[TC]² Bi-Weekly Technology Communicator

[TC]² Seminar Offering

Intro to Apparel Manufacturing – September 22-26

[TC]²’s best attended in-house seminar, Intro to Apparel Manufacturing, offers an overview of the entire manufacturing process with numerous hands-on exercises. Topics covered include: textile fundamentals, fiber formation and fabric design, fabric characteristics, material utilization, spreading and cutting theories, and much more. Key apparel terms and concepts are featured, along with standard terminology for seam and stitch formations.

Don’t miss this opportunity to establish common ground for all members of the supply chain. Attending this seminar will allow fabric and trim suppliers to better understand their customer needs and brands and retailers will recognize not only the manufacturing constraints but also the cost drivers within the design-manufacture-delivery process. Newcomers to manufacturing can grasp a firm understanding of the entire undertaking in less than a week.

The seminar will be presented at [TC]²'s facility at 5651 Dillard Drive, Cary, NC.

For additional information or to register, contact Elizabeth Salisbury at 919.653.3507, or use our contact form.

To download or print a copy of [TC]²’s seminar offerings for 2008, click here (pdf).

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[TC]² and AATCC Announce Additional Speakers

Innovative Textile Printing: Green & Global Symposium
September 17-19, 2008
Sheraton Imperial Hotel, RTP - Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina

[TC]² and AATCC have come together to produce Innovative Textile Printing: Green & Global, a special educational event that brings together experts in both digital and conventional textile printing, as well as colorant chemistry, fibers, product development, and color communication. The program will take place September 17-19 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in the Research Triangle Park region of the Raleigh/Durham, NC area. 

Confirmed speakers include: Art Allen, Sensient; Mary Ankeny, Cotton Incorporated; Frank Berninger, Dystar; Dr. Henry Boyter, ITT; JeongGook Cho, Yuhan Kimberly; David Clark, Huntsman Textile Effects; Mitch Cole, Pantone; Stephen Fraser, Spoonflower; Marci Kinter, SGIA; Danielle Lacastro, First2Print; Ann Laidlaw, X-Rite; Jesse Leskanic, Cheran Digital; Richard Malakowski, Cranston Print Works; Tom McCall, CloverTex; Karen McGhee, American Eagle; Rob Morskate, Osiris Digital Prints; Jos Notermans, Stork Digital; Barry Silevitch, Brother International; Steve Smith, DPInnovations; Tom Stutts, DataColor; Hitoshi Ujiie, Philadelphia University; Fernando Vazquez, Dow Corning; and Patty Williams, IT Strategies; in addition to [TC]²’s Dr. Michael Fralix and Kerry King.

On September 19th, attendees will have the opportunity to tour technology demonstration areas at both Cotton Incorporated and [TC]².

Click here to view the conference brochure, or for conference registration, click here.

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Sustainable Apparel Products: Defined and Flourishing

By Kim Anderson, [TC]²

Manufacturers and marketers of all kinds—from tiny boutiques to huge mass-market chains—are seeking to identify themselves as sustainable. There is pressure throughout the supply chain to quickly develop new technologies and systems that will demonstrate an environmentally and socially conscious commitment. However, lack of standards and regulations and a proliferation of claims and labels leaves room for very broad interpretations of sustainable apparel. And companies definitely want to avoid “greenwashing”—the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

Many companies find it difficult to define just what a sustainable product is. According to the Sustainable Products Corporation, sustainable products are those products that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health, welfare, and the environment over their full commercial cycle—from the extraction of raw materials to final disposition.

In an article which recently appeared in Just-style, the greening of the apparel industry is a significant and evolving trend that is likely to affect every facet of this enormous global industry. The article goes on to say that at the consumer and retail level, the trend is evident in that a growing number of designers, manufacturers and marketers are making sustainable claims. “Sustainable apparel” is an umbrella concept that includes some or all of these practices:

• Use of certified organic natural fibers (wool, cotton and linen)
• Use of highly renewable fibers (bamboo, soy)
• Use of low-impact synthetic or recycled fibers
• Use of non-toxic or reduced-toxicity fiber processes and treatments
• Use of low-impact or natural dyes
• Design and color choices aimed at longevity rather than planned obsolescence
• Fair trade, ethical labor practices, and elimination of child labor and other
  exploitation
• Reduced energy use throughout the product life cycle
• Minimal or environmentally appropriate packaging

Some apparel companies are successfully offering products that fall into one or more of the above categories.

UNDER-THE-CANOPY, http://www.underthecanopy.com  
Under-the-Canopy® was started in 1996 in Boca Raton, Florida. Their mission is “to make a positive impact on the future of the planet by creating a product line that utilizes the Earth's resources in an eco-friendly, sustainable manner.” The company offers high quality fashion apparel for women, men and children, bed and bath products, footwear and accessories. Products are constructed with 100% organic and/or sustainable fibers such as soy, bamboo, ingeo (corn), seaweed, organic linen and Tencel®.

Under-the-Canopy uses only natural dyes from vegetable and mineral sources, clay-dyes and organic plant dyes. The company's primary dye factory does not burn fossil fuels. Instead, it is powered by rice husks.

Under-the-Canopy was recently awarded the Certified Fair Trade designation for its India-based factory and donates proceeds from its sales to support Fair Trade programs.

KEE-KA, http://www.kee-ka.com
Kee-Ka, a name inspired by the sweet babbling of infants, is located in Brooklyn, New York. Their mission is to “protect the future of the world that our children will inherit.” They offer fashionable baby, toddler and pet apparel produced in socially and ecologically responsible ways. They use100% certified organic cotton and low-impact dyes. They also work with Fair Trade and Fair Wage suppliers around the world. Kee-Ka’s products are packaged in award-winning, ready-to-mail gift boxes made from recycled paper.

Kee-Ka gives back through product donations. In 2007, Kee-Ka and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital teamed up to create a collection of organic cotton products featuring the artwork of young patients with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

UNDER THE NILE, http://www.underthenile.com
Janice Masoud, a consummate clothing designer, started Under the Nile when her children began experiencing allergic reactions to their clothes. Located in Silicon Valley, California, Under the Nile offers baby, infant, toddler and kids clothing constructed with 100% organic cotton. The company also offers a wide variety of toys that are made of the highest quality 100% organic Egyptian cotton, naturally dyed and stuffed with organic cotton. The toys are safe for babies to chew because toxic materials found in traditional petroleum-based man-made fibers are eliminated. Under the Nile also offers blankets, mats and diapers all constructed with 100% organic cotton.

Masoud is committed to Fair Trade and to being socially responsible. The company provides full education from kindergarten through high school for its workers' children as well as for all children in the communities in Egypt where the company operates.

SIMPLY FIDO, http://www.simplyfido.com
The goal at Simply Fido™ is to provide a healthier alternative to the everyday products that surround your furry best friend. Dog toys are constructed with unbleached, untreated and unprocessed organic cotton. Only natural extracts from plants and minerals, such as gardenia seed, clove and chestnut bur are used to dye the fibers.

At Simply Fido they believe that the production of organic products does not contribute to environmental pollutants and hazardous waste whereas non-organic production processes may cause damage to natural ecosystems including contamination in the water due to pesticide residue and chemicals. Toys come in a variety of sizes and shapes including lizards, furry animals and bones.

Two other notable companies are American Apparel with its Sustainable Edition brand using natural fibers and dyes.  www.americanapparelorganics.com  and Timberland with their Howies and Earthkeepers brands. Many of the Timberland products carry a Green Index Rating that indicates the amount of sustainable, reusable materials and processes used in the products.www.timberland.com .

References
1. Sustainability and the Bottom Line. Building Operating Management. May 2002. http://mts.sustainableproducts.com/standards.htm
2. http://www.sustainableproducts.com/susproddef.html.

To read more articles related to Sustainability and Environment, visit our newsletter archive.

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[TC]² Activity
[TC]²’s Industry Services Group Expands its “Lean” Service Offerings to Include
Product Development and Sourcing

By Tim Curran and Will Duncan, [TC]²

For over 15 years [TC]² has been helping companies to embrace Lean business practices within manufacturing. Hundreds of companies have benefited from increased productivity levels, throughput times of hours versus weeks, drastically reduced work-in-process, and greatly  improved quality. Manufacturers have struggled for years to improve their order response time and we have been able to successfully help companies to replenish orders from manufacturing in days. Many of these same companies requesting this level of service from manufacturers are the same ones that take more than a year to develop new products and bring them to market. [TC]² is now helping brands and retailers to embrace Lean business practices by conducting Business Process Analysis in order to identify and eliminate non-value added activities and thus streamline the Product Development and Product Sourcing cycles.  

The purpose of Business Process Analysis is to thoroughly document the processes, procedures, and technologies currently in place, identify issues and opportunities for improvement, and create a road map for implementing positive changes. [TC]²’s methodology for achieving this is driven by mapping process timelines and stakeholders rather than creating linear flow-charts. [TC]²’s approach focuses on task ownership and creates a common language for the entire implementation team. By using this approach in Product Development and in Sourcing Operations, [TC]² has helped customers realize the following benefits:

• Shortened product development cycle time
• Reduced development costs by eliminating waste
• Improved manufacturability/profitability of final product
• Improved product quality
• Facilitated visibility throughout the value chain

Every day new technologies are emerging to assist with this process.  One company that [TC]² is working with to help implement software solutions to enable a Lean supply chain is New Generation Computing, (NGC).  NGC’s software offering supports almost every aspect of the soft goods supply chain; from concept development through delivery to the distribution center.  With any major software implementation, all of the business critical processes must be aligned in order to take full advantage of the technology investment.  [TC]² supports NGC’s Professional Services with the implementation from the initial process interviews, through training and complete rollout. 
    
 In today’s apparel and sewn products industries, speed to market is more important than ever – yet harder to achieve. Companies are managing more styles in a shorter period of time, working with factories halfway across the globe. By implementing a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, a company can increase speed and efficiency, while gaining visibility into every step of the design and production process. PLM has quickly become a key technology enabling brands and retailers to collaborate with their suppliers and factories, and consequently get their products to market faster and much more efficiently.

Improve your Speed to Market with PLM
PLM provides real-time information accessible to everyone involved in a product’s lifecycle.  Instant access to the most updated information increases visibility throughout each step, enabling brands and retailers to get their product from design concept to the retail floor in the shortest possible period of time.  Armed with the right information, companies can focus on “extinguishing the sparks” instead of fighting fires down the line.  As a result, brands and retailers can gain precious time in the design and production process and begin designing closer to the trends – ensuring they’re delivering the products that consumers really want.

Don’t Forget the Back End
For total visibility throughout the complete supply chain, PLM systems should also include the back end of sourcing, production and landing the goods. Especially with the geographic and cultural barriers involved with using factories scattered around the globe, real-time communication and visibility can help ensure that companies deliver the right products to the right places at the right time, with higher quality than ever before. A PLM system enables companies to maximize full-price sales, with fewer markdowns for retailers and fewer returns for apparel companies. 

NGC and e-PLM
One PLM solution available is e-PLM from NGC® (New Generation Computing®), which is a collaborative web-based model encompassing the entire product lifecycle, from initial product design to receipt of finished goods at the Distribution Center. With e-PLM, customers have access to a system that serves as an information and communications portal for everyone in the apparel supply chain: retailers, brand managers, contractors, agents, brokers, manufacturers, and logistics providers. Companies can use e-PLM to organize and share common business processes and product information with design, product development, planning, engineering, manufacturing and sourcing suppliers around the world.

NGC’s e-PLM is part of a comprehensive suite of software solutions that have helped many leading companies gain real-time visibility, improve speed to market and enhance quality control throughout their supply chain.  The 2007 release of e-PLM includes improved security options, enhanced line planning functionality, and new sample analysis reporting capabilities, among other improved features—all with out-of-the-box functionality. NGC is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Software Inc.  For more information, visit www.ngcsoftware.com.

The Industry Services Division of [TC]² provides consulting services in many areas of the industry around the globe. Often beginning with a Plant Assessment and/or a Business Process Analysis, the Industry Services team provides on-site training and development in Lean Practices and Organizational Culture, as well as Industrial Engineering.  For further information on these and other valued services, please contact Will Duncan at (919) 653-3505 or via our contact form.

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Member Profile - SPESA

By Karen Davis, [TC]²

SPESA (the Sewn Products Equipment & Suppliers of the Americas) is a leading trade association devoted to the advancement of suppliers of sewn products machinery, ancillary equipment, parts, services, and technology for the global sewn products industry. The organization was formed in 1990 by industry leaders, and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, with membership throughout the U.S. as well as internationally. Association board members and officers are elected annually and are selected from its membership ranks.

Planning is underway for the triennial event, SPESA Expo 2010, the premier event for the Americas, and the most comprehensive trade show for the sewn products industry. SPESA Expo will co-locate with the ATME-I/MEGATEX and Techtextil North America shows at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, May 18-20, 2010.

SPESA Expo 2010 will cover every aspect of the global sewn products concept-to-delivery lifecycle, from design to product development, engineering to pre-production, sourcing to production, and logistics to distribution. The event will provide valuable information and insight for every sewn products company, including contractors, manufacturers, brands, agents, and retailers.

Included in the 3-day event is a full range of educational programs that will support and expand attendees’ use and knowledge of current methodologies.

[TC]² will be coordinating another Cool Zone for SPESA Expo 2010. At the 2007 event in Miami, fifteen suppliers exhibited an array of products showcasing leading edge technologies that are in support of a totally digital supply chain. An expanded Cool Zone will feature the latest in digital equipment designed to keep products in a virtual format until the conversion to a final product is accomplished.

SPESA collaborates with other industry organizations, most recently working with the SEAMS Association to present a leadership and networking conference this past April. The combined venue offered a broad spectrum of topics and provided many opportunities for attendees to create new business relationships and to reinforce older alliances.

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Important Dates

September

October

For detailed information about industry events, visit www.techexchange.com

Thanks to the techexchange site sponsors
Apparel Magazine, Gerber Technology, Lawson, Lectra, Methods Workshop and Reach Technologies.

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A Look Ahead in the Newsletter



Intermoda
SEAMS Fall Meeting

View previous editions of this newsletter

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[TC]²
5651 Dillard Drive
Cary , NC 27518
www.tc2.com
Phone: 919-380-2156
Fax: 919-380-2181

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