ABSTRACT
Covid - 19 has affected global value chains (GVCs) and firms' behaviours within GVCs to a large extent. Firms need to find flexible solutions to stabilize production and rethink value chain governance and supplier relationships. Thus, GVCs recover from the initial shock, and the GVCs reconfiguration becomes essential for managers. We reviewed recent literature focusing on the GVCs, the role of governance and Covid - 19 effects on it as well as the regionalization trend. Thus, this study aims to give empirical evidence on the reconfiguration of GVCs, particularly the changes in the structure of suppliers in the global apparel industry, by using the Bloomberg Supply Chain Analysis tool in the period of 2017- 2021. We analysed the structural changes in selected leading apparel multinational companies' GVCs - Industria de Diseno Textil, S.A. (Inditex), Hennes & Mauritz AB (H & M) and adidas AG. The findings provide insights on the current state of the theoretically discussed and widely expected regionalization trend in GVCs. The study concludes that two out of three cases provide evidence indicating an ongoing trend toward GVCs regionalization. The contribution of this study consists of empirical evidence of the changes in GVCs supplier structure in the apparel industry in response to pandemic global business environment. Practical implications and recommendations for businesses and policy makers are related to the revealed theories and testable models by using Bloomberg's Supply Chain Analysis data and linking causes and effects of the GVCs regionalization processes.
ABSTRACT
This paper provides an assessment of the skills needed for entry-level logistics professionals in Bangladesh's apparel industry and suggests the critical skill areas that require improvement. Two studies were conducted to get the responses from supply chain and logistics professionals who have direct interactions with entry-level logistics professionals in the workplace. In study 1, an Importance-Expertise Matrix (IEM) analysis was conducted to provide an assessment of the relative importance and expertise of 40 skill items and investigate the skill gaps. The results reveal that 27.5% of the skill items have a noticeable gap between their importance and expertise level, indicating further improvement is needed. In Study 2, a qualitative approach was used, and the findings reinforced those of Study 1 and offered new and important information about skill and knowledge requirements amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This research offers implications for the apparel industry, academia, policymakers, and training agencies in Bangladesh.
ABSTRACT
Digital technologies enable apparel manufacturers to unlock solutions for new product development (NPD) challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. A Product Configurator (PC) is the key to Mass Customization (MC) as it can employ to elicit customer requirements, which is essential in successful NPD. Even though some online PCs exist in apparel retail and product development, no one could gather customer requirements and deploy them in the NPD. This paper conceptualizes a Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based PC on eliciting customer requirements based on a systematic literature review and a basic concept of Design Space Analysis. Finally, it is contended that this knowledge can apply in relevant software development to modernize apparel design, development and online retail. © 2023 The authors and IOS Press.
ABSTRACT
Humans have been exploiting the environmental resources as much as the environment today stands in crisis. There has become an urgent need of aligning profits with peace and prosperity of people and planet. In the race of economic growth and development, the disparity between social, economic and environment has aroused. The impact of Covid-19 pandemic further has highlighted the sustainable growth to be considered for a better future. Also, viewing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, there needs to be responsible consumption and production. Sustainability is the greatest challenge faced by the apparel industry. The industry, running on the adrenaline of glamor, pricing and pace, has recently realized that the old systems and processes cannot sustain, but there are not enough new systems and processes to replace. We are facing redundancies in an empty-handed way. Green manufacturing is an inevitable future. The paper explores key aspects of green manufacturing from apparel industries perspective, noting down the innovation and entrepreneurial solutions to the problems, identifying gaps and future scope. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) training has become essential in apparel education as it is widely applied in design and development activities in the industry. This study presents how physical CAD teaching converted to remote delivery during the emergency COVID-19 pandemic using online technologies. This study evaluated five distinct methods adopted in this period: online Zoom sessions, pre-recorded practical demonstrations, guided hand-outs, online collaborative learning methods and forum discussions using Moodle. TeamViewer application was utilised for real-time remote access and support during teaching. This study instrumented two online questionnaires intended to assess the effectiveness of online hands-on sessions and collaborative learning in a remote online environment. This study was conducted with 58 participants at a recognised Sri Lankan state university. More importantly, the results confirmed the feasibility of collaborative engagement within the online learning environment. This study discovered students' pref-erences for synchronous teaching and learning approaches. Also, it revealed the limitations of remote CAD teaching using online technologies. Finally, this study underlined the success of the collaborative learning approach and students' perspectives on flipped classroom model for apparel CAD training. © 2023 R.K.J. De Silva and A. Peramunugamage. Research in Learning Technology is the journal of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), a UK-based professional and scholarly society and membership organisation.
ABSTRACT
Apart from the many social and health problems it has caused, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on most sectors of the economy worldwide. One of the areas where such impact is noticeable is the textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industry. The lockdowns and limited access to retailer outlets resulted in a considerable drop in consumption, creating problems related to the excess of stock, the decrease of sales, and the disposal of non-used items. This paper outlines the implications of the COVID-19 on the TAF sectors and European retailers. It analyzes how the current supply chains exacerbated stock control problems, and it reports on the changes in consumption during the pandemic. The worldwide restrictive measures implemented to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic were responsible for significant profit losses. Also, the decrease in consumption, caused by several geographically wide lockdowns, prompted a subsequent reduction in orders and sales, resulting in a significant number of constraints. The implementation of more environmentally friendly processes, including sustainable circularity as a competitiveness source to keep the TAF sectors in the loop and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may help address the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the sustainability context, as reported in this paper. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
The Sri Lankan apparel industry accounts for 7% of the country's GDP and employs 15% of its workforce. Frightening levels of the spread of Coronsvirus-19 (COVID-19) have captured the attention of the apparel industry not only locally but globally. During this epidemic crisis, identifying the factors that affect the employees' workplace burden in the apparel industry is vital to the GDP of a country like Sri Lanka, as the economy of the country relies on growth in the Sri Lankan apparel sector. Each workplace burden has a distinct impact on employees' job performance. The objective of this study is to determine how the intensity of the COVID-19 epidemic affects employees' workplace burden and performance. Thereby assisting policymakers in responding to how to overcome the workplace burdens of the employees during this epidemic crisis. A mixed research approach, with both qualitative and quantitative data analysis, was used in the research. Considering the past literature and the industry experts' opinions, factors related to workforce burden due to COVID-19 were identified and categorised into four categories. Partial Least Square (PLS) was used to analyse the relationship between the workforce burden factors and employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic period. As the ultimate findings under the data analysis, exposure to COVID-19 and workplace preparation and work-related relationships have a significant positive impact on employees' performance. The workload has a significant negative impact on the behaviour and results-based employees' performance that has no significant impact on trait-based performance. Job-related uncertainty in the future has no significant impact on employees' performance. Improving workplace safety regulations, developing online employee interactions, and increasing immediate management attention to employees are some of the suggestions to mitigate identified workplace burdens. The findings of this study related to the factors affecting workplace burdens must be addressed promptly by policymakers or employers in the Sri Lankan apparel sector to improve employees' performance and, ultimately, industry performance. The outcome of this research would be useful in the future when a pandemic situation arises. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Apart from the many social and health problems it has caused, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on most sectors of the economy worldwide. One of the areas where such impact is noticeable is the textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industry. The lockdowns and limited access to retailer outlets resulted in a considerable drop in consumption, creating problems related to the excess of stock, the decrease of sales, and the disposal of non-used items. This paper outlines the implications of the COVID-19 on the TAF sectors and European retailers. It analyzes how the current supply chains exacerbated stock control problems, and it reports on the changes in consumption during the pandemic. The worldwide restrictive measures implemented to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic were responsible for significant profit losses. Also, the decrease in consumption, caused by several geographically wide lockdowns, prompted a subsequent reduction in orders and sales, resulting in a significant number of constraints. The implementation of more environmentally friendly processes, including sustainable circularity as a competitiveness source to keep the TAF sectors in the loop and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may help address the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the sustainability context, as reported in this paper. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
The crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped the apparel industry into becoming more sustainable, more human-centered, and more technologically adaptive. The sustainable apparel education model contains three pedagogical elements which are knowledge, skills, and technology. Sustainable knowledge is the core of apparel education which interlinks the sustainable knowledge curricula and the mainstream knowledge curricula. Future apparel knowledge should have a combined curriculum because the apparel industry needs to produce sustainable apparel for future environmental societies. In addition, with apparel education moving towards total digitization by adopting technology as the tool for teaching and learning, TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) educators in the future will need to be conversant towards technology for imparting skill education from design to production. Subsequently, when the workforce becomes more skillful having assimilated the TVET skills education in their work efforts, they will produce apparel products that have good quality, have better fit, are functional, and can meet the garment requirements. TVET education is the solution for the skill development of skilled workers and designers who understand the importance of garment specifications, are knowledgeable on how to make them last longer, have awareness about theirs meeting life expectancy, and thus are adept at preventing garments from being thrown at the landfill faster than they should be. In a nutshell, proposing TVET education as the solution to human capital development will drive a sustainable apparel industry in the future. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The Sri Lankan apparel industry is having a high demand for exports all over the world and is a leading apparel producer in the South Asian region. It has started to fight for its survival due to the pandemic, Covid-19. It guesses a bracing for a 50% drop in demand by the following one to one and a half years from Covid-19. Thus, the industry is in a position to reinvent itself by forcing itself to live. Thus, business continuity is necessary to proceed with the business without any interruption at this time. Moreover, human resource professionals act a major role to continue the business after the new normal, as handling the main resource of the organisation which is humans. Hence, this study aims to investigate the level of impact and consequences of Covid-19 in the business continuity process of the Sri Lankan apparel industry from the human resource management perspective. Initially, the literature review delivered a theoretical understanding of the research area and three large-scale apparel organisations were selected, a case study research strategy with a quantitative approach. Collected data were analysed using the Likert scale and weighted average manual content analysis. The findings revealed that Training and development help to compensate for the labour shortage, and technology improvements have modified the recruitment pattern. The difficulty of measuring performance has a negative impact on employee engagement;however, job uncertainty and providing satisfactory opportunities for development have increased employee engagement;thus, there is a balance in employee engagement, and communication plays an important role in that. Furthermore, flexible working hours have a positive impact on employee performance and job satisfaction. © 2022, Ceylon Institute of Builders. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The main aim of this study is to explore the challenges faced by the Indian apparel supply chain in the wake of COVID-19 to identify the factors that are being affected and build a multilevel hierarchy model to prioritize the factors and understand their inter-relationships. An intensive literature review was conducted, and many experts from apparel supply chain were consulted. The study was conducted by the help of a survey sent to these experts from different echelons in the apparel industry. The data was then analysed using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM). A multi-level hierarchy TISM model and MICMAC (matrice d'impacts croises multiplication appliquee a un classment) analysis were used to establish a relationship between the identified factors. The "difficulty in export order fulfilment" factor is found to be the most sensitive factor, which means that it is present in the TISM model hierarchy in a place that it is affected by most of the factors and in-turn impacts factors like operational cost, change in marketing strategy, change in consumer buying pattern, which impact profitability and cut-off in employment. "Cut-off in employment" is found to be most impacted by all other factors in the TISM model.
ABSTRACT
In accordance with the development of new technologies, e-commerce is revolutionizing the world, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic. It becomes a major part of the industry in improving revenue. A lot of potential time-consuming in traditional purchasing may lead to failing customer's trust in apparel industry. So, in e-commerce purchasing, customers get more new collections of apparel, saving money and time. Buying apparel through e-commerce has certain limitations of trying apparel before buying it. However, the proposed system allows customers to experience the fit virtually according to their needs. The main motive of the project is experiencing customer's outfits before purchasing so that customers can improve their decision-making process. A virtual trial room system improves the accessibility of the garments virtually without any discomfort, enhances customers to feel free to try the fit, comfortable to engage with the environment and there are fewer chances of returning and cancelling products. It detects the customer's posture and provides 2D virtual garments that are adjusted according to the posture, thus predicting the right fit by measuring the height and width of the body. This application provides interactive, rich and engaging surroundings to the clients. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Purpose>This paper argues that the closures will cause regressive rather than progressive modern slavery shifts as the necessity of survival prevails over addressing modern slavery risks within supply chains.Design/methodology/approach>In the spring of 2020, global clothing retailers were advised or ordered to close physical stores due to lockdown measures of the COVID-19 pandemic and many supply chains temporarily halted production. This paper explains how pre-pandemic modern slavery advancements will be detrimentally affected as a result of societal lockdowns and apparel retail closures around the world.Findings>Two consequences of lockdowns are highlighted, which will have negative implications on modern slavery progress. These are the exploitation of vulnerable people, which includes higher exploitation of those already involved in modern slavery and increased risk of exploitation for those susceptible to being drawn (back) into modern slavery and;the need for repetition of previous work completed by external stakeholders or in some cases, a better alternative.Practical implications>The pandemic itself causes friction between immediate response solutions and long-term modern slavery goals.Social implications>In response to modern slavery drivers, governments may need to fill governance gaps, to control the power of corporations and to reconsider migration regulation.Originality/value>The COVID-19 lockdowns and subsequent supply chain disruptions were unforeseen. This paper argues that there are significant negative effects on the developments in modern slavery eradication made in the past 10 years. As businesses struggled for basic survival, the apparel manufacturing sector has been detrimentally affected as upstream labourers are now at higher risk from the increased likelihood of modern slavery violations.
ABSTRACT
This paper draws upon the experience of mainly women workers in the Bangladeshi apparel industry to explore whether deregulated bodies are the fundamental condition of work in the global production network (GPN). We organised the study during the first waves of Covid-19. To conceptualise how ‘deregulated bodies’ have been structured into the industry as the exchange condition of work, we draw on the work of transnational feminist and Marxist scholars. The study provides insights about how a gendered GPN emerged under the neoliberal development regime;the pattern of work and work conditions are innately linked to volatile market conditions. By documenting workers’ lived experiences, the paper enhances our empirical understanding of how workers depend upon work, and how a form of expendable but regulated life linked with work has been embedded in GPN. Our findings reveal that unlike those of other human beings, workers’ bodies do not need to be regulated by norms that enable protection from Covid-19. As for the workers, work implies earning for living and survival, so ‘live or be left to die’ becomes the fundamental employment condition, and the possibility of their death an overlooked consideration. This reality has not changed or been challenged, despite the existence of compliance regimes. We further argue that as scholars, we bear a responsibility to consider how we engage in research on the implications of such organisation practices in a global environment, when all of us are experiencing the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the systemic and complex influences of the 2020 Coronavirus epidemic on the supply chains (SCs) of international clothing companies through a global business risk management perspective. The Coronavirus pandemic has triggered supply and demand disturbance risks that strongly affect supply chain (SC) management, signifying a necessity to develop the agility to alleviate such risks. This study revealed that the lean-SC management model is inadequate due to the dearth of transparency in the SCs caused by the growing demand uncertainty detected even before the Coronavirus pandemic. Although agile-SC management copes with this issue by improving the purchaser-supplier relations and communication to enhance information exchange, this model also requires a related rise in business stock and inventory costs. Hence, the paper provides several strategies that companies can implement to manage the risks and identify main fields for future studies, including the parties in the clothing SCs both downstream and upstream. IEEE