Textile Manufacturing Industry Research Articles

Green acid-free one-step hydrothermal ammonium persulfate oxidation of viscose fiber wastes to obtain carboxylated spherical cellulose nanocrystals for oil/water Pickering emulsion

Textile manufacturing industries produce large amounts of viscose fiber wastes (VFW), causing serious environmental pollution. This study presents an acid-free approach to prepare spherical cellulose nanocrystals (SCNs) with carboxyl groups from industrial VFW by one-step hydrothermal ammonium persulfate (APS) oxidation. Novel double-response surface methodology was employed to optimize the reaction conditions. A maximum yield (37.89%) of carboxylated SCN was obtained at reaction time of 4 h, APS concentration of 1 M and temperature of 80 °C, while the SCNs showed gradual size reductions along with increase of carboxyl contents as reaction time and APS concentration increased. Interestingly, it was possible to obtain carboxylated SCNs in only 2 h of reaction with an increase of 16.5% in the crystallinity index, which was attributed to efficient swelling of cellulose chains and oxidation interaction of surface groups under hydrothermal condition. Compared with SCN-2 h, the crystallinity index and maximum degradation temperature of SCN-10 h were improved by 5.5% and 17.9 °C, respectively. Moreover, SCN-10 h exhibited excellent emulsifying capacity to stabilize soybean oil/water Pickering emulsion droplets and emulsion volume were increased with decreased mean diameter of emulsion droplets as SCN-10 h concentration increased. These results indicate that VFW is an attractive source to produce carboxylated SCNs by APS oxidation, making SCN extraction as value-added alternatives to recycle this waste. Such carboxylated SCNs have great potentials as green food Pickering emulsion stabilizers and nanofillers in high-performance composites.

The effect of clusters on the innovation performance of enterprises: traditional vs new industries

The present paper assesses the effect of the formation of cluster organisations on the innovation performance of member enterprises in two different industries – the traditional textile manufacturing industry and the new nanotechnology industry. Innovation performance is explored using Data Envelopment Analysis in two phases. In the first phase, it examines the ability of enterprises to transform resources (labour force, long-term capital, intellectual capital) into registered industrial property rights: patents, utility models, industrial designs, and trademarks. In the second phase, it assesses the ability of enterprises to commercialise industrial property rights and generate profits. Innovation performance then integrates both phases. In each industry, two samples were assessed: member enterprises of cluster organisations, and enterprises that operate in the same industry and region but are not members of a cluster organisation. The results of the research show that the existence of a cluster organisation has a greater effect on innovation performance in the traditional textile manufacturing industry. In contrast, in the new nanotechnology industry, the existence of a cluster organisation did not prove to have any significant effect on innovation effectiveness. In this industry, the existence of a cluster organisation had only a partial effect related to better industrial property rights commercialisation. Research shows that the type of industry is an important factor in the innovation performance of clustered enterprises.

An improved gray line profile method to inspect the warp–weft density of fabrics

Image processing has become a tremendous tool for various fields of applications as well as for textile manufacturing industry in recent years. Inspection of fabric density is one of the major issues for fabric manufacturers in textile industries. In this study, an image processing method comprising of linear and nonlinear techniques for automatic inspection of warp and weft yarn density of fabrics has been proposed. By avoiding common problems of linear filtering such as blurring and localization, anisotropic diffusion filtering has been applied as preprocessing operation to enhance the edge region/boundaries between adjacent yarns of the fabric images. We conjecture that given a skewed gray level image, the number of peaks in the gray line profile of the image is minimized if the image is rotated in such a way that the inter-spaces between yarns are aligned with the vertical axis. Gabor filter, an orientation-sensitive filter, is applied to the skewed image at that angle to boost the edges between inter-spaces. The number of warp and weft yarn density has been inspected by applying gray line profile method. Simulations have been done on a wide range of fabric image data set. The results have shown that nonlinear and steered filters made a contribution to the performance of the method. The number warp and weft yarn densities are determined with an accuracy rates above 90%.

Automatic Fabric Defect Detection with a Multi-Scale Convolutional Denoising Autoencoder Network Model.

Fabric defect detection is a necessary and essential step of quality control in the textile manufacturing industry. Traditional fabric inspections are usually performed by manual visual methods, which are low in efficiency and poor in precision for long-term industrial applications. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised learning-based automated approach to detect and localize fabric defects without any manual intervention. This approach is used to reconstruct image patches with a convolutional denoising autoencoder network at multiple Gaussian pyramid levels and to synthesize detection results from the corresponding resolution channels. The reconstruction residual of each image patch is used as the indicator for direct pixel-wise prediction. By segmenting and synthesizing the reconstruction residual map at each resolution level, the final inspection result can be generated. This newly developed method has several prominent advantages for fabric defect detection. First, it can be trained with only a small amount of defect-free samples. This is especially important for situations in which collecting large amounts of defective samples is difficult and impracticable. Second, owing to the multi-modal integration strategy, it is relatively more robust and accurate compared to general inspection methods (the results at each resolution level can be viewed as a modality). Third, according to our results, it can address multiple types of textile fabrics, from simple to more complex. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model is robust and yields good overall performance with high precision and acceptable recall rates.

Strategic Impacts of Advanced Manufacturing Technology on American Textile Industry

This article describes how U.S. manufacturing was stricken when companies embraced outsourcing beginning in the 1990s as a strategy for taking advantage of lower labor costs in developing countries. The U.S. textile and apparel industries lost 76.5% of its workforce, or 1.2 million jobs, between 1990 and 2012. The catalyst which has renewed the interest in manufacturing textiles and apparel in the United States is the narrowing gap between the U.S. and Asian labor costs. The sector changed in response to technology and the global market, and both the number and type of employees demanded turned as well. The advanced technology currently drives the domestic textile industry. Despite a positive outlook on growth, it is unlikely that textile manufacturing will create the large number of jobs that it did in the past. Furthermore, it is only viable because of the technological improvements to its factories. The current production is designed to employ fewer workers in order be more productive and less dependent on labor costs. Nevertheless, the high demand for specialized and unique textiles in the U.S. and Europe will likely continue to drive improved manufacturing technology and performance. China's transition from a manufacturing economy to a service economy will increase its manufacturing operational costs, while probably growing demand for the sorts of specialized textiles on which American textile manufacturers tend to focus. If such manufacturers can increase their market shares in China and other Asian countries, while maintaining such markets in the U.S. and Europe, the American textile manufacturing industry will likely grow at a moderately high rate.

Prioritizing Type of Industry through Health Risk Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Dimethylformamide in the Workplace.

The purpose of this study was to classify hazards at an industrial level and evaluate the exposure risks of workers exposed to dimethylformamide (DMF) used as a solvent in the workplace and to determine industries that need priority measures in managing DMF exposure. We calculated hazard quotients at an industrial level. The exposure data of DMF in the workplace were obtained from the work environment monitoring program provided by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. The evaluation was conducted on textile manufacturing, leather manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and rubber manufacturing industries, which have many unit work sites handling DMF. The highest central tendency exposure and reasonable maximum exposure were 2.13 and 18.66 mg/m3 for the rubber product manufacturing industry, respectively. A total of 63.8% of workplaces in the textile manufacturing sector had a hazard quotient higher than 1. The highest risk for exposure to DMF is in the rubber and plastic manufacturing industry, and the lowest risk was in the medical materials and pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. Based on this study, effective management of DMF exposure could be achieved by establishing priority management measures for the textile and rubber and plastic product industries.

The Effect of Inventory Management on Organizational Performance Among Textile Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

The purpose of the study was to analyze the effect of inventory management on supply chain performance in terms of profitability, reliability, cost, responsiveness, flexibility and asset management efficiency of textile manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study was guided by the inventory management theory. The study adopted the convergent parallel mixed methods design. The study targeted a total of 196 respondents drawn from employees of procurement departments and departmental heads of respective 15 textile manufacturing industries operating in Nairobi County. The sample size was therefore 139 respondents. Stratified and simple random sampling methods were used to select employees of procurement departments from their respective textile firms. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to gather the data from primary sources. The study applied the use of both qualitative and quantitative data which was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version 22). Inferential statistics using hierarchical multiple regression and Correlation analysis was applied to test the relationship between the variable and formulated hypothesis. The final analyzed results were presented using tables, graphs and charts. The study established that textile manufacturing firms in Kenya have adoption of inventory management as a factor of supply chain influencing performance. The study concludes that inventory management possess the potential of positively influencing performance of Textile firms in and therefore recognizes the importance of inventory management in the supply chain and have put clear mechanisms in place and invested in current material flow systems to oversee smooth and transparent material flow that can be tracked along a supply chain.

The Effect of Transport Management on Organizational Performance Among Textile Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

The purpose of the study was to analyze the effect of transport management on supply chain performance in terms of profitability, reliability, cost, responsiveness, flexibility and asset management efficiency of textile manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study was guided by the cooperative game theory. The study adopted the convergent parallel mixed methods design. The study targeted a total of 196 respondents drawn from employees of procurement departments and departmental heads of respective 15 textile manufacturing industries operating in Nairobi County. The sample size was therefore 139 respondents. Stratified and simple random sampling methods were used to select employees of procurement departments from their respective textile firms. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to gather the data from primary sources. The study applied the use of both qualitative and quantitative data which was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version 22). Inferential statistics using hierarchical multiple regression and Correlation analysis was applied to test the relationship between the variable and formulated hypothesis. The final analyzed results were presented using tables, graphs and charts. The study concludes that transport management possess the potential of positively influencing supply chain performance of Textile firms and therefore recognizes the importance of transport management in the supply chain. Therefore in order to attain successful organizational performance the study recommends that the management of the textile firms have to put mechanisms in place for addressing transport such as vehicle scheduling, route planning, fleet management, and vehicle tracking for purposes of ensuring competitive edge against other market competitors thus improving superior performance of textile manufacturing firms.

Servitisation of an Industry and National Competitive Advantage in International Business: The Case of Taiwan Textile Manufacturing and Sri Lankan Apparel Manufacturing Industries

Servitisation studies in extant literature contribute to the resource-based view and relational view where industrial organisation view was largely ignored due to the focus on individual manufacturing units. In international business industry, competitiveness is required to enhance the performance of individual organisations. Following post-positivism epistemology, a multi-case study approach has been employed in this study. The unit of analysis is the network consisting of manufacture, supplier and the customer. Two such units of apparel manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka and two units from textile manufacturing industry in Taiwan were selected. This study establishes the link between servitised industry and national competitive advantage. The collaboration with suppliers, indirect competitors and other partners were identified as critical factors to differentiate a business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing industry in an international business.

A Predictive Integrated Genetic-Based Model for Supplier Evaluation and Selection

Supplier evaluation and selection is a complicated multiple criteria decision-making process which affects supply chain management (SCM) directly. Recent studies emphasize that artificial intelligence approaches obtain better performance than conventional methods in evaluating the suppliers’ performance and determining the best suppliers. Hence, this study proposes a new robust genetic-based intelligent approach, namely gene expression programming (GEP), to improve the supplier selection process for a supply chain and to cope with the drawback of the other intelligent approaches in this area. The applicability of this method was exhibited by a case study in the textile manufacturing industry. To show the performance of the mathematical-genetic model, comparisons with four intelligent techniques, namely multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network, radial basis function (RBF) neural network, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and support vector machine (SVM), were performed. The results derived from the intelligent approaches were compared by using a collected dataset from a textile factory. The obtained results demonstrated that first the GEP-based model provides a mathematical model for the suppliers’ performance based on the determined criteria, and the developed GEP model is more accurate than the four other intelligent models in terms of accuracy in performance estimation. In addition, to verify the validity of the developed model, different statistical tests were used and the results showed that the GEP model is statistically powerful.

An Integration between Baluch’s Costumes and Contemporary Iranian Woman: An Apparel on Aesthetics Elements

This paper investigates costume fashion design of a specific Iranian group, specifically Baluch people. In this study, we have conducted a research to make an appropriated and functional association between modern daily fashion and Iranian local regional clothes as a social and cultural identity characteristic. There are some textile manufacturing industries in Iran, in which about 400,000 employees are working in different branches of production. Baluch’s history indicates that their traditional costume has been derived from Iranian fundamental designs. Baluch culture has long been settled in the East of Iran. Baluch people are among the few Iranian tribes who are committed to their local costumes. This study is a cross-sectional survey in which 100 volunteers filled out the 7-scale questionnaires throughout some social networks among Iranian adult women (Age: 30±0.5). We also gathered some information based on the literature review, observation and museums and exhibitions of handicrafts visits. In this study, we focused on Baluch ethnic costumes, and we studied some articles in this field to develop a practical method in observing and assessing the sample costumers. Our data analysis indicates that 32% of volunteers partially agree that they have tendencies to pick fashionable clothing, 34% of volunteers agree that they prefer to be unique, 33% of volunteers partially agree that the national identity is important when it comes to fashion, and 28% of them partially agree about the importance of local origin of fashion. These results also express that 36% of volunteers partially agree that the traditional Iranian costume is appealing to them, and 33% of them partially agree that traditional costumes are usable as contemporary clothing. Per foregoing features of Baluch costumes in aesthetic, social and cultural context, and obtained results and relevant statistical analysis, it seems that Baluch costumes aesthetical identity can be applied in contemporary Iranian women’s clothing, considering fashion principles. Last but not least, design process is based on questionnaire results and the traditional Baluch costume analysis. Our findings show that the importance of considering some criteria during design process, such as national identity, tendency to wear local and colorful costumes, applying traditional handcrafts and motifs on contemporary clothing, uniqueness and elegance. The presented design is recommended based on the deduced results of previous phases.

E-business Utilization in Supply Chain Management of UK Textile Manufacturing Industry

UK textile manufacturing industry is facing fierce competition due to ongoing globalization. In order for UK textile manufacturers to survive and earn profits in the future, it is necessary for them to create more competitive strategies based on new initiatives. E-business may be one of those initiatives due to its advantages to facilitate the speed of information flow and manage business transactions across long distance between partners in supply chain. This paper aims to understand and address the issues and future directions for UK textile manufacturers to improve competitiveness by utilizing e-business in supply chain.

The Location of the Textile Industry in England and Wales, 1813–1820

This article utilises male occupational data recorded in the baptism registers of England and Wales, 1813–1820, to locate the geographical distribution of the textile manufacturing industry at that time. By comparison with female and male occupations abstracted from the 1851 census, it shows that the location was set at least as early as the second decade of the nineteenth century, and before the introduction of steam power or the mechanisation of weaving could have played significant roles. By 1813–1820, the once great regional textile centres of East Anglia and the West Country were no more. Approximately sixty-six per cent of fathers employed in the textile industry lived in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Moreover, textile manufacturing was further concentrated into a small number of parishes. Two-thirds of fathers lived in thirty-six parishes, and fifty per cent resided in only nineteen parishes. An association between the location of the main textile parishes and the proximity of the coal measures is evident. The registers contain a large number of entries for male spinners, reflecting the extent of uptake of Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule. The data confirm that the mule was dominant in cotton spinning within at least thirty years or so of its introduction. By the second decade of the nineteenth century, cotton spinning by hand was a redundant occupation.

Interrelationship among foreign presence, domestic sales and export intensity in Chinese manufacturing industries

ABSTRACTUsing panel data on six Chinese manufacturing industries over the period 2005–2007, this article explores the interrelationship among foreign presence, domestic sales and export intensity of local firms. We find that the domestic sales and exports are complementary for local firms in China’s pharmaceutical industry, whereas in the case of the textile, transportation equipment, beverage, communication equipment and general equipment manufacturing industries, domestic sales and exports are substitutes. An increase in the average domestic sales increases foreign presence in all industries. The same applies to an increase in the average export intensity. An increase in the level of competition in China’s textile industry increases the export intensity as well as domestic sales of local textile firms. However, an increase in the level of competition in the pharmaceutical industry leads to a very large decrease in export intensity of local pharmaceutical firms. In the case of China’s transportation equipment manufacturing industry, an increase in the level of competition decreases domestic sales of local firms. Furthermore, an increase in the firm size increases domestic sales of Chinese firms in all six manufacturing industries.

Are exporting firms more productive in the Indian textile industry?

Purpose– This paper aims to study whether exporting enterprises are more productive in export-intensive industries. It also aims to identify the action area and policy direction for enhancing productivity in Indian textile manufacturing. Global integration has increased the volume of international trade. It is crucial for countries to have competitive enterprises to capture a larger share of the global economy. Improvement in productivity performance not only enhances competitiveness but also promotes growth in an economy.Design/methodology/approach– A productivity analysis for the Indian textile manufacturing industry using firm-level panel data is conducted. The data are collected for 160 firms relevant to the period from 2007-2008 to 2012-2013 from Ace Equity database. Using the technique of data envelopment analysis, the output oriented Malmquist productivity index is computed and the sources of productivity change are identified. Also, a comparison between the productivity performance of the exporting and non-exporting firms has been made.Findings– The results suggest that exporting firms are exhibiting better productivity performance and resource utilisation during the study period. Technology change and scale efficiency seem to be the major sources of productivity gain for exporting firms.Research limitations/implications– The research is limited to a single industry, reference database and methodology. There is scope for further in-depth, micro-level research to analyze the differences in drivers of productivity for exporting and non-exporting firms.Originality/value– This paper provides validation to export promotional policies in the Indian textile industry by establishing better productivity performance of exporting firms. It also provides direction for managerial action by identifying efficiency component as the factor pulling down productivity.

Productivity in Indian manufacturing: evidence from the textile industry

Purpose – Productivity gain in the manufacturing sector draws immense significance for all developing countries, particularly due to its contribution in enhancing competitiveness and promoting economic growth in the long run. The purpose of this paper is to study the sources of productivity gain for large and small-scale manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach – This paper studies productivity performance of Indian textile manufacturing industry using firm-level panel data of 160 companies for the period 2007-2008 to 2012-2013. The output-oriented Malmquist productivity index has been computed through data envelopment analysis. Further, the sources of productivity gain are identified for the entire textile industry as well as for the small and large-scale sector companies separately. Findings – Regarding the sources of productivity gain, technology change and scale efficiency seem to be the major drivers. Pure efficiency change is a concern for all firms irrespective of scale. The results suggest that moderately large companies are exhibiting better productivity performance during the study period. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to a single industry, reference database and methodology. There is scope for further research at the micro-level to analyse the drivers of productivity for enterprises operating at different scales. Originality/value – The paper contributes to existing literature by identifying the core action area for improving productivity performance in Indian textile manufacturing as the pure efficiency component. It also adds to research on the most productive scale of operation in manufacturing.

The Effect of Economic Recession in Textile Manufacturing Industries in Nigeria

This research study investigated the effects of economic recession in textile manufacturing industries in Nigeria. Economic recession has disastrous ripple effects on manufacturing industries. A lot of manufacturing industries have gone into oblivion because of this malady. A sizeable income is lost by manufacturing industries during economic recession through reduction in share prices, low capacity utilization, labour turnover, unsold inventories and fall in commodity prices. A cross sectional survey was used to collect data for answering research questions and testing hypothesis in this research work. The data collected from questionnaire instrument were also analyzed using percentages. The research finding show that the effect of economic recession in manufacturing industries are low capacity utilization and factory closure, horrendous nosedive in stock market prices, delisting of share at the stock exchange, fall in commodity prices and low foreign direct investments. Horrendous nosedive in stock market prices has the foremost effect on manufacturing industries and this result in low investment in shares and expansion. A comparison of the effect of economic recession between Afprint and Enpee textile industries show that both industries rate horrendous nosedive in stick market prices as the major effect of economic recession. The variables that were hypothetically tested as the effect of economic recession has significant effect on Textile industries in Nigeria We recommend an economic reform program that will be able to tackle the problem of economic recession such as providing bailout fund, single digit interest rate, long term loan, resuscitation of decayed infrastructure especially, power and strengthening the stock exchange.

Effects of gender on work-related attitudes: study of lean implemented textile and apparel manufacturing firms

Work related attitudes, such as perceived organizational support, turnover intention, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and job involvement, have received much attention by academics and practitioners for a number of reasons. Previous research indicates that such attitudes have important organizational consequences. However, little attention has been given to investigate the differential effect of gender on the work-related attitudes, in particular shop-floor employees of the textile and apparel manufacturing sector. In this study, using a sample of 616 employees in the textile and apparel manufacturing industry, the effects of gender on work-related attitudes was investigated. The results suggested that women perceived more organizational support, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and job involvement than men. However, despite the above positive work attitudes, women perceive higher turnover intention than men. This contradicts the general findings of organizational behavior theory that higher work attitudes lead to lower turnover intention.

The Changing Contexts of Chinese-Nigerian Textile Production and Trade, 1900‒2015

Since the mid-1990s, China has become the leading exporter worldwide of manufactured textiles and clothing. For Nigeria, one of China’s major trading partners in Africa, increased imports of Chinese textiles are related to the decline of the Nigerian textile manufacturing industry. It also reflects the opening up of China to foreign investment and the subsequent boom in manufactured textile exports and to changes in World Trade Organization textile agreements. This paper examines these changes in textile manufacture and trade, focusing first on twentieth-century Chinese and Nigerian textile manufacturing histories and their subsequent divergence, beginning in the 1980s and continuing into the early twenty-first century. The increase in Chinese-Nigerian textile trade became physically evident in Nigeria in the late 1990s, with Chinese textile companies setting up offices in Lagos and Kano, and Nigerian traders and businessmen setting up offices in Guangzhou, China. The question of how increased shipments of Chinese manufactured textiles have been organized by Chinese company representatives, brokers, and traders, as well as by Nigerian traders and businessmen to meet Nigerian consumer demand is then addressed. Finally, this growth in textile trade is considered in the context of Chinese-Nigerian plans for the building of a Free Trade Zone in Lagos, which would include the construction of a new textile mill. The paper concludes by considering whether this collaboration may lead to a revival of the Nigerian textile industry.

A Survey on Removal of Chromium from Aqueous Solutions using Activated Carbon of Almond-Shell

Abstract. Chromium VI is one of the heavy metals and polluting water resources that are making in many industries wastewater such as electroplating, the tanning, dyeing and textile manufacturing, mining and fertilizer industries. Observing the toxic and hazardous properties of the metal, its removal by an effective and environmentally friendly method, is essential [1]. Activated carbon with nano pores is a green technology for separation of poisonous material in environment [2]. The aim of this research is to determine the level of cadmium absorption by activated carbon of almond-shell in concentration of “20 ”, “50” and “100” per part million (ppm) and different insolubility times from “15 to 120” min. Experiments for determining isotherms were assigned discontinuous in different concentrations and different amounts of biological activated carbon (from “0.1 gr to 0.3” gr) and the Chromium with desired PH. Measurement of cadmium performed by atomic absorption device and based on the standards. Observing the research results and the PH regulated on “6”, increase in primary concentration of Chromium resulted in increasing of absorption level and also by elapsing the time, absorption level was raised and the maximum absorption on “69/7 %” was happened in time range of “120” min. The results indicate that bio absorber containing sodium alginate containing activated carbon prepared from almond shell is new adsorbent for the removal of cadmium ions from aqueous environments.