Digital Transformation in the Fashion Industry
by: Teresa Melo
Have you imagined buying a jacket that has never existed before? It is only on your phone or computer and it will be produced only when you buy it. Well, if you haven’t, welcome to this game-changer new reality! This is the future we are building at “Platforme”!
“Platforme” is a Portuguese fashion technology company established in 2015. Its technology brings a new way for people to perceive, customize, and buy across several channels. Keep reading to discover how.
As industrial engineers, we need to be aware of the world’s changes and industrial evolutions. The automotive industry started transitioning to digital workflows 20 years ago, and the fashion industry has fallen behind. Moreover, as IEMers we are the ones helping industries to become more digital, smarter, agile, and sustainable.
How can the fashion industry evolve with a digital mindset?
Sampling: the first step for a brand to create its merchandising collection.
Before any piece of clothing or shoes is produced on a large scale and ready to be sold, it goes through a workflow, starting with the creation of the samples. Thus, until the final samples are ideal, some weeks of back and forth shipping and imperfect physical samples have been wasted.
A new way of doing this tells us that instead of producing physical samples, it is possible to do everything digitally. One can perform millions of iterations and create as many samples as needed without spending logistical costs and time. This is called 3D Digital Product Creation (DPC).
It starts with capturing the visual identity of the materials by digitally creating its texture (material scan). Then, connect the pieces by getting the 2D files from designers, explore how it would fit by modeling it in 3D, and finally render it. This way we get the virtual sampling of the final product.
Simple, right? Plus, it seems so real. It is finally possible to reach the perfect samples and reach a 30 to 60% decrease in workload and oversampling. This process may also decrease lead times, time-to-market, and allows quick decision-making.
Sales and Production
Did you know that only around 60% of a brand’s collection is sold at full-price? Another 30% sold on discount, then outlets and about 10% is waste? This is happening due to overproduction. Nowadays, most business models in the fashion industry are oriented to first make stock and sell only after.
This pandemic has proven that online sales are possible and viable. Therefore, the game-changer part here by applying this 3D technology is, what you see in those websites would no longer be the photography of a physical product but instead its digital version. Or in stores, a customer would have access to a digital showroom, that would allow them to play with digital products, change colors, or even customize it. All this before the product is produced.
As innovations in 3D fashion design continue to evolve, virtual try-on, immersive experiences in AR, VR, and mixed reality will cause significant disruption in design, production, and selling over the next five years.
Production would also have to follow the pace, by starting to produce only after the order is made — make-to-order. However, here is where the big challenge appears, how to adapt the production in factories according to this business model? This question is yet to be answered! The full integration and alignment across the supply chain is the next big step. “Platforme”’s technology envisions this connection of the selling points, being online or physically with the production in the factories.
There is a huge call for action, a worldwide change in this industry, said to be the second most polluting in the world. We, as (future) industrial engineers are the ones thinking of how traditional industries can take the leap forward and move at the speed of innovation and digitalization.
Credit: 59th issue (2020) of the ESTIEM Magazine
You can now read the whole 59th issue on the ISSUU Platform!
