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James F. Moore, who came up with the concept of a business ecosystem, defined it as ''an economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals—the organisms of the business world.'' As per his definition, all the stakeholders involved in the entire supply chain, from production to the delivery of the finished product, are a part of the business ecosystem.
The goods and services produced for the customers include suppliers, advertising agencies, distributors, sales and marketing professionals, logistics partners, competitors, government agencies, among many others. All these factors take part in the business ecosystem.
To understand the supply chain of the textile industry, first, we need to understand how the industry evolved.
Textile manufacturing started in Europe in the middle of the 18th century. In India, Bombay (now Mumbai) was the hub of textile manufacturing in the 1850s. Since cotton production happened in the Deccan plateau during the British Raj, it was easier to make Mumbai the hub. It was well-connected with Europe through the Arabian Sea, and the ships used to take a tour around Africa and through the Atlantic Ocean to reach England. Since the English had colonies across the globe, they could use the produce and finished goods from other colonies like South Africa on their way to Europe. Since the laborers worked for the British officers, they did not have a say in the entire process.
However, India took a robust approach to develop the manufacturing industry post-independence, and the textile industry started flourishing. The textile industry in India has been shaped by Bombay Dyeing, Arvind Ltd., Vardhman Textiles Ltd. Welspun India Ltd, Raymond Ltd. Trident Ltd and many government-funded textile industries in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Southern parts of India.
It is India’s second-largest employment generating sector and exports raw materials and finished goods to Europe, the USA, Canada, Russia, Australia, and many other countries.
As the textile industry started taking shape and textile mills were opened and operated, the need to have a robust supply chain became imperative. The following stakeholders are extremely important for the supply chain to run successfully:
The traders normally sell their produce to the distributors who have contact with multiple fashion houses in India and other countries. They supply the raw materials (silk, cotton) to the textile mills to produce fabric.
Suppliers, like Fashinza, have tie-ups with big textile mills, and they procure various types of yarns for the fashion houses and retail brands. They also procure other accessories for garment manufacturing companies like needles, threads, buttons, zippers, lace, satin ribbons, etc.
They also need to process the invoice, and the accounts payables and accounts receivables teams need to work in tandem with the procurement teams and production teams to ensure that the payments to the suppliers are on time. The payments from the fashion houses have to be recovered on time so that the inflow of cash is not impacted.
For example, a saree manufacturing unit specializing in chikankari or zardozi can venture into Banarasi or Pochampalli variants. However, if they launch a lingerie line without creating the appropriate brand image, consumers often will not go for those items.
The social media teams need to analyze the buying patterns of the online customers and ensure that conversion rates improve with time. The online portal needs to have a strong customer support team to handle the customer queries about their purchases and returns. The payment gateways must be secure and robust, and return policies should be simple.
Unfortunately, the farming and unorganized sector does not enjoy the benefits of the human resources teams in India. The government needs to look into these challenges and ensure that all kinds of workers receive the benefits of the public health system channelized through the ESI (Employee State Insurance) network and public social security channelized through the EPFO (Employee Provident Fund Organization).
In textile mills, the quality assurance teams ensure that they pass only those yarns which meet all the quality control parameters. The thickness of threads, tenacity of the yarn, fastness of the color, etc., are meticulously checked before the fabric is sent to the garment manufacturing units and retail stores.
The same thing applies to garment manufacturing units. If the garments are not made per the designs specified by the designing teams, or the size is not as per the specifications, the clients will reject the entire lot. The quality control teams check the samples regularly to ensure that defects are minimized, and the spacing for buttons and other accessories are followed as per the guidelines.
Textile patterns and garment designs and patterns get popular seasonally, and the companies which do successful pattern analysis harvest the benefits in terms of profits.
Leading fashion brands like Jockey, Levi’s, Louis Vuitton, Nike spend a lot of time and energy on pattern analysis. They hire the best fashion designers: Kanye West, Virgil Abloh, Dan Weinberg.
In today’s world of globalization, an apparel manufacturer needs to have a robust supply chain. Fashinza will be your reliable partner in converting your designs to garments and getting them delivered to your business partners. We have liaised with multiple ethical textile mills to cater to your needs for various kinds of fabrics.