Traditional Fashion and Textile Supply Chain: Concept to Consumer

Abstract

AbstractFashion and textile products evolve through several processes that involve the conversion of fibre to yarn, yarn to fabric and fabric to garment. During these processes, there are numerous wastes generated, which reduces the productivity and efficiency. Many of the manufacturing facilities in developing countries still follow the traditional technologies for manufacturing, which leads to low productivity, more energy consumption, higher waste, and low product quality. The global marketplace is getting more and more competitive day by day with demand on high value-added products at cheaper prices. Hence, the fashion and textile manufacturing industries need to fulfil the demand for quality and price by improving their performance. Further, with the growing global interest on sustainability and increased consumer awareness, fashion and textile industries bring sustainable solutions in their production lines by reducing wastes. This can be achieved by the implementation of lean manufacturing in the manufacturing industries, which is the focus of this book. This chapter is the introduction to the fundamentals and concepts of lean manufacturing. A brief introduction has been given on the fashion supply chain starting from concept to consumer, which is essential to understand the problems associated with the manufacturing industries. Further, the principles and tools of lean manufacturing are also discussed including thee seven wastes in manufacturing industries for fashion and textiles. The steps to implement lean manufacturing, which includes PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle; advantages and disadvantages; and future directions are discussed in this book.KeywordsLean manufacturingFashion supply chainFashion sustainabilityPush and pullWaste eliminationsLean toolsLean principles