risk of poor quality."
The same capabilities apply for production management.
"We needed a connection with our financial system that acknowledges inventory in transit once the product is handed off to our freight forwarder; the conventional method was spreadsheets and emails, which doesn't work for our needs today," said Lyzak. "The data available in Inspectorio's platform also creates the metrics we use to understand and manage supplier performance. You cannot manage what you do not measure."
Technology impact
The technology allows Honeylove to mitigate impacts of industry disruptions and at the same time improve efficiency. Most importantly it's allowing Honeylove to keep up with customer demand without sacrificing the product and service quality that its growing customer base expects.
"Using Inspectorio's Production Management capabilities allows Honeylove to quickly identify any potential obstacles very early in the production process," Mark Bernstein, SVP, Americas, Inspectorio, said in an email, adding that it also "allows them to quickly take action to mitigate any risk of late or short shipments."
The brand now has centralized communications and is enabling self-inspections for low-risk suppliers. This enhances visibility, supplier collaboration and ownership.
By automating AI data analysis, inspection coordination and reporting, the brand can now use employee time for more important, revenue-generating projects.
Just as importantly, the technology provides a proactive approach to production management as it provides real-time alerts on production changes which fosters accountability, mitigates risk and ensures on-time shipments.
Tips and advice
Choosing the right partner and technology all comes down to understanding the problem needing a solution, said Lyzak.
"Is it scaling with growth? Is it quickly collecting better, cleaner data? Is it visibility? Is it having one source of truth for your information? Identifying the problem is crucial," he said.
In addition, retailers must consider whether they're trying to solve today's problem or thinking about growth strategically and how to impact performance in the future.
"I recommend talking to references from other companies that have already solved these problems, which can be key to avoiding some of the pitfalls," said Lyzak.
Inspectorio's technology, said Bernstein, can help retailers also eliminate costly manual labor. To succeed in the production chain — and the greater supply chain — retailers must digitize their data so they can take a proactive approach to managing risk," he added.
"Many brands and retailers are performing quality audits and tracking work-in-process manually, typically using email and spreadsheets," he said. "Inspectorio's platform performs these processes dynamically and digitally using real-time data and AI to identify risks and opportunities within the production chain. Our platform can go live in a matter of weeks, providing value almost immediately."
About Judy Mottl
