FASHION INDUSTRY

Apparel Industry Presentation

The apparel industry transforms fabrics produced by textile manufacturers into clothing and accessories that fill the Nation's retail stores. By cutting and sewing fabrics or other materials, such as leather, rubberized fabrics, plastics, and furs, this industry help to keep us warm, dry, and in style.

The apparel industry traditionally has consisted mostly of production workers who performed the cutting and sewing functions in an assembly line. This industry remains a labor-intensive one, despite advances in technology and workplace practices. Although many workers still perform this work in the United States and Europe, the industry is increasingly opening factories in other countries or contracting out its production work to foreign suppliers to take advantage of other countries' lower labor costs.

A growing number of American and European apparel manufacturers are performing only the entrepreneurial functions involved in apparel manufacturing. These include buying raw materials, designing clothes and accessories and preparing samples, arranging for the production and distribution of the apparel, and marketing the finished product.

Many of the production workers work in teams, in which garments are made by a group of sewing machine operators organized into a production "module." Each operator in a module is trained to perform nearly all of the functions required to assemble a garment.

Technology affecting the apparel industry includes computerized equipment and material transport systems. Computers and computer-controlled equipment aid in many functions, such as design, patternmaking, and cutting. Wider looms, more computerized equipment, and the increasing use of robotics to move material within the plant are other technologies recently designed to make the production plant more efficient.

One of the best assets of this industry is its closeness to the market and its ability to react to changes in fashion more quickly than other industries. Also, as retailers consolidate and become more cost conscious, they are requiring more apparel manufacturers to move towards a just-in-time delivery system, in which purchased apparel items are quickly replaced by the manufacturer rather than from a large inventory kept by the retailer. Through electronic data interchange-mainly using barcodes-information is quickly communicated to the manufacturers, providing information not only on inventory, but also about the desires of the public for fashion items.

Apparel firms have responded to growing competition by merging and moving into the retail market. They are also contracting out functions in addition to the production of garments-for example, the warehousing and order fulfillment functions-so that they can concentrate on their strengths of design and marketing. Such changes may help the apparel manufacturing industry to continue to supply the Nation's consumers with garments at acceptable cost and thus meet the growing competition.

Garment Production Process

The Fashion Designer creates ideas for a range of products including coats, suits, dresses, hats, and underwear. Fashion designers begin the process by making rough sketches of garments or accessories, often using computer-assisted design (CAD) software. This software prints detailed designs from a computer drawing. It can also store fashion styles and colors that can be accessed and easily changed. The Pattern Designer then creates the pattern pieces that will be used to construct the finished garment and as well often using computer-assisted design (CAD) software. They measure and draw pattern pieces to actual size on paper. Then, they use these pieces to measure and cut pattern pieces in a sample fabric. The pattern pieces are sewn together and fitted on a model. Fashion Designers and Pattern Designers examine the sample garment and make changes until they get the effect they want.

When the samples are ready and before sewing can begin, pattern pieces must be made, layouts determined, and fabric cut. Fabric and apparel patternmakers create the "blueprint" or pattern pieces for a particular apparel design. This often involves "grading," or adjusting the pieces for different sized garments. Grading once was a time-consuming job, but now it is quickly completed with the aid of a computer. Markers determine the best arrangement of pattern pieces to minimize wasted fabric. Traditionally, markers judged the best arrangement of pieces by eye; today, computers quickly help to determine the best layout.

The layout arrangement is then given to cutters. In less automated companies, cutters may use electric knives or cutting machines to cut pattern pieces. In more automated facilities, markers electronically send the layout to a computer-controlled cutting machine, and textile cutting machine setters, operators, and tenders monitor the machine's work.

Sewing machine operators assemble or finish clothes. Most sewing functions are specialized and require the operator to receive specific training. Although operators specialize in one function, the trend toward cross-training requires them to broaden their skills. Team assemblers perform all of the assembly tasks assigned to their team, rotating through the different tasks, rather than specializing in a single task. They also may decide how the work is to be assigned and how different tasks are to be performed.

Pressers receive a garment after it has been assembled. Pressers eliminate wrinkles and give shape to finished products. Most pressers use specially formed, foot-controlled pressing machines to perform their duties. Some pressing machines now have the steam and pressure controlled by computers. Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers and weighers inspect the finished product to ensure consistency and quality.

Fashion Industry Tendencies

Changing trade regulations are the single most important factor influencing future employment patterns in the Fashion Industry. Because the apparel industry is labor-intensive, it is especially vulnerable to import competition from nations in which workers receive lower wages. The protection provided to the domestic apparel industry over the past two decades will be significantly reduced in coming years, permitting more apparel imports. For example, since 2004, all quotas for apparel and textile products are lifted among members of the World Trade Organization, which includes most U.S. trading partners, and, in particular, China. Because many U.S. and European firms continue to move their assembly operations to low-wage countries, this trend is likely to affect the jobs of lower skilled machine operators most severely. It will not, however, have as adverse an effect on the demand for some of the presewing functions, such as designing and cutting, because much of the apparel are still designed and cut in the United States and Europe.

New technology will increase the apparel industry's productivity, but, unlike other industries, the apparel industry is likely to remain labor intensive. The variability of cloth and the intricacy of the cuts and seams of the assembly process have been difficult to automate. Machine operators, therefore, will continue to perform most sewing tasks, and automated sewing will be limited to simple functions. In some cases, however, computerized sewing machines will increase the productivity of operators and reduce required training time.

Technology also is increasing the productivity of workers who perform other functions, such as designing, marking, cutting, and pressing. Computers and automated machinery will continue to raise productivity and reduce the demand for workers in these areas, but the decline will be moderated by growth in demand for the services of these workers generated by offshore assembly sites.

The trend today is for apparel firms to merge or consolidate to remain competitive. In the future, the apparel industry will be dominated by highly efficient, profitable organizations that have developed their dominance through well-recognized strategies that enable them to be among the lowest cost producers of apparel.