Supply Chain Management in Textile & Apparel Indsutry

Dirk Czrnowski, Technical Manager of TUV SUD Hong Kong Ltd. Spoke at a seminar during Interstoff Asia 2006 on the subject of Supply Chain Management in the Textile and Apparel industry.  He spoke of new directives in the EU and associated initiatives in both the US and Japan, which would affect all kinds of products including textiles and change the quality systems currently in place in the factories. The directives had consequences for waste, sewage, emissions, online inspection, documentation and logistics. 

TUV, he informed, had a portfolio of services, including partners who specialized in shipments, where the main problem was time. Living quality is essential in all matters regarding textile and clothing manufacture and supply. Some factories viewed the making of garment like a baker makes bread – putting this inside, that inside, and got a garment. However, with training and education it is possible to improve understanding of quality issues. 

There were, concluded the speaker, many systems for quality on the market. The one with the future must be an independent party in the middle (between supplier and buyer), like a bank, where the client could not enter. Such a system supplier would only open the door, so as to speak in the case of a claim or similar, as the garment supplier invariably had intellectual property which could not be revealed to all parties. The cost of a supply chain management system is about 1-2% of the FOB cost, and secure quality is essential for business.

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