Introduction.
The purpose of this report is to provide something of value to the company and to investigate testing and production issues that will demonstrate problem-solving and knowledge required in the job and ability to apply appropriate concepts and analysis tools.
The paper provides an answer on testing and production rules in the UK and in Asia where standards seem to be more rigorous, unlike European – each garment requires more attention at the stage of production and after production.
Manufacturing is a very crucial part of fashion business – it identifies its success or failure. A wonderfully designed garment can inevitably fail and cause a loss to the company. An international retailer cannot sell goods without having approved testing certificates or if products fail production tests. Therefore, retailers are losing the time of sale. Production tests might take weeks, in some cases months, to be re-done or approved, shipping also takes up to 4 – 5 weeks which leads into missed sales.
This report aims to investigate how a UK retailer can adapt its production and quality control methods to trade effectively in China. The quality of goods may be controlled and reached by testing appropriate materials and fabrics using different types of testing instruments. Textile products should meet many physical, chemical and mechanical processes during pre-production and stress put on the product during post-production. It is crucial for a retailer to have a textile evaluation to ensure the goods are high-quality apparel and are suitable for demanding customer.
Methodology
The methodology includes content analysis such as studying materials and communication work that might be produced in forms of written documents, photos, audios and video formats. Selected documents have been used to investigate and to study records in a similar inappropriate businesslike way.
The use of content methodology is beneficial for the project due to its in-depth research of business phenomena in including collecting survey answers. The groundwork may include quantitative analysis using statistical methods or use qualitative methods to study the effects of content within the study piece. It may consist of data collection, organization study and judgement and display of statistics.
Another examination approach is an interview. An interview is a necessary conversation where questions are asked and answered are given. In general, an interview means a one-to-one discussion with one person takes part as an interviewer and the other person – interviewee. The interviewer asks questions and raises concerns while the interviewee responds. During the interview, both participants take parts and switch turns. The primary purpose of the interview is to get as much an interview. The interview allows information to shift in both ways at the same time. In this business report, interviews are used in various forms such as:
to investigate understanding of how retailers can adapt or change their products in the fashion business.
The use of the above methodology is highly essential. The method takes a significant place in writing business issue report to understand and clarify the fashion cycle and its processes. Investigated study cases helped to define the vast and cyclical process of research:
They not only help to consider and select obstacle and perks that have been selected for the report and weather questions and hypotheses may need re-think, but also to update the research proposal.
Analysis of the data
Garment checking methods.
Before we go into an investigation of how UK retailers can adapt its production and quality control methods to trade effectively in China. Let’s see what the processes of the fashion cycle are and what stages of production fashion industry consists of.
Nowadays, fashion retailers are increasing the number of collections available during the season. The product life has shifted from seasonal purchasing to a shorter period – radically, fashion evolves around ‘quick response’.
Fashion cycle is short a period -between 21 to 35 days- during which fashion exists. Therefore, a mass market retailer must not only react very quickly to new trends from Catwalks but also create a sufficient way for production. The below table presents five stages of the cycle.
Table 1. Fashion Cycle
Garment checking method is a term to describe the manufacturing of the garment – it is a very general and common task in the fashion industry. There are many stages of inspecting and checking the clothing. Testing is done to ensure the retailer that the product is ready to be distributed/dispatch to shops. Before producing a T-shirt, technicians make use of fibers, yarns and fabrics and then textile quality take a massive part in garment production. Essentially, garment checking method is used to test an actual structure – its quantity.
Nowadays, fashion retailers are increasing the number of collections available during the season. The product life has shifted from seasonal purchasing to a shorter period – fundamentally, fashion evolves around ‘quick response’. Ideally, all garments must pass performance test requirements to be salable. The responsible side of this stage is the supplier. The supplier has to make sure that the products meet all the requirements arranged by a retailer. Usually, both fabric and garments get tested before the product is delivered.
Textile mainly includes fashion fabrics such as clothing, shoes, hats socks, etc., decorative types – bedding, towels, curtains, etc.; and industrial textiles – handicrafts, ropes, belts, etc. Quality in textile refers to the total of many threads in the fabric that meets the needs and for the further use. The use of it explains the condition for their purposes such as atmospheric composition, temperature, humidity and moisture regain of the fabric itself, the degree of washing, radiation if the sun and many other conditions.
Some products require functional testing. For example, items that claim to be flame retardant, water-resistant and so on. Not only ‘smart’ wear – such as dry fit – needs have to have testing and additional testing; also, such simple pieces as t-shirts or jerseys these garments require specific dyestuff to withstand washing and to limit the shrinkage of fabric. (Grose, 2012)
Most of the companies work with third-party labs, so results do not get to be manipulated if done internally and to ensure that all the steps have been followed to produce the proper method. Also, the better and more expensive fabrics tend to pass quality control more often rather than cheap and poor-quality materials. Different tests are used for quality control.
Quality check for Fiber includes:
– Identification of the fibers
– grading the fibers
– Checking the fineness of fiber
– Testing for the strength and elongation
– Testing the maturity of the fiber and
– Testing the fiber length.
Quality check for Yarn includes:
– Yarn count
– The strength
– The hairiness
– The evenness and regularity
– The appearance and
– The twist per unit length of the yarn.
The fabric test includes:
– The fabric test includes testing the strength and elongation
– The number of ends per unit length
– The design and construction of the cloth
– The air permeability the fabric weight per unit length
– The resistance and recovery of the fabric
– The design and construction of the fabric
– Permeability and count of yarn used etc.
The above points give the manufacturer the procedure that needs to be followed step-by-step to evaluate the fabric and textile that will be appropriately used for production. Fabric test is the only way to make determinate whether the product is ready to sell.
However, not every company uses third-party labs for testing. Some mass market companies do not use third party labs, or they use them at the very final stage when the whole order has been made. In this case, all initial testing gets done internally in the factory which causes many issues at the last step of garment making.
With internal examinations, it can be concluded that internal tests are not 100% correct. Very often at first stages, the supplier assures the client that there is not and will not be any issues with the garment – they say there is no risk of failure and the garment will be made and dispatch on time. However, after the production order is completely done and one or two pieces get sent to a senior technician who says whether the product passed testing or failed. Most of the times the order of hundreds of t-shirts does not pass testing, which leads to missed sales and loss of money and profit.
Reasons why garments have poor quality and cannot pass test and production control to be exported to China
It is not a surprise that the Chinese market is very appealing for a Western retailer at the moment due to various reasons. One of the biggest reasons why is that Chinese GDP is more likely to continue to grow, which makes it one of the most appealing and promising fields areas for retail business in the nearest future. Since 2012, spending power in China increased significantly. The Chinese government is trying to satisfy domestic growing demand. Urban and rural households are experiencing growth in disposable income. With larger disposable income, people shifted from satisfying basic needs to pursuing a higher quality of life, which created an opportunity for the retail market. Only retail sales in revenue in the apparel and footwear reached about 120 billion RMB. E-commerce consumption also increased from 0.6% to 12.4 %.
‘China’s GDP rose to RMB 34.05 trillion in 2009, with a 9.11% increase from the previous year. Even though affected by economic recession, GDP per capita reached RMB 25,575 in 2009 (see figure 1). This acceleration of economic growth will further stimulate apparel consumption and expand the potential of China’s apparel market.’ Intracen.org. (2018).
The reasons for high-risk failures are quite simple. First of all, it is a lack of communication and time. When the supplier is located in one country and the retailer in another- there is always a lack of communication. In most of the mass market companies, there is the internal technician who works in the country where a business operates. This person usually communicates with the supplier and discusses all items that are due in the next few weeks. In an office where I had my internship, we had one internal London based technician who was in charge of all China departments and had to communicate and discuss all current and possible issues. However, her conversations with them were brief, due to lack of time; and, the styles they were considering were due in for the next season or at a very early stage of production. After she finished addressing issues with the supplier or third-party lab she was meant to talk to three different MAAs, which was very brief as well. It seems like an issue now, because garment production is a big step in garment making and requires attention to detail.
Another reason is the poor quality of raw materials. Retailers and factories tend to compromise quality for cheap cost. All the issues that the retailer faces such as cutting, sewing and finishing might happen because of the poor fabric and trims. The lowest cost or quality materials lead to defective order or even an increase of the cost of a certain quality level that needs to be maintained. As an example, a very cheap and poor-quality dye may be different to its original colour and mismatch the dye among other pieces, which will lead to high risk failure on Chinese market.
Conclusion, recommendations & limitations
Even though the Chinese market seems appealing and to a Western retailer, it seems like it has got many downfalls and restrictions on selling goods.
The retail market in China is very fragmented and consist of mainly small and medium-size retailers, chain stores, department stores and supermarkets. Only 5% of the retail in China are foreign investors. The Chinese market is not only very appealing to a new retailer who seeks an expansion but also full of restrictions.
All imported goods must conform to the mandatory standards of identification as well as instructions for use written in Chinese. There are nine codes relating to textile and clothing in China. (Hktdc.com, 2018)
They were established for general quality control, inspection and for facilitating third-party verification. If products fail to meet the safety requirements, they are not allowed to be manufactured in China, or sold or imported into China for retail purposes. ‘The standard applies to wearable and upholstery textile products produced, sold and used in China (including yarns, fabrics and their made-up products) using natural and human-made fibers as major raw materials, produced with textile processing technology and sewing manufacturing technology, to wear and upholstery. The following textiles for particular uses are not included: textiles for engineering projects, agriculture, safety and protection, rope and net, packaging, medicine, toys, ornaments and outdoor decorations.’ Intracen.org. (2018).
The above rules and regulations along with European/ UK customer and free trade seem UK retail market looks very ‘easy’ to sell. However, is it so?
According to CBI Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the retailer must comply with strict demands regarding safety and quality. Necessarily, the product must be safe for use and must have a restricted number of chemicals. The use of Persistent Organic Pollutants might affect the selling process as well if certain restricted materials were used in garment production. There are many rules, restrictions and regulations on the UK/ European market as well as in the Chinese or Asian market. Free trade and customers careless make it look like you do not have to follow any rules or regulations in order to be selling in the UK.
Many EU trade agreements adopt ‘double transformation’ rules of origin. EU spinning sector overall faces the challenge of the narrow fiber supply base in the EU and increasing costs of raw materials. Many trading partners that have trade agreements with the EU do not have the yarn spinning capacity. Europe FTS essentially creates double transformation rules of the origin. It merely ‘means that fibers and yarns may be produced anywhere, but each component starting with the fabric used to make the apparel must be formed within the free trade area.’ Lu, D. (2018). EU textile and apparel trade – four key things to know. That means that as long as the garment was made and produced in an FTS country, it is salable in the UK. Many UK retailers ignore poor testing or potential high-risk failures and sell the product especially if they ordered 1000 pieces or more.
Another reason is that European/ UK customer is not as strict as the same target customer in China on garment performance. Even though it has been a tough year for British retailers, the High Street is still far from dead. Consumers still spend their leisure time shopping. It is worth to note that even though many stores close daily on the High Street, it is not only because of the tough trading year, it is so because many people shifted their shopping habits and shop online instead. ‘Consumer confidence has risen, but growth in spending has slowed. Inflation has fallen as predicted, but so has wage growth, meaning that there has been no easing of pressure on consumers.’ (Deloitte United Kingdom, 2018)
European customers tend to spend less on a garment but shop more often than the customer in China.
Since Chinese disposable income has been increasing for the last few years, more and more people started having an opportunity of having good quality clothes and discovering the European retail market.
New Chinese customer wants to have a good piece for good money with good quality.
More and more people begin exploring European market every day. Those potential customers want to see value for money and not just clothing. Therefore, it makes it hard to satisfy their needs due to reduced production and customers’ careless in the UK.
There is a simple way of adapting production way in order to sell successfully in China. The retailer must produce good following CBI regulations in order not to be banned from the Chinese market.
Another recommendation is to bring manufacturing and production back to the country or limit number of foreign factories. UK retailers may also bring production back to the UK, where they will have to follow testing and production rules. It is widely known that local manufacturing is on the agenda for fashion brands across the UK due to uncertainty in the nearest future regarding EU trade rules and regulations. There are a few fashion retailers that acknowledge the benefits of production and are aware of what kind of benefits it brings. Unfortunately, for many companies, there is a lack of skilled workers. Manufacturing in the UK is not only ‘duty-free’ but also provides a fast and good quality fashion. Last but not least, it brings the opportunity to take back the control of their designs and manufacturing, create a supply chain and lower carbon emission.
To conclude, there are ways and possibilities for the UK retailers to be successful in the Chinese market by providing them good quality clothes for good money. The new production processes such as bringing back manufacturing may be more expensive for the retailer at the beginning, but due to the size of the Chinese market and their current disposable income it will become more beneficial for the retailer in the future.