eBIZ-TCF

In 2006 the EU-27 textile & clothing sector had a turnover of about 207 billion Euros. It accounts for 7.6% of all industrial employment and 4.2% of the added value employing about 2.6 million persons in nearly 160.000 firms. Opposite to other industries, where consolidation has advanced, the textile and clothing sector has historically been and still is very fragmented with SMEs making up the vast majority of the enterprises involved.

The sector is an SME-intensive one with only a few large sector champions which benefit from sufficient value chain access up to the end consumer. Most manufacturing stage companies have therefore relatively limited access and visibility of current consumer needs and market trends. Small size of firms and lack of related human and financial capacity also act as important barriers to technology access. This has led to a proliferation of proprietary standards adopted by larger companies. In addition, end-to-end cooperation and eBusiness transactions have remained largely unexploited.

The textile-clothing sector today features:

• an overproduction of offer, with steadily increasing imports based on long lead time offshore production and a slight decrease in the clothing spending of households relative to other consumer spending categories. Only companies which are able to timely detect and satisfy real demand of the final consumer can remain competitive and maintain or increase their market shares.
• the increasing need for customisation or personalisation of the product, as well as related supply chain capacities.
• the widespread use of subcontracting: subcontractors can be located in the same region, in other EU countries as well as in neighbouring or other countries (outward processing). A great number of subcontracting companies work on daily orders and therefore register substantial productivity losses. This situation could be improved considerably if available information was timely transmitted to all involved subcontractors.

Therefore, the accurate & up-to-date knowledge and exchange of information between partners, through a seamless electronic data-flow, are key-factors for success at both firm’s and sector’s level. This would allow for an appropriate adaptation to the fast changing market requirements, more differentiation and customisation of products and for a short lead time of the products.

The supply chain of the Textile/Clothing sector is characterized by a high complexity (a lot of steps from the raw material to the product in the shop) and by a high degree of dispersion among the many actors. As a consequence a widespread variety of legacy systems exists along the supply chain with related poor communicational and interoperability capacities.

A technological approach shared, supported and affordable by the large as well as by the medium and small sized companies could enable a real value chain co-operation in the textile/clothing sector.

For a sector dominated by SMEs, the migration to a standardised, well accepted framework may prove decisive for the easy integration of those companies to the global eBusiness environment. More specifically medium term benefits are expected to be:

• Fast and accurate information exchanges
• Improved flexibility and service
• Improved planning of operations
• Improved inter-sectoral communication – flows

Longer term benefits may include the establishment of new business models and practices in the industry and an improved capacity of smaller companies to successfully compete in global markets.