Monday, December 8, 2014

StitchWord Editorial Issue December 2014

As another year comes to an end, the manufacturing industry is still at the crossroad of policy revivals… No doubt, there is a talk about labour reforms and push for manufacturing friendly environment, skill development and promoting industry incubators, but the truth is that the garment manufacturing industry remains inconsequential for the Government...

Even our neighbour Bangladesh is growing exponentially and maturing from being a learner to now a trainer, while India remains a silent spectator in the midst of Government indifference to this sector. I have been saying time and again, and many articles have been published in the last one year to emphasize the point that the industry deserves a better deal… now it is for the Government to take heed.

StitchWorld in its efforts to engage and educate the industry about the best practices and forthcoming technology interventions in garment manufacturing, has started a new series on industrial engineering and stitchless fabric joining applications. I remember an interesting point mentioned in the 2001 Mckinsey report that noted “productivity (of Indian apparel manufacturers) is low not because tailors are using the wrong technology but because tailoring firms are too small to benefit from the best technologies and therefore should not exist”. I wonder the same logic holds true for knowledge dissipation as well.

While four articles of the series on IE have already been published, surprisingly not a single comment/feedback has come in from the industry! I wonder is it because “manufacturing firms are too small to benefit from the best practices and therefore do not bother” or is it that not all entrepreneurs are equally dynamic, and a large fraction in the manufacturing sector may well be content to operate at relatively low scales, and knowledge dissipation effort to such entrepreneurs about the best practices is unlikely to shed any useful light!

Whatever the case, StitchWorld is committed to knowledge dissipation and will continue in its efforts to bring latest information of the sewn industry to its readers… In the current issue, jacket manufacturing is the topic of discussion where major players in the export and domestic market share their strategy and manufacturing systems. Though the product is not a very established one in India, the potential is huge and scope for growth will drive existing players to expand, and hopefully encourage some fresh investments also.

New Year will also see us take on the role of pure educationist with series of workshops and seminars... It is intended to fill the void where the academia failed to provide the knowledge, and industry looks forward to people having such calibre. I am sure the industry will take benefit of our initiatives and participate to be industry ready or industry forward...

No comments:

Post a Comment