TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume 2, Issue 4, Fall 2002 "Creative Textile Education"
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AN AUTOMATIC TEXTILE SALES FORECAST USING FUZZY TREATMENT OF EXPLANATORY VARIABLES

Sébastien Thomassey*,**, Michel Happiette* and Jean Marie Castelain*

* GEMTEX - ENSAIT of Roubaix (France)
** IFTH of Villeneuve d'Ascq (France)

To reduce their stocks and to limit ruptures, textile companies must improve their supply chain management. This organization requires sales forecasting systems adapted to the uncertain environment of the textile field. The uncertainty is characterized by noisy data, short historic and numerous explanatory variables that influence the sales behavior. This paper deals with new forecasting models based on "soft computing" and more particularly, last evolutions of hybrid fuzzy model (HFCCX) developed in previous works. HFCCX model uses fuzzy logic abilities to map the non-linear influences of explanatory variables to perform mean-term forecasting. The drawback of this model is the require of an expert judgment for the learning process. The last improvements of our model called AHFCCX allow an automatic learning of the explanatory variables influence. To evaluate performances, a comparative test between AHFCCX, HFCCX and classical models has been applied to real data of textile items selected from an important French ready-to-wear distributor.

KEYWORDS : Textile-apparel industry, Sales forecasting, Fuzzy inference system, Automatic learning, Explanatory variables.

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Cost as well as product innovations have always been very important to the textile and apparel industries. The survival of any company within the pipeline depends on offering the right product at the right price. The traditional approach has been to develop a product and then approach the market with a price that was based on a cost-plus calculation. Target costing turns the process around by starting at the market price of the product and subtracting a target profit from this price to arrive at a target cost. Product development then takes place in an environment where the market price and the allowable cost components for a product are known. The process of target costing for the integrated textile complex is described and its implications discussed. Forces that move textiles and apparel towards target costing are analyzed.

KEYWORDS: Costing, target costing, target cost, market, product development

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CONTINGENCIES FOR LOW IMPLEMENTATION LEVELS OF NEW MANUFACTURING PRACTICES

Doris H. Kincade
Virginia Tech University

New manufacturing practices, common in many industries, have been underrepresented in the apparel industry. For this industry, the researcher explored what barriers and organizational characteristics exist for firms that have low implementation levels of these new manufacturing practices. Findings show that management's approach or strategy choice for quality management and return on investment had significant relationships to implementation levels of new manufacturing practices. Resources were perceived as a barrier to implementation, and firm size had significant relationships to new manufacturing practices implementation.

KEYWORDS: Operation strategy, empirical study, implementation, technology management

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Technology, Customization, and Time-Based Performance
in the Apparel and Sewn Products Industry

Suzanne Loker and Yun Jeong Oh
Cornell University

This study analyzed levels of technology and customization in relationship to time-based performance measures in 46 U.S. apparel and sewn products firms that produce domestically. Although large firms indicated higher overall technology use, small firms were just as likely as large firms to use a number of pre-production, production, information, and communication technologies and more likely to offer a high percentage of custom products or services. Two time-based performance measures, work-in-process and reorder delivery days, were significantly better for firms with high technology use. Future research is recommended to further investigate the promise of technology, customization, and time-based performance measures in advancing the competitiveness of the apparel and sewn products industry.

KEYWORDS: Apparel industry, technology management, customization

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CREATIVITY IN FASHION

Pammi Sinha
UMIST UK

Fashion consumption, ever contradictory in nature, requires product to achieve, among a variety of facets, both quality and value for money, individuality as well as brand identity. Hines (2002) draws attention to the relationship between manufacturers and retailers and, in particular, information sharing. With increasing complaints of new collections on the shopfloor being 'unimpressive' or 'unattractive', the issue of creativity as part of a strategic response by companies must be examined, in particular in the relationship between buying and designing new fashion items. This paper will examine the process of design as practiced by fashion designers and aims to offer insights and highlight issues that should be considered when examining how 'designerly thinking' might be incorporated at the strategic level of management.

KEYWORDS: Creative thinking, fashion designer, strategic management.

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CHANGING WORLD TRADE CONDITIONS FORCE THE TURKISH TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRY TO CREATE NEW STRATEGIES

Assoc. Prof. Emine Ercan, Ctext. FTI
Izmir University of Economics, School of Fashion Design

Textile and clothing industry has played an important role in the industrialization process and market orientation of the Turkish Economy. The yarn making, cloth manufacturing, garment finishing, and related activities presently make up over 6% of the gross national product, 17.5% of industrial production, around 19% of total industrial manufactured goods, 21% of employment. The Turkish apparel industry is currently transitioning from a volume oriented, cost-based contractor role in the global apparel industry to assume more value-added activities such as design and product development. The goal of Turkish apparel manufacturers in this transition is to capitalize on their experience, skilled labour, and technological advantages to establish new markets for high quality, Turkish-designed apparel.

KEYWORDS: Industrialization, manufacturing strategies, Turkey, production, economics

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