apparel industry

In the apparel industry, with demanding customers and an oversupply of products and shopping options, interactivity and individualization offer important opportunities for differentiation. However, digital business-to-consumer interactions have so far been limited to product configuration and viewing. This paper presents new, digitally supported approaches to integrate the customer into the collection development process of the apparel industry.

Several internal and external factors influence the performance of manufacturing systems. They increase the requirements for the logistic system’s flexibility, robustness and adaptability. Changeable manufacturing and autonomous control of logistic processes are capable to cope with the complexity and dynamic induced by these factors. Using a case study of an apparel manufacturing company, this article explains how autonomous control can be used to enable changeable manufacturing. It describes five enablers for changeability for the control system solution presented in the case study.

The People’s Republic of China has developed into an important national economy, which is fully integrated into the world’s economy. China’s apparel industry already leads the world in production and exports. This article describes China’s position within the global apparel industry and shows some effects onto the logistics of the branch. Additionally a project is being introduced which may contribute to solving some problems in intra-logistic processes of the branch.