Search results

1 – 10 of over 20000
Article
Publication date: 1 February 1999

Chun‐sun Leung and Janet Ka‐po Wong

This paper examines the performance in value‐added terms of the local clothing manufacturing industry. A longitudinal study was carried out by means of analysing industry

Abstract

This paper examines the performance in value‐added terms of the local clothing manufacturing industry. A longitudinal study was carried out by means of analysing industry production data over a period of ten years. Results seemed not to support the proposition that the industry had shifted to focus on higher value‐added production so as to improve its productivity. On the contrary, there was a strong indication that a gradual decay of productivity in value‐added terms had occurred. The paper concluded with suggesting a few probable reasons for the apparent reduction in value‐added productivity of the industry and recommendations for further research in related areas.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2007

George K. Stylios

Examines the thirteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects…

1538

Abstract

Examines the thirteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 19 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2004

Ulrich Adler

The textile and clothing industries are good examples to analyse emerging industrial trends in international co‐operation and to map the globalisation effects on outward…

4043

Abstract

The textile and clothing industries are good examples to analyse emerging industrial trends in international co‐operation and to map the globalisation effects on outward processing, jobs and technology. The research focuses on the development of economic indicators and is based on the results from consulting and research projects, as well from enquiries in the German textile and clothing industries, which are exposed to intensive cost competition and trying to find a new position within the process of globalisation. A reduction of demand, a change in consumption patterns, the modification in the retailing system, the development of personal income and a global shift of production have triggered the decline of the domestic production of textiles and clothing. Emerging producers from eastern, developing and newly industrialising countries are now the main suppliers for the German textiles and clothing market. The German clothing companies defend a rest market and use intensively the outward processing in low‐wage countries. As a result of the tremendous differences in production costs, the demand for clothing textiles shifted globally towards low‐cost places of clothing production. The outward processing from industrialised countries established a very efficient, well‐organised global production network in low‐wage countries, enabling new potential for economic development. This research focuses on the view of producers in industrialised countries. The analysis shows that the future of textiles and clothing companies is not in producing but in the management of markets, organising a global supply chain of subcontractors and in retailing. The experiences within the global outward processing network shows very high innovation and learning rates in low‐wage countries, enabling a serious potential towards a self‐contained economic development. The economic and social liberalisation within the EU region and the out‐phasing of the WTO in 2005 will give new power to the globalisation process and will influence the structural change of industry. This paper is written as a rational position sensing of the German textile and clothing industries prior to the out phasing of the WTO regulations and the 2005 liberalisation of the EU textile and clothing sector.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1998

Andrew Godley

Most recent prescriptions for firm development in the garment industry have focused on methods of reducing labour costs, with less emphasis placed on targeting high margin niches…

Abstract

Most recent prescriptions for firm development in the garment industry have focused on methods of reducing labour costs, with less emphasis placed on targeting high margin niches. This paper examines how the early ready‐made womenswear industry in the UK moved from a wage‐cost containment strategy before the First World War to exploiting fashion‐sensitive demand in the inter‐war period. The economics of fashion‐sensitive demand meant that the most efficient structure for the industry was to have many small producers, specialised in sub‐processes, and all closely located. However, contemporaries failed to understand the efficiency properties of the ‘industrial district’ type of local economy which emerged in London's East End in the first half of this century, a failure which eventually contributed to the dispersion of industrial activities and to the eventual decline of the industry.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 November 2009

George K. Stylios

Examines the fifthteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects…

1092

Abstract

Examines the fifthteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 21 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 August 2019

Geoffrey Wood and Christine Bischoff

The central purpose of this paper is to explore how implicit knowledge capabilities and sharing helps secure organizational survival and success. This article explores the…

1739

Abstract

Purpose

The central purpose of this paper is to explore how implicit knowledge capabilities and sharing helps secure organizational survival and success. This article explores the challenging in better management knowledge in the South African clothing and textile industry. In moving from a closed protected market supported by active industrial policy, South African manufacturing has faced intense competition from abroad. The ending of apartheid removed a major source of workplace tension, facilitating the adoption of higher value-added production paradigms. However, most South African clothing and textile firms have battled to cope, given cutthroat international competition. The authors focus on firms that have accorded particularly detailed attention to two instances characterized by innovative knowledge management. The authors highlight how circumstances may impose constraints and challenges and how they paradoxically also create opportunities, which may enable firms to survive and thrive through the recognition and utilization of informal knowledge, both individual and collective.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on in-depth interviews, primary company and industry association and secondary documents.

Findings

The study highlights how successful firms implemented systems, policies and practices for the better capturing and utilization of external and internal knowledge. In terms of the former, a move toward fast fashion required and drove far-reaching organizational restructuring and change. This made for a greater integration of knowledge through the value chain, ranging from design to retail. Successful firms also owed their survival to the recognition and usage of internal informal knowledge. At the same time this process was not without tensions and paradoxes, and the findings suggest that many of the solutions followed a process of experimentation. The latter is in sharp contrast to many South African manufacturers, who, with the global articulation of production networks, have lost valuable knowledge on suppliers and their practices. At the same time, both firms have to contend with an increasingly unpredictable international environment.

Research limitations/implications

At a theoretical level, the study points to the need to see informal knowledge not only in individualistic terms but also as a phenomenon that has collective, and indeed, communitarian features. Again, it highlights the challenges of nurturing and optimizing informal knowledge. It shows how contextual features both constrain and enable this process. It further highlights the extent to which the effective utilization of external knowledge, and rapid responses to external developments, may require a fundamental rethinking of organizational structures and hierarchies. This study focuses on a limited number of dimensions of this in a single national context but could be replicated and extended into other contexts.

Practical implications

The study highlights the relationship between survival, success and how knowledge is managed. This involved harnessing the informal knowledge and capabilities of workforce to enhance productivity, in conjunction with improvements in machinery and processes, and a much closer integration of design, supply, production and marketing, underpinned by a more effective usage of IT. Paradoxically, other clothing and textile firms have survived doing the exact opposite – reverting to low value-added cut-and-trim assembly operations. At a policy level, the study highlights how specific features of South African regulation (above all, in terms of job protection), which are often held up as barriers to competiveness, may help sustain the knowledge base of firms.

Social implications

The preservation and creation of jobs in a highly competitive sector was bound up with effective knowledge management. The study also highlighted the mutual interdependence of employers and employees in a context of very high unemployment and how the more effective usage of informal knowledge bound both sides closer.

Originality/value

There is a fairly diverse body of literature on manufacturing in South Africa, and, indeed across the continent; however, much of it has focused on challenges. This study explores relative success stories from a sector that has faced a structural crisis of competitiveness, and as such, has relevance to understanding how firms and industries may cope in highly adverse circumstances.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2011

George K. Stylios

Examines the sixteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects…

Abstract

Examines the sixteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 November 2008

George K. Stylios

Examines the fourteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects…

1246

Abstract

Examines the fourteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 July 2012

Asli Aksoy, Nursel Ozturk and Eric Sucky

Demand forecasting in the clothing industry is very complex due to the existence of a wide range of product references and the lack of historical sales data. To the authors'…

2758

Abstract

Purpose

Demand forecasting in the clothing industry is very complex due to the existence of a wide range of product references and the lack of historical sales data. To the authors' knowledge, there is an inadequate number of literature studies to forecast the demand with the adaptive network based fuzzy inference system for the clothing industry. The purpose of this paper is to construct a decision support system for demand forecasting in the clothing industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The adaptive‐network‐based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is used for forecasting demand in the clothing industry.

Findings

The results of the proposed study showed that an ANFIS‐based demand forecasting system can help clothing manufacturers to forecast demand more accurately, effectively and simply.

Originality/value

In this study, the demand is forecast in terms of clothing manufacturers by using ANFIS. ANFIS is a new technique for demand forecasting, it combines the learning capability of the neural networks and the generalization capability of the fuzzy logic. The input and output criteria are determined based on clothing manufacturers' requirements and via literature research, and the forecasting horizon is about one month. The study includes the real life application of the proposed system and the proposed system is tested by using real demand values for clothing manufacturers.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1998

Richard Jones

The concept of globalisation has received wide currency in the literature on international business strategy. Authors such as Levitt and Ohmae argue that, in the future, only…

Abstract

The concept of globalisation has received wide currency in the literature on international business strategy. Authors such as Levitt and Ohmae argue that, in the future, only global companies will succeed. This paper examines the theoretical concepts and their applicability to clothing products and then studies the global spread of the UK clothing industry's exports and overseas investments. It concludes that the applicability of the concept of globalisation to this sector may be limited by the nature of the product and that, in practice, the global spread of export and investment activity as exhibited by the UK clothing industry reveals some potentially disturbing features; notably an over concentration upon the EU. This is the second part of a paper which was published in the previous issue, JFMM Vol 2, No 2.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 20000