Showing posts with label artificial intelligence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artificial intelligence. Show all posts

Monday, December 17, 2018

StitchWorld Editorial Issue December 2018

Apparel Sourcing Week 2019 – The new initiative from Apparel Resources

Apparel Resources, the publisher of StitchWorld and Apparel Online, has always explored ways to communicate with the industry, be it through in-depth articles in the magazines, workshops and seminars or through industry forums. Now the time has come to take another leap, and it gives me great pride to announce our latest initiative from Apparel Resources – the Apparel Sourcing Week 2019.


The concept is a first-of-its-kind platform to bring together the manufacturing excellence of countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to India for the upward moving Indian retail market.

The growth of fashion in Indian retail is a story of multi-dimensional opportunities, and not only the traditional strongholds of retail, the metropolitan cities are seeing exponential growth in this domain, but also the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are showing affinity to branded clothing, resulting in the creation of a whole new market segment of people.

As of today, the Indian fashion retail is worth US $ 49 billion and is projected to reach US $ 75 billion by 2025. The market is being driven by a strength of 1.2 billion people of an average age of 29, having the purchasing power that makes for a robust economy that is projected to became the fourth largest economy in the world very soon and a potential market for manufacturing nations.

On one hand, this expanding market of people who have the purchasing power to indulge in fashion is pushing demand for regular basic garments, due to which one can see and also anticipate growth in categories like trousers, denim jeans, shirts and T-shirts.

What will see equal, if not bigger splurge in demand, are the products in the newer categories that cater specifically to the needs of the upward mobile millennials, like jackets, innerwear/intimatewear, athleisure, activewear/sportswear. Manufacturers will need to get their act together to be competitive and partner with retailers/brands from Indian retail and international players.

If global names like Zara, H&M, Mango, Guess, United Colors of Benetton, GAP, forever21, Levi’s, adidas, Nike, etc., have already made their presence felt, at least 100 more brands/ retailers are set to make their foray in this market in the next couple of years to cash in on the big opportunity. Alongside the global biggies coming up strongly, are the home-grown stalwarts, adding to the new-found market’s vibrancy and escalation.

The Apparel Sourcing Week ’19 will be held in the IT hub of India, Bengaluru, which also happens to be the nerve centre of Indian retail. Over time, Bengaluru has become the testing ground for all major retailers. Apart from its diverse demographic, retail executives say the city has a large white-collar workforce and tech-savvy consumers open to new ideas.The fact that Bengaluru is India’s tech and start-up hub, makes it easier to hire tech talent.

Excitement for the event is building up with retailers upbeat on the opportunity to see a unique and wide mix of manufacturers from Bangladesh, Vietnam and China with their equally diverse product portfolios under a single roof which is sure to make sourcing more exciting and dynamic.

Monday, October 15, 2018

StitchWorld Editorial Issue October 2018

Industry’s mantra: An amalgamation of technological upgradation and constructive HR methodology for best results.
The latest trend in the industry is to hold and even attend seminars and workshops on the concept of Industry 4.0 which includes digitisation, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine-to machine learning and 3D printing.

Gone are the days when technology for better and efficient production was the focus of attention. It seems that the incremental changes towards automation in sewing are taken as not so critical anymore, at least not critical enough to hold or attend workshops. And this can be substantiated by the fact that many of the smaller sewing machine manufacturers are selling out to bigger companies.

This is certainly not going to help the garment manufacturing industry in the short or even in the long term. However small they may be, upgradation in technology is significant to keep pace with the needs of today and should be discussed and appreciated.

 It is therefore important for the garment manufacturers to take a prudent approach and keep abreast of the latest hardware and upgraded technologies, as also be concurrently aware about the technologies of the future.

This balanced approach to learning will be helpful to grow in the present and be prepared for the future!

The second most popular topic for industry today is now Human Resource Development, which is nothing more than sharing newer methods or jargons to motivate employees/operators, considering the fact that the industry lacks formal, pragmatic contemporary HR systems and interventions.

For attaining lasting success, organisations need to embrace the key role of human resource as a necessary catalyst to enhance the entire production system by making it smoother and swifter than before.

Our current issue entails an exclusive coverage on the emerging ‘on-demand’ apparel manufacturing concept in the USA along with its diverse pros and cons being discussed by the US-based apparel industry experts.