Developing a new suit sizing system using data optimization techniques

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a new suit sizing system based on up‐dated data, using data mining techniques, to improve the final quality and reduce the waste of fabric. This paper aims to investigate the effect of data reduction on the final fitness of the sizing chart.Design/methodology/approach – Principal component analysis is applied to reduce the sizing variables, non‐hierarchical clustering approach is used to segment the heterogeneous population to more homogeneous one, and the aggregate loss of fitness is used to evaluate the resulted sizing chart.Findings – The results show that, when principal component analysis reduces the ten sizing variables to two main components, the final fitness for the resulted sizing chart is the best. These two main components are height and circumference. The hierarchical clustering approach could effectively group all body type to seven clusters. The resulted sizing chart could be used as a reference for suit manufacturers.Practical implications ...