Contemporary Issues in Fashion - Essay Example

Contemporary Issues in Fashion . Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Opportunities for the Industry’s Sustainability 4 Low carbon Emission 4 Zero Waste Materials 5 Recyclable Materials 6 Long Product Life Cycle and 3D Printing 7 Challenges 8 Use of Plastic and Sustainability Issue 8 Huge Energy Consumption 9 Licensing and IP Issues 9 Impact 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Global fashion industry is capitalizing on potential business operation opportunities that have been created due to globalization and technological advancements. In addition, growing demand for sustainable production of clothes and other apparel products is motivating the manufacturers to use technologically advanced processes and instruments to manufacture and design trendy clothes. Earlier, the manufacturers used traditional way to manufacture clothes. This traditional production process was time-consuming as well as costly. Now-a-days, manufacturers want to reduce their efforts in manufacturing process. On the other hand, the global consumers are also seeking for the consumption of high quality and trendy clothes. This particular growing demand has brought the concept of 3D printing process in the fashion industry to manufacture fashion goods according to the current market trend. The concept of eco-friendly fashion designing and manufacturing process has been revolved quite significantly. Several fashion designers and manufacturers are trying to develop eco-friendly clothes and apparel products considering the growing demand for eco-friendly apparel products among the consumers. Therefore, the manufacturers of 3D printed clothes are helping the industry to bring sustainability. 3D printing on clothes has both opportunities and challenges in the sustainability of the fashion industry. This particular movement may has to face some possible future challenges regarding the sustainability of the fashion industry. This particular essay will discuss the potential change in the sustainability of the fashion industry considering the use of 3D printing. The discussion will be backed by thorough analysis and examples. Discussion Advanced 3D printing process has brought sustainability in the global fashion industry in several ways (Wijk and Wijk, 2015, p.21). It is highly important to discuss about some basic aspects of the use of 3D printing process before going into the detailed discussion. Initially, the concept of 3D printing process was considered as the production of several unique plastic models. In an addition to it, several significant strides of fibre had been used for the production of the printed clothing materials (Namwamba, 2005, p.68). Now-a-days, several advanced technological tools and software applications have been used in the 3D printing process (Follett, 2014, p.183). 3D printing technological process can be considered as an eco-friendly sustainable manufacturing process in the fashion industry that enhances effective recycling and zero waste management process. 3D printing technology has been considered as one of the most important concepts that have been brought into the fashion industry (Pique and Chrisey, 2002, p.419). There are several opportunities as well as threats of the use of 3D printing process in the sustainability of the fashion industry. These are mentioned below. Opportunities for the Industry’s Sustainability The potential future opportunities of 3D printing process in the sustainability of the global fashion industry have been discussed below. Low carbon Emission Sustainability of the manufacturing process of clothes can be measured through the percentage of carbon emission during the production time. However, low carbon emission during the manufacturing process is the major strength of the use of 3D printing technology (McKinon, Browne and Whitering, 2015, p.20). First of all, the use of 3D printers in the fashion manufacturing process generally reduces the production time as well as the production cost. Several organizations are trying to use this 3D printing technology in the manufacturing process to maintain sustainability as low carbon emission can enhance great environmental sustainability (Blowfield and Johnson, 2013, p.179). In an addition to it, several organizations are seeking for sustainable business operation processes to produce and sell clothes in order to gain effective support from the stakeholders including government, suppliers, distributers and consumers (Krause, 1989, p.3). Designers need to focus on effective green sustainable strategies to manufacture clothes with the help of new 3D printing technology. This application and concept has helped the cloth manufacturers to develop effective sustainable manufacturing process for the long run (Dumas, 2013, p.256). Zero Waste Materials Higher degree of production wastage in the post-manufacturing process can be considered as a critical challenge for the manufacturers of the apparel products. High production wastage generally increases the production cost of the manufacturers and designers. On the other hand, it is also true that several traditional stitching processes generally force the manufacturers or designers to charge extra custom price (Gwit and Rissanen, 2012, p.9). It ultimately affects the purchasing power of the consumers. Now-a-days, emergence of 3D printing technology in the fashion industry has helped designers and manufacturers to use required strides for a particular printing on a particular apparel product. In an addition to it, there are several benefits of using this 3D printing process. It improves inventory management process as the designers can use a particular printing design of a cloth on another cloth in case of limited sell of the products (Gibb, 2014, p.28). This can be considered as one of the important and effective benefits of 3D printing process in the fashion industry. Several organizations also prefer to stock and sell 3D Printed clothes considering the growing demand and trend for these products. It is considered as one of the effective long-term opportunities of the use of 3D printing process (Willard and Hitchcock, 2015, p.2). Most importantly, effective zero solid waste management process will help the manufacturers as well as fashion designers to maintain industry sustainability for long run (Lehmann and Crocker, 2013, p.3). Recyclable Materials The manufacturers of clothes can recycle and use 3D printed apparel materials in future quite significantly. The organizations can use this as a short-term opportunity for the individual business development process (Srivatsan and Sudarshan, 2015, p.47). Effective recycling process generally enhances social and environmental sustainability. There are several strategies of the use of 3D printing in the manufacturing process. Several popular apparel stores, such as Tesco Plc, Marks and Spencer’s and Wall-Mart used to keep and sell these types of recycled 3D printed apparel products (Bathgate, 2013, p.18). It is true that, all the fashion outlets fail to sell all of their available products in the warehouse and inventory. Therefore, the unsold clothes and other apparel materials are used in the reversed inventory management and warehousing process. According to this process, the clothes and used prints are re-used in the production of other new products (Good Nate, 2015, p.1). It generally reduces the cost of additional fabrics and printings that would have been used on those new products. Therefore, it can be stated that people used to focus on consumption of these products as these are the consequences of sustainable production process (Nayak, 2015, p.8). Strong and effective recycling of 3D printing materials can definitely maintain the sustainability aspect of global fashion industry. On the other hand, these types of designers and manufacturers generally get huge support from government and other important stakeholders to produce these types of eco-friendly apparel products. In an addition to it, use of 3D printers in manufacturing process generally helps the designers as well as the manufacturers to implement effective cost and time reduction strategy as it reduces outsourcing cost and overall business operation time (Barnatt, 2014, p.57). Therefore, it should be considered as an effective opportunity in the sustainability for short-term. Long Product Life Cycle and 3D Printing Product life cycle can be considered as one of the important aspects of any product. It is true that, organizations generally focus on effective customer service, customer satisfaction and customer retention process through the maintenance of effective quality of the products (Kumar, 2012, p.342). Therefore, it is highly important for the manufacturers as well as the designers of the products to maintain effective product quality in order to maintain the strong customer base of the organization. High quality printers with advanced printing process generally help the fashion manufacturing and designing organizations to maintain effective quality of the products as it increases the life-cycle and warranty of the apparel products (Crawford, 2010, p.270). It is true that, several organizations are trying to offer high quality 3D printed clothes for the customers in order to gain effective customer attention towards their brands. For example, Manufacturing of 3D printed shoe hills can be considered as an effective innovation in the fashion industry (Wilkins and Carolin, 2012, p.68). This particular designing process generally increases the life-cycle of a shoe. This particular production process comes under the jewellery designing segment. It has become one of the important opportunities for the other clothing segments to maintain sustainability as long product life cycle saves energy consumption level and amount of production cost. . Moreover, effective cost reduction and significant recycling can help the 3D printing process to provide effective opportunity for the designers and manufacturers in the global fashion industry (Lacy, 2015, p.44). Improvement of product life cycle of clothes by using 3D printing technology can be considered as a short-term opportunity for the manufacturers to maintain sustainability of the global fashion industry. Challenges It is clear from the above section that 3D printing technology is giving some potential opportunities to fashion designers and manufacturers to maintain overall industry sustainability. However, the industry used to face some sustainability challenges due to the use of 3D printing technology in the manufacturing process of apparel product. The short-term and the long-term challenges are discussed below. Use of Plastic and Sustainability Issue Use of plastics in manufacturing processes has become one of the major social concerns for the stakeholders. It is true that, governments of several countries have restricted the use of plastics in the manufacturing process of any product (Unhelkar, 2011, p.18). However, it has been identified that several manufacturers and designers use recyclable plastics in the production of clothes and other apparel products while creating 3D prints (Fandel, 2013, p.194). It is considered as a critical threat as use of plastic has been proven to be harmful for the health of human beings (Sadler, 2012, p.76). Plastics can be considered as bio-degradable products. The chemical reaction of plastics with air molecules can cause air pollution (Schaschke, 2014, p.290). It is the major reason behind several dangerous diseases of people. Therefore, 3D printing process has faced several social as well as legal challenges in different countries due to the environmental concerns of the use of plastics (Barazani, 1978, p.71). Huge Energy Consumption Sustainability of manufacturing process of a particular product can be considered through the unit of consumption of power. It is true that global energy sector may face crisis in near future if the manufacturers and users find it difficult to use reasonable units of energy and maintain sustainability (Howlett, 2010, p.77). According to a survey work, it has been identified that fashion 3D printers generally consume almost 50 times more electricity energy comparing to the traditional injection molding process (Liu, 2015, p.143). It can pose a real threat for mankind in near future as shortage of energy can hamper the economic as well as social growth of a particular country. Moreover, waste management and recycling 3D printing process also require huge amount of electricity energy (Future, 2014, p.220). Therefore, it can be considered as a critical long-term sustainable issue for the societies across the world (Popov, 2012, p.215). Licensing and IP Issues The sustainability of a specific business operation process highly depends upon the transparency, and ethics of that business operation process, which is measured by IP and licensing deals. It can be stated that several business processes and ventures need to be registered under governmental intellectual property (Raysman, 2014, p.12). It is true that several organizations are considering the use of 3D printing in the business operation process in order to increase competency. But, some public agencies of government in several countries are not allowing giving license or IP to certain businesses as they use unethical 3D printing in the manufacturing process as this particular process has some sustainability challenges to face (Grimes, 2015, p.17). Impact It is clear from the above mentioned facts that the user of 3D printing technology in the fashion industry has to face both challenges as well as the benefits. The impact of the 3D printing technology in fashion industry is non-avoidable. First of all, it is true that several organizations are trying to focus on implementation of effective 3D printing technology technique in the manufacturing process. It can be stated that, the designers generally consider the significance of 3D printing in manufacturing process as it reduces overall manufacturing time and cost of apparel products (Allen, 2005, p.21). The organizations can adopt and implement cost-leadership strategy through this 3D printing process as it helps to reduce unnecessary production cost (Hill and Jones, 2011, p.37). Moreover, it reduces overall raw material sourcing and other outsourcing costs. Production time can be considered as an important aspect in the supply chain management process. Therefore, use of 3D printing can help an organization to reduce overall supply chain lead time (Lipson and Kurman, 2013, p.22). Moreover, green manufacturing process and lower carbon emission in the manufacturing process can be ensured through the use of 3D printing technology. Most importantly, these impacts will help the stakeholders to support the business operation process of such fashion manufacturers and designers. In terms of disadvantages, the extra energy usage and huge recycling cost can hamper the overall sustainability of the business operation processes of the organization (Hennicke, 2004, p.102). First of all, several organizations generally focus on cost-reduction process as total recycling enhances business growth rate. On the other hand, 3D printing process has some limitations in terms of sustainability of the business operation process (Hu, 2000, p.256). Several organizations generally use plastics in the 3D printing manufacturing process of clothes. It generally hampers the sustainability process as governments of several countries are focusing on sustainability of the environment (Malik, 2011, p.517). Therefore, the government is focusing on the restriction of the use of 3d Printing in the fashion industry. Huge electricity consumption is also a limitation of the use of 3D printing. It can de-motivate the attitude of the stakeholders. Huge recycling cost is also affecting the sustainability of the industry growth (Hendriks and Pieterson, 2000, p.61). Huge recycling cost will also hamper the business growth rate and profitability of the organization (James, 2015, p.98). Therefore, the business owners including designers and manufacturers may face huge loss in near future if they do not consider transparent sustainability and in the manufacturing process. Conclusion Important stakeholders in the global fashion industry are expecting from the organizations to maintain sustainability in their business operation processes. 3D printing technology has helped the fashion designers and manufacturers to reduce overall business operation cost. On the other hand, the fashion designers and manufacturers can enhance effective recycling, waste management and low carbon emission through 3D printing process. But, huge energy consumption and use of plastic in the printing process are hampering the environmental sustainability. It is the responsibility for government, organizations, public agencies and consumers to motivate the designers to use transparent and sustainable 3D printing process in order to maintain smooth and conflict free business operation process. References Allen, R. K., 2005. Launching new ventures. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Barazani, G., 1978. Safe practices in the Arts and Crafts. New York: CAAA. Barnatt, C., 2014. 3D Printing. 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