As the textile industry evolves from one singularly focused on price to one simultaneously focused on price, speed, quality and compliance, factories need to modernise or else be overwhelmed by these competing priorities, warns a new report by Smartex.
The report: The report, The Modern Textile Factory: Charting the Impact of a Shifting Textile Supply Chain Landscape, shares that modernising the textile supply chain is imperative to progress the industry's commercial and sustainability goals. The unregulated era of low-cost dominance is evolving, and the key to this transformation lies in the emergence of the Modern Textile Factory (MTF).
- The report addresses critical questions surrounding supply chain modernisation, factory data collection, communication systems between brands and their suppliers, and the need to elevate exemplary factories without penalising their razor-thin margins. It organises key takeaways into a clear narrative, balancing member experience and real-life examples.
The Highlights: The report highlights the main focus areas that any factory looking to modernise should look into. These include:
- Resource Efficient: Reduced cost, higher profits, reduced emissions. Anything that reduces wastage “is an easy implementation as everyone wins”. Modern Textile Factories will continually seek to improve their resource efficiency to lower their cost and the environmental impact of each unit produced.
- Real-Time Data Collection: For suppliers to stay competitive on speed, quality, price and compliance, objective, verifiable and real-time data is key. This type of “Golden Data” enables an accurate understanding of the full cost of a product, a factory’s free capacity, clear quality metrics and environmental and social impact.
- Data-Driven Decision: Once data is available, decision-making needs to switch from traditional to fact-based. In an era of balancing revenue-generating speed with quality-dependent profits, technology is a more reliable compass. Using data to make decisions will be a recurring theme within the best factories.
- Integrated with its Stakeholders: There is no benefit to working in silos. Factories need to understand what they’re buying (quality, quantity, material, origin) in order to most effectively process it and send it on — enriched both physically and digitally — to their customers. This is certainly a strength of vertically integrated facilities, which can connect more easily with other supply chain steps by linking up factory systems. As a result, they can have full visibility of the production process to review order progress, identify problem areas and continuously improve.
- High Quality, Safe Jobs: Modern Textile Factories will be safe, nontoxic and innovative places to work. Factory workers will work closely with smart machinery to achieve fast, efficient and high quality results. As a result of technology progression, workers will require constant training and upskilling to maximise the factory’s investment in technology and deliver products with the right mix of price, speed, quality and compliance.
ABOUT: Smartex is pioneering the integration of artificial intelligence into the textile industry, with a specific emphasis on achieving zero waste and traceability throughout material production — otherwise known as Tier 2, the highest impact step within the textile supply chain.
WHAT THEY SAID:
In this report, I have tried to organize the key takeaways into a clear narrative, balancing experienced and real-life examples. We don’t have all the answers - and neither does this report - but I feel strongly there are some very interesting ideas that could serve as real economic and logical arguments for change.
— Max Easton
Global Innovation Director
Smartex
To ensure high-quality data is collected, managed, and shared efficiently across the supply chain, robust and high-quality data systems must be established. This process requires close collaboration with supply chain actors and the implementation of financial and non-financial incentives to manage the escalating data requirements effectively.
— Dolly Vellanki
Innovation Associate
Fashion for Good
Textile supply chain traceability is a fundamental building block for a cleaner, more efficient, and more accountable fashion industry. It's driven by legislation but will also optimize business operations, making transparency the new norm.
— Lutz Walter
Secretary General
Textile ETP
