Introduction to Apparel Industries

Apparel: Personal outfit, garments or clothing etc including headwear and footwear.

Apparel industries: The industries which make ready-to-wear clothing.

Apparel manufacturing technology: The processing steps and techniques involved in the manufacturing apparels for large scale production on industrial basis for business purpose is called garments manufacturing technology.

Requirements of apparelProtection of human body from environment,

weather, enemy, etc. Identification of human as needed.Decoration for beauty purpose.To leads civilized life.To feel comfort.To express social status.To meet one of the basic human need.To save human body at different work place.

Apparel Industries Classification

1) Woven garments factory.2) Knit garments factory.3) Sweater factory.The factory producing garments from woven fabric is

called woven garments factory.The factory producing garments from knit fabric is

called knit garments factory.The factory producing sweater is called sweater

factory.

Raw Materials of an apparel industries

Fabric: It may be finished or not. Woven or knit or woven-knit combination etc.

Accessories: All the raw materials without fabric is accessories. Like Lining, Interlining, button, zipper, sewing thread etc.

Departments in an apparel industries

1. Production department,2. Quality department,3. Store department,4. Merchandising department,5. HR department,6. Compliance department,7. Purchase department etc.

Contribution of Textile & RMG Sector in Bangladesh Economy

• Composition in Percentage of Total Export:• Textile: 81.39% (Knit: 39.89% & Woven: 41.50%)• Specialized Textiles: 0.75%• Frozen Food: 2.75%• Jute & Jute goods: 4.9%• Leather: 2.6%• Agri- Product: 1.5%• Chemicals: 0.5%• Others: 5.6%• Composition of GDP in Bangladesh:

Total GDP: $122.7 Billion (FY: 2012)• Service: 53%• Industry: 28.6%• Agriculture: 18.4 %

1. Total Export: $26.25 Billion (2012-13 Fiscal Year) 2. RMG Export: $21.52 Billion (2012-13 Fiscal year)

Composition of RMG Export: Knit Sector: $10.48 Billion &

Woven Sector: $11.04 Billion (FY: 2012-13)

Composition of export volume of Bangladesh:

HistoryThe readymade garment (RMG) is a success story forBangladesh . The industry started in the late 1970s,expanded heavily in the 1980s and boomed in the1990s. The quick expansion of the industry was possiblebecause of the use of less complicated technology,cheap and easy to operate sewing machines, andrelatively cheap and abundant female workforce. But, apparel firms in the country heave moved into a challengingposition in the new millennium. The Challenge is now to offerhigh-quality, low-cost products within a short lead time; and tomeet health, social and environmental compliances in the face ofincreasingly stiff competition.

1829-the 1st garments factory was established at Paris with 80 sewing m/c to produce uniform for military forces.

1856-John Barren set up a garments factory in England. 1755- The 1st sewing machine developed by Charles Fredrick from

England. But stitch of that m/c is like hand stitch. 1851-Commercially successful sewing m/c developed by Issac

Merit Singer. It become popular all over the world very soon. 1960-Reaz Garments was established as a small tailoring outfit,

named Reaz store in Dhaka. 1973-It changes its name as M/S Reaz Garments & export 10,000

pcs of men’s Shirt to Paris. It was the first exporter of garments from Bangladesh.

History

1981-1982: As a garments exporting country Bangladesh actually started their business & export were $0.1 million.

1998-1999: The export earning of RMG sector were $5.51 billion which was 75.67 of total export.

History

Women in the garment industry• The garment sector is the largest employer of women in Bangladesh. The

garment sector has provided employment opportunities to women from the rural areas that previously did not have any opportunity to be part of the formal workforce. This has given women the chance to be financially independent and have a voice in the family because now they contribute financially.

• However, women workers face problems. Most women come from low income families. Low wage of women workers and their compliance have enabled the industry to compete with the world market. Women are paid far less than men mainly due to their lack of education. Women are reluctant to unionize because factory owners threaten to fire them. Even though trade unionization is banned inside the Export processing Zones (EPZ), the working environment is better than that of the majority of garment factories that operate outside the EPZs

Conti…

• But, pressure from buyers to abide by labor codes has enabled factories to maintain satisfactory working conditions.

• Garment workers have protested against their low wages. The firsts protests broke out in 2006, and since then, there have been periodic protests by the workers. This has forced the government to increase minimum wages of workers.

References

WikipediaBooksLecture Inter netBGMEA