Technologically Innovating the Process of the Custom-Made Thobe - Term Paper Example

Technologically Innovating the Process of the Custom-Made Thobe Introduction Thobe is the traditional Arab dress for men. The word thobe is the standard Arabic word for “garment. It is an ankle-length tunic with long sleeves and is normally made of white cotton, but other materials and colors can also be used. Thobe is the official apparel for every Saudi male citizen. They have to wear thobe in throughout their everyday lives, whether going to school or even work. It is also worn in formal occasions such as weddings, or special ceremonies like Eaid or the Hajj Holiday. This custom and habit in the Saudi environment maintained a strong demand for thobes. Being custom-made, the thobe is highly unique for each customer. This is particularly true in the recent years where the process of buying a thobe has changed from just having to choose a fabric and take the size measurements, to advanced levels of specialization that are inherent in the modern process. Today a customer has to choose the color, fabric material, sleeves, collar, number of pockets, design and button style. This whole new and continuously updated process expanded the thobe market, increased the number of thobe stores and designers, and most of all, increased the need to buy thobes more frequently. In addition, these differences in styles and colors forced each customer to buy more than double the number he usually buys each year. Now he can have a different style for every occasion: work, formal look, in house, family and friends. The Traditional Process of Making a Custom-Made Thobe The customer must first select a place to make his costumed thobe. This is usually done by random selection or based on advertisements or recommendations from other people. The customer then picks the fabric material, fabric colors, as well as other details including button shape and size; the shop’s staff records these specifications manually. Next, the customer goes through the measurement process where a staff from the shop makes size measurements using a measuring tape. Finally, the customer makes a down payment. Each tailor shop operates independently and relies on its own resources. For example, each tailor shop has their own garments, fabric, and staff who take body measurements. There are also tailors who work on the orders in the production facility, and some shops have their own exclusive and branded designs. Problems with the Traditional Process The body size measurement process can be very time consuming for customers, especially when there are a lot of them waiting their turn. In many cases, new customers know how long the process could take. Therefore, if there are a number of customers being served, they are most likely to leave and come back some other time due to the inconvenience of waiting long hours. The situation may not be different for existing customers who are familiar with designs and garments offered by a particular shop because they still have to go over the in-shop measurement process to ensure that their size has not changed over time. During busy seasons tailor shops experience huge pressure. The large number of orders and the diversity of order specifications create a huge pressure on the staff. This usually leads to a high frequency of human errors when recording body size measurement and customers’ specifications. As such, tailor shops often experience high return rates, which not only cost them money and efforts in re-fixing orders, but results in terrible customer experiences. The worst outcome out of this scenario is losing customers to other competitors. Certainly, the quality of fabrics and variety of designs, as well as the skills of staff, vary from one place to another. However, for customers, switching to other tailor shops may not be the optimum solution that will guarantee them better experiences as the entire market adopts the same process and behaves the same way. One of the biggest defects of the traditional system that my new idea aims to eliminate is the asymmetric treatment of consumers in handling their size measurement information. For example, once the customer’s size measurement is taken it becomes exclusive to that tailor shop. Such information is not shared with the customer or any other tailor shops. The unwillingness of a tailor shop to share such information is an attempt to make the customer order all of his thobes in their place. If the customer wants to order six thobes, and decides to choose different designs from different tailor shops he cannot take his size measurements to another shop. Therefore, he will have to go through the measurement process in each of the shops he chooses. Customers who are not willing to go through the hassle of waiting are forced to stick with once place, thereby limiting their choices. This policy is being applied by most, if not all tailor shops in the market; their focus is fixed upon processing as many orders as possible to increase sales and profitability. This demonstrates a pure internally driven mindset that focuses on profit maximization rather than value creation and the resulting experience. Innovation of the Traditional Process The innovation is a new service that will function as a mediator between tailor shops and individual consumers. Each part will play a dominant role in changing the face of this market. The new service uses a technology that will provide a solution for both the individual consumer and tailor shops. This service has to two main functions: (1) a technology that incorporates a body scanner and a web-enabled application; and (2) an interactive website containing an online catalog of all the tailor shop’s offerings. The aim of these functions is to change the entire process of measuring, selecting, purchasing of custom-made dress into a process that is more convenient and efficient for each part of the transaction. Customer Side Instead of going to the tailor shop the customer will visit a small studio that has the scanner machine and computers. The machine will calculate the customer’s body mass index, and camera scanners will take 360 degree images of the customer’s body frame, from bottom to neck. Then the customer’s images will be fed into a web-enabled software application that will generate the size measurements, full body dimensions, and body mass index based on the scans and images. This web application is connected to the Internet and will link this data with the customer’s profile that has already been stored into the database. The entire in-studio process will take only few minutes. The customer then can go home and login with his username and password to an interactive website where he can view all the available tailor shops and all of their offerings; these offerings include fabric materials, designs, and specifications (buttons, sleeves designs, collar designs, etc). Once the customer makes his final choice, he places the order and plays online directly from the website from one of the tailor shops that subscribe to this service. After the order is processed in the tailor shop, a notification will be sent to the customer with the pick up date. Tailor Shop Side The tailor shop can subscribe to this service by having an agreement where reasonable fees will be deducted from the tailor for each transaction made through my service. The shops that subscribe to the service will upload their contents and offerings in the website. They can access their secured login information anytime to update their contents. Technologies and IT aspects (Heart of the Innovation Process) As Prahalad stated “The advances in technology, digitization and smart material are increasing opportunities to create new product and service and transform businesses” (2005, p.13) It follows that the innovation of the thobe process will be attained through the use of advanced technology. The value of the innovation is embedded within the functions of the designed application and the nature of interaction the customers will have by using them. The function of the web-enabled software application incorporates fundamental features that will shift the value from the end product (thobe) into an experience that is personalized and involves co-creation of value. The first function is the dynamic simulation feature. When the customer selects the fabric material, design and all other specifications for his thobe he can click on a simulation option on the website. Based on the information stored in the database, including the customer’s size measurements, body dimensions, and choice of fabric material, the system will perform extensive data analysis and produce a 360 degree graphical model. The model will have the exact size and shape of the customer with the specified thobe. This way the customer will be able to see how the thobe looks on him, as if he is wearing it. The dynamic feature of the simulation function will also allow customer to modify the Thobe sizes. For example, if the customer wants to modify the length of the Thobe to make it longer, he can choose how many inches to add and click. The system will re-simulate the customer’s model according to his modification. Thus, allowing the customer to co-create his own experience. This is how the experience is personalized for the individual customer (N=1) In order to utilize this innovation and implement the new process effectively each element in the value chain must have a deep understanding of how the new value delivery system works; this will require a transparent communication among entities. For example, the IT company must understand the entire process of making a thobe. Therefore, they will need to collect detailed information on the standard designs, size measuring standards, detailed specification about the fabric materials, as well as the thobe main specifications such as the collars’ shape and size, sleeves designs and pockets. The IT company must gather a huge amount of data from other tailor shops in order to develop a comprehensive data analytic program that will enable the intended features of the new system to work. That will require full cooperation form tailor shops in supplementing all the details needed by the IT company in a transparent and symmetric fashion. As an intermediary entity, we have to identify and communicate the value proposition and the resulting experiences of tailor shops and the individual consumer by establishing dialogues that will focus on changing and aligning each firm’s strategy toward value creation and the end-consumer experience. In this scenario, tailors shops will get rid of the old system where every shop works independently and relies on its own resources, and will instead use my service as a resource to create a unique and personalized experience for their customers. My entity will seek the service of the IT company that will develop and provide the technological infrastructure that will enable the proposed innovation to work. The aim of this new idea is to change the whole process of making thobes. This new process will shift the purpose of the business from profit maximization to value creation. The result will be the center focus of the new model. The value creation is not just aimed for the end customers, but also to the tailor shops. Read More