You have been hired as a consultant to a small clothing manufacturer who wants t

ExploringInnovation in ActionSewingup the competition – innovation in the textile and clothing industryManufacturing doesn’tget much older than the textile and clothing industry. Since the earliest dayswhen we lived in caves there’s been a steady demand for something to wraparound us to keep warm and to protect the more sensitive bits of our anatomy fromthe worst of the elements. What began with animal hides and furs graduallymoved into a more sophisticated activity with fabrics woven from flax or wool –and with people increasingly specialising in the business.291292In its early days thiswas very much a cottage industry – quite literally people would spin woolgathered from sheep and weave simple cloths on home-made looms. But the skillbase – and the technology – began to develop and many of the family names westill have today – Weaver, Dyer, Tailor, for example – remind us of theimportance of this sector. And where there were sufficient cottages and groupsof people with such skill we began to see concentrations of manufacturing – forexample, the Flemish weavers or the lace makers in the English Midlands. Astheir reputation – and the quality of their goods – grew so the basis oftrading internationally in textile and clothing was established.The small-scale natureof the industry changed dramatically during the Industrial Revolution. Massivegrowth in population meant that markets were becoming much bigger whilst at thesame time significant developments in technology (and the science underpinningthe technology) meant that making textiles and clothing became an increasinglyindustrialised process. Much of the early Industrial Revolution was around thecotton and wool industries in England and many of the great innovations andmachinery – such as the Spinning Jenny – were essentially innovations tosupport a growing international industry. And the growth of the industryfuelled scientific research and led to developments like the invention ofsynthetic dyes (which allowed a much broader range of colour) and thedevelopment of bleaching agents.There’sa pattern in this in which certain manufacturing innovation trajectories play akey role. For example, the growing mechanisation of operations, their linkingtogether into systems of production and theincreasing attempts to take human intervention out through automation. Ofcourse this was easier to do in some cases than others – for example, one ofthe earliest forms of programmable control, long before the invention of thecomputer, was the Jacquard punched card system which could control the weavingof different threads across a loom. But actually making material into variousitems of clothing is more difficult, simply because material doesn’t have afixed and controllable shape – so this remained increasingly a labour-intensiveprocess.Established,with growing international trade in raw materials such as cotton and infinished goods. The role of design became increasingly important as basicdemand was satisfied and certain regions – for example, France and Italy –began to assume strong reputations for design. Branding became increasinglyimportant in a world where mass communications began to make the telling ofstories and the linking of images and other elements into advertising whichfuelled demand for clothing as much more than a basic necessity purchase.Mass production methods and the scientific management approachesunderpinning them diffused rapidly – and in the case of clothing assembly whichremained 292293a labour-intensive process – led to the quest for lower wage costlocations. So began the migration of clothing manufacture around the world,visiting and settling in ever cheaper locations across the Far East, throughmuch of Africa and Latin America to its present home in China.Todaythis is a global industry embracing design activities, cutting and processingoperations, assembly, distribution and sales – all fuelled by a huge demand fordifferentiation and personalisation. This is an industry in which price is onlyone element – non-price factors such as variety, speed, brand and qualitymatter. And it’s an industry dominated by the need for high-frequency productinnovation – fashion collections no longer run along the old seasonal trackwith winter and summer collections. In some cases the range is changed everymonth and innovation in information and communications technology means thatthis cycle is getting shorter still.Allof this has shaped an industry which is highly networked across global ‘valuechains’ and co-ordinated by a few major players. Much of the ‘front’ end of theindustry is about major brands and retail chains whilst the ‘backroom’operations are often small-scale subcontractors often in low wage cost areas ofthe world. Like so many industries it has become somewhat footloose andwandered from its origins – leaving behind only a small reminder of itsoriginal dominance. Compared with countries like India and China, today’sEuropean clothing industry is a small player on the global stage.Thereare some exceptions to this – and they underline the power of innovation andentrepreneurship. Just because the dominant trends lead in one direction doesnot mean that there isn’t scope for someone to spot and deploy ways of buckingthis trend. One such player was a young clerk working in a small clothingretailing business in northern Spain. Frustrated with his career prospectsAmancio Ortega Gaona decided to strike out on his own and in 1963 invested hissavings – the princely sum of $25 – into a small manufacturing operation makingpyjamas and lingerie. In classic fashion he peddled (and pedalled – hisearliest transport was a bicycle!) his wares around the region and built thebusiness over the next ten years and then decided to move into retailing aswell, opening his first shop in the north-western town of La Coruna in 1975.Thingshave moved on somewhat since then. Industria de Diseno Textil – Inditex – theholding company which he established – is now worth around $8 billion and hasjust opened its 2000th store in Hong Kong. Active in nearly 70 countries thistextile and clothing business has eight key brand groups, each targeted atparticular segments or product types – for example, ‘Pull and Bear’ forchildren, ‘Massimo Dutti’ for older men and women or ‘Oysho’ in lingerie. Bestknown of these is ‘Zara’ – a global brand with strong design and fashionidentity running through both the clothes and the stores in which they aresold.293294Its clothes combine stylish designs with a strong link to currenthigh-fashion themes with moderate prices. As Lotte Freddie, fashion editor ofthe Danish daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende, commented ‘Ifyou want a classic, Italianate look in tune with current styles and at areasonable price go to Zara’.Zara’s successful growth is not simply a matter of low cost or ofstandardisation but rather of innovation. The company hasbecome a leader by exploiting some of the key non-price trends in the industry– for example, variety and product innovation. For example over 10,000different clothing models are created and sold every year – this is mostcertainly not a case of ‘one size fits all’ or of long-lasting product types!Ortega has taken the entire system for creating clothes and built a business –and originally did so in an area which did not previously have any textiletradition.Atan early stage in the development of the manufacturing business he moved backinto textile finishing operations to make sure that the colours and quality ofthe material he used to make the clothes were up to scratch. Not only did thisgive better quality control but it also opened up the road to offering excitingand different fabric designs and textures. There are now 18 textile designingand finishing operations in the group as well as the clothing manufacturing.Amajor part of the company’s success comes from a strong commitment to design –they employ over 200 designers and make extensive play of this commitment. It’sa theme which doesn’t stop with the clothes themselves but also extends to thepresentation of the stores, their window displays, their catalogues, Internetadvertising and so on. Part of the headquarters building in Arteixo La Coruna,Spain, contains 25 full-size shop windows with display platforms and lightingwhich allow the team to see what real store windows would look like – not onlyunder normal conditions but also on rainy days, at night and so on.Anotherkey aspect of Zara’s success is the flexibility which comes from having a verydifferent model for manufacturing. Around 2500 employees work directly inmanufacturing operations – but behind them is a much larger workforce spreadacross villages and small communities in Spain and northern Portugal. Once thenew design has been approved the fabric is cut and then distributed to thisnetwork of small workshops – and these represent an outsource capabilitydelivering a high degree of flexibility. Pre-cut pieces and easy to followinstructions are given to workers in what is still largely an informal economy– and their output then flows back into the massive Zara distribution centrelike tributaries to a fast-flowing river. (This is not a small operation – thecentre has around 200 kilometres of moving rails on which the products flow.Highly automated and with extensive in-line quality checking the processtransfers the incoming pieces into production lots which are then allocated toa fleet of trucks for fast shipment, mostly by air from the nearby airport atSantiago de Compostella.)294295Needlessto say this places significant demands on a highly flexible and innovativeco-ordination system which Zara have developed in-house. In this way they makeuse of a model which dates back hundreds of years (the idea of industrialdistricts and clusters) but use twenty-first century technologies to make itwork to give them huge flexibility in both the volume and variety of the thingsthey make. Where competitors such as H&M and Gap have to start planning andproducing their new lines three to five months before goods finally make it tothe stores, Zara manages the whole process in less than three weeks!Theirflexibility is also based on rapid response and extensive use of informationand communication technologies. At the end of the day as the customers leavetheir 950 stores around the world the sales staff use wireless handsets tocommunicate inventory levels to the store manager who then transmits thisintelligence back to Spain as a feed into the design order and distributionsystem. This gives an up-to-the-minute idea of what is selling – and what isn’t– so the stores can be highly responsive to customer preferences – whichcolours ‘work’, which themes are popular, which designs aren’t hitting thespot. But it’s not just following the market – Zara can also push the game bymaking sure that no model is kept on sale for more than four weeks – no matterhow well it is selling. This has a strong impact on their brand – they are seenas very original and design-led – but it puts even more pressure on theirability to be agile in design and manufacture.Read Case Study 6 and respond to question 2.Your response should be at least one page long and conform to APA Version 6 standards.