Sustainable fibre for sustainable fashion supply chains: where the journey to sustainability begins

Adopting a sustainable business model is an essential element of gaining competitive advantage. Specifically, the management of fashion and textile supply chains characterized by geographical extension requires paying particular attention to environmental and social sustainability. Following an analysis of the literature on sustainable supply chains in the fashion and textile industries, this qualitatively based research examines – from a supply chain perspective – the sustainability initiatives implemented by a yarn and garment producer through a single case study. Subsequently, the classification of potential sustainability initiatives is presented. From this investigation, several good practices for sustainable fashion supply chains can be identified, providing a reference point for similar companies. Keywords: sustainable fashion supply chain, sustainable textiles, closed loop supply chai

Urban fashion policies: lessons from the Barcelona catwalks

Since at least a decade, Barcelona is on the world map of fashion: Antonio Mirò, Mango, Desigual, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada are famous Barcelona-based stylists teaming up with other large Spanish fashion firms, like Zara, and commercial outlets, like El Corte Ingles, to attract a large interest on local fashion and fashion-based events. Thus, Barcelona has become a straightforward “shopping destination” for millions of international visitors, developing a shopping-related image, various specialised “fashion clusters” for different market targets, and a number of fashion-related events attracting both professionals and a dedicated general audience, like the 080 Barcelona and Bread & Butter. Barcelona’s liberal and leisure-related image can be easily associated with fashion, so if the national capital Madrid retains its role of business capital of the country even in relation to fashion, Barcelona could be considered the emergent “catwalk” of the Mediterranean, challenging other fashion capitals of Europe like Milan and Paris. The article analyses the urban strategy to foster the fashion industry in Barcelona through a redefinition of the “soft” factors establishing the substance of a fashion capital: image, place qualities, events, connectedness and social embeddedness. Tourism, unsurprisingly, is an important component of such strategy. The growth of Barcelona to the stardom of international leisure and cultural tourism is mostly about the “liminal” nature and the symbolically-charged activities of visitors that can be easily extended to fashion and fashion buying behaviour. Through a number of interviews and the analysis of strategy documents and reports, the authors unravel this relationship and assess the effectiveness of this strategy face to other factors playing against a more enduring rooting of fashion industries in the city, like the volatility of the sector, the insufficient international connectedness of the city and its business orientation, and the reorientation of the tourist supply towards low-cost visitors segments.

Managing sustainability risks in fashion supply chains

Paper presented at Logistics Research Network Annual Conference 2014, 3rd-5th September 2014, Huddersfield. Abstract: Much has been written about fashion supply chains in recent years pertaining to the offshoring of production and sourcing by UK retailers to other countries including inter alia Asia as well as the attendant risks to such activities. There is ample evidence suggesting that businesses can experience disruptions from sustainability issues that are pertaining in their supply chains. Also, there is an increasing focus on sustainability issues in global businesses and fashion supply chains are not immune to these issues, particularly when wider issues of corporate and social responsibility are included. And yet, the consideration of sustainability and its impact on risk pertaining to the fashion supply chains have not been actively pursued. Moreover little is known about how sustainability issues manifest themselves as risks. Further, the lack of sustainability risk conceptualization hinders the development of sustainability risk management framework which is critical to all but specifically to the global fashion supply chains to survive and compete in a volatile and demand driven sector. This paper presents a proposal for a PhD research study at the Logistics Institute, Hull University Business School investigating this interaction

Adoption of "eco-advantage" by SMEs: emerging opportunities and constraints

Purpose: A recent study has asserted that businesses need to adopt “eco-advantage”. This paper aims to explore the viability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) achieving “eco-advantage” by exploring their understanding of sustainability issues, how they adopt and innovate in terms of sustainability and the benefits and obstacles they face. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach is exploratory, comprised of 15 SME embedded cases based in the UK. The cases are participants in short interventions in sustainable product and process design as a part of a university knowledge transfer project, representing the overall case. Cases are based on interviews with company participants and collaborating academics, supplemented by documentary and observational evidence. Findings: The results build on the work on “eco-advantage” found in a recent study, highlighting marketing, rather than compliance issues as a catalyst for change. The newly aware SME enters a development process which involves cumulative capabilities, gaining a nascent inner confidence, which includes espousing wider sustainable values. Research limitations/implications: The results reveal the scope and challenges for SMEs to adopt more sustainable practices, encompassing innovations and a broad set of capabilities. Further research points to the need to monitor benefits as well as inputs in evaluating sustainability improvements and to consider longitudinal business sustainability issues. Originality/value: The paper informs the emerging debate on sustainability in SMEs, providing a rich source of data to enhance the provision of business support and knowledge transfer activities, where a more holistic and customised approach is required to realise the real environmental and economic benefits accrued from implementing sustainable improvements

A modular hybrid simulation framework for complex manufacturing system design

For complex manufacturing systems, the current hybrid Agent-Based Modelling and Discrete Event Simulation (ABM–DES) frameworks are limited to component and system levels of representation and present a degree of static complexity to study optimal resource planning. To address these limitations, a modular hybrid simulation framework for complex manufacturing system design is presented. A manufacturing system with highly regulated and manual handling processes, composed of multiple repeating modules, is considered. In this framework, the concept of modular hybrid ABM–DES technique is introduced to demonstrate a novel simulation method using a dynamic system of parallel multi-agent discrete events. In this context, to create a modular model, the stochastic finite dynamical system is extended to allow the description of discrete event states inside the agent for manufacturing repeating modules (meso level). Moreover, dynamic complexity regarding uncertain processing time and resources is considered. This framework guides the user step-by-step through the system design and modular hybrid model. A real case study in the cell and gene therapy industry is conducted to test the validity of the framework. The simulation results are compared against the data from the studied case; excellent agreement with 1.038% error margin is found in terms of the company performance. The optimal resource planning and the uncertainty of the processing time for manufacturing phases (exo level), in the presence of dynamic complexity is calculated

Sports Retailinf in India: Opportunities, Constraints and Way Forward

Sports retail is a small but fast growing segment of modern retail in India. Recently, thecountry has been hosting many international sports and this has given a boost to thissector. Many foreign and domestic corporate retailers have entered sports retail. Sportsgoods manufacturing is a focus area in the Foreign Trade Policy (2009-2014) and thegovernment is taking a fresh look at the current foreign direct investment policy inretail.In the above context, this paper provides an overview of the sports retail sector in India.Specifically, it presents the different retail formats, consumer profile, retailers’ supplychain and sourcing. It also examines the retail and sports policies and their implicationsfor this segment of retail, analyses the barriers faced by this sector and suggests policyreforms.The study found that the policy of allowing 51 per cent FDI in the single-brand formathas not benefited this sector. The FDI ban on multi-brand retail is not an entry barriersince foreign retailers can establish their presence in India through other routes. Thestudy found that since this is a niche segment of retail, FDI would not have an adverseimpact on traditional retailers. It concludes that government should allow 51 per centFDI in multi-brand sports retail. This will increase sourcing from India, lead todiffusion of technology, proliferation of brands, investment in sports and sportspromotion, among others.Retail, Sports, Government Policy, Trade, Consumer Survey

The strategic integration of agile and lean supply

Lean supply is closely associated with enabling flow and the elimination of wasteful variation within the supply chain. However, lean operations depend on level scheduling and the growing need to accommodate variety and demand uncertainty has resulted in the emergence of the concept of agility. This paper explores the role of inventory and capacity in accommodating such variation and identifies how TRIZ separation principles and TOC tools may be combined in the integrated development of responsive and efficient supply chains. A detailed apparel industry case study is used to illustrate the application of these concepts and tools

Past, present and future of information and knowledge sharing in the construction industry: Towards semantic service-based e-construction

The paper reviews product data technology initiatives in the construction sector and provides a synthesis of related ICT industry needs. A comparison between (a) the data centric characteristics of Product Data Technology (PDT) and (b) ontology with a focus on semantics, is given, highlighting the pros and cons of each approach. The paper advocates the migration from data-centric application integration to ontology-based business process support, and proposes inter-enterprise collaboration architectures and frameworks based on semantic services, underpinned by ontology-based knowledge structures. The paper discusses the main reasons behind the low industry take up of product data technology, and proposes a preliminary roadmap for the wide industry diffusion of the proposed approach. In this respect, the paper stresses the value of adopting alliance-based modes of operation

Design Product-Service Systems by Using a Hybrid Approach: The Fashion Renting Business Model

As is known, sustainability issues represent one of the main challenges companies have to face. Among all, the fashion industry is considered one of the most impactful, both in terms of resource utilization and pollution. Fashion renting is a recent business model for companies to reduce their environmental footprint, following a circular economy approach. The study aims to develop and discuss the proposed hybrid approach to effectively support fashion companies in designing new business models, taking into account both the customer and the company perspective. On the one hand, agent-based modeling (ABM) allow us to represent customers’ behaviour and interaction. On the other hand, discrete event simulation (DES) paradigm is used to model fashion renting processes. Because customers’ attitude to that service reflects its successful implementation, motivators and barriers have been investigated to be included in the model. The practical implication is defining a model to support fashion companies in designing rental business models before implementing them. From a theoretical point of view, it overcomes the literature gap about the definition of a unique model for fashion renting, including processes, customers and interactions between agents. Follow-up research will include the presentation of simulation results