Team C
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
PROJECT FINAL REPORT
Fas.P.onSite
etiCO
Student Name, Master of Science Course, Politecnico di MI/TO
(signature)________________________________________
Student Name, Master of Science Course, Politecnico di MI/TO
(signature)________________________________________
Student Name, Master of Science Course, Politecnico di MI/TO
(signature)________________________________________
Student Name, Master of Science Course, Politecnico di MI/TO
(signature)________________________________________
Student Name, Master of Science Course, Politecnico di MI/TO
(signature)________________________________________
Student Name, Master of Science Course, Politecnico di MI/TO
(signature)________________________________________
Principal Academic Tutor:
Name, Department, Politecnico di MI/TO
(signature)________________________________________
Other Academic Tutors:
Name, Department, Politecnico di MI/TO
Name, Department, Politecnico di MI/TO
External Tutor(s):
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Index
Part I: framework
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.
INTRODUCTION
2.1 Initial project proposal
2.2 Stakeholders
2.3 Team objectives
2.4 Work schedule
3. USER’S REQUIREMENTS
Part II: exploring the fashion industry and its state of art
4. FASHION INDUSTRY
4.1 Fashion industry: numbers and statistics
4.2 Fashion and environment
4.3 Two trends: mass luxury and eco-sustainable fashion
4.4 Eco-fashion
5. SUSTAINABLE APPROACH: STATE OF ART
5.1 Material investigations
5.1.1 Natural fibres
5.1.2 Organic textiles
5.1.3 Quality: product standards and certifications
5.1.4 New fibres
5.2 Eco-fashion designers
6. FEEDBACK ABOUT EXPLORATION ACTIVITY
Part III: the Solution
7. THE ECOLAB
7.1 An innovative model
7.2 An innovative supply chain
7.3 Map of the service
8. HOW ETICO WORKS?
8.1 Service phases
8.2 Competences
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9. THE ETICO PROTOTYPE
9.1 The service in action
9.2 “My Wardrobe”: an added value for etiCO customer
9.3 Web-service overview and Green Hosting
9.4 The etiCO shop Architecture
10. THE POTENTIAL MARKET
11. THE MACHINES
12. BRANDING
12.1 Competitors and positioning
12.2 SWOT Analysis
12.3 Building brand identity
12.3.1 Vision
12.3.2 Mission
12.3.3 Values
12.4 Building the visual identity
12.5 Web and IT for etiCO
12.6 Brand experience through etiCo website
13. FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
13.1Operative feasibility analysis
13.2 Economic feasibility analysis
Conclusion
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Part I: framework
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(no more than 2'000 words)
1. INTRODUCTION
Devoted to the Description of the Problem, the Requirements of the External Institution(s), the specific
Objectives assigned to the Team (possibly in relationships with the objectives of the other teams), the
Method of Work that was used (team organization, subdivision of the work within the team, phases of the
work, intermediate deliverables, verifications).
2.1 Initial project proposal
The Fas.P.onSite: Fashion Production on Site project aims to innovate the fashion industry by integrating in
one single place the different productive phases of a knitwear productive process and, at the same time, by
enriching the experience of the customers that would get more than a traditional shopping experience.
The nature of the project leads to the definition of more complex interactions among the knitwear industry
and the clients. For instance it could turn out in a more transparent process, where the customer can have a
look at every single productive step and therefore have a better knowledge of the product they are going to
purchase. Since the production place and the shop are merged together it is possible to produce clothes on
demand. That satisfies the desires of the clients, providing to each of them the possibility to take part in the
design process in order to have a unique cloth really tailored on his needs. This possibility could be taken to
its limit with the realization of a place where the designers are free to develop their products rather than a
retail shop. The latter option switches the traditional perspective of the mass production where there are a
few designers that uses a lot of productive resources to a more creative friendly approach that makes it
possible to a number of designers to share the same places and machinery in a creative environment.
From the description of the project it is clear that the new innovative shape of the production process opens
several different aspects that have to be explored. The group that worked at the project has been split in three
teams and each one focused on a particular aspect. Team A dealt with the creation of a creative hub within a
city. Team B worked to achieve the maximum customization of the clothes. Finally team C proposed a reorganization of the whole supply chain in order to make the fashion industry more sustainable and to make it
possible for the clients to see all the details behind the production of the clothes they are going to wear.
2.2 Stakeholders
Given the broad goals of the project it is possible to identify several stakeholders that could be involved in
the development. This section reviews the stakeholders that could be interested in general in Fas.P.onSite
and then focuses more on the people and on the companies that could be involved with the part of the work
developed by our team.
From the brief description of the project it is clear that the project has to involve the whole fashion industry
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as well as the consumers. The components of the fashion industry supply chain are involved since they have
to change a lot in order to support the proposed way to produce the items. On the other side costumers that
embraces the new philosophy could fully take advantage of the opportunity offered by the production on site.
Production on site is obtained with a strong collaboration between the supplier of raw materials and the
supplier of the machinery that makes it possible. It also requires the collaboration of the shops that are going
to have a completely different role.
In order to be able to shift the production from a factory to the retail shop there is the need to use adequate
machineries that could enable this new way to produce clothes. That is the reason of the involvement of the
producers of that particular machinery.
The supplier of yarns will have to deal with a production model that is completely different in term of
quantity of the orders and quality of the fibres. Production on site implies that there will be a lot of
production places each one processing a small amount of orders. Another challenge comes from the highquality required in order to better satisfy the desires of the costumers. For the mentioned reasons there is the
need to create a strong partnership between the shop/production site and the suppliers.
The project developed by our team that aims to re-organize the supply chain in order to reduce the waste and
to have a more efficient ???? requires the involvement of a brand. The brand has to propose a collection
specifically designed to fit with the opportunity offered by the on-site production machinery. The brand
involved has to be interested at the same time in the experimentation of the innovative supply chain and it
has to care about sustainability.
There is also the need to find some investors that are interested in founding the project making it possible to
advance from the conceptual description to something more concrete, for instance a start-up. The
requirements to the investors are similar to the one previously exposed for the brand: they must want to take
part in an innovative project sharing its philosophy and the will to make the fashion industry more
sustainable.
Finally it is important not to forget the costumers. The outcome of this project is the realization of items that
they are going to wear, so there is the need to make the products fit their needs in the best possible way. The
costumer that could appreciate the most the items produced in this work is a person interested in fashion that
cares about the quality of the clothes but at the same time wants to do something to save the environment and
perceives sustainability as a value that is worth investing in.
2.3 Team objectives
The objective of our team is to make the fashion industry more sustainable and more respectful of the
environment by introducing the idea of the on-site production. That idea is going to affect the waste due to
the transportation and also makes it possible to avoid waste due to the production of clothes just to fill the
stock. In fact producing clothes on-site and on-demand on the one hand makes possible to have to transfer
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just the yarns to the shop and on the other side it ensures that an item is produced only when it is sure that it
will be sold.
In order to reach these goals there is the need to propose an alternative to the current fashion industry supply
chain. That alternative is centered(???) on the on-site production and therefore the project has to carefully
study all of its aspects, finding out a way to integrate it with the other components of the supply chain. There
is also the need to find new partnerships in order to make is possible an effective interaction between the
suppliers and the shop. There is also the need to take into account which are the most effective delivery
methodologies and which are the best ways to communicate to the consumers the principles that are beyond
the project itself.
The final goal of the project is the development of a retail site that is able to deliver to the costumers high
quality items that meets their desires, that are in some part customized and of course that are produced in a
sustainable way, taking into account the environment.
Later on in the project it will also be possible to make this experimental shop bigger by making all the
elements needed to open such a production/retail place available in a franchise network.
2.4 Work schedule
The team worked on the project during the two years of the courses of the Alta Scuola Politecnica. The work
could be divided in three different phases: the case study analysis, the definition of the goal of the project,
the development of the concept and the finalization of the project.
The first months of the project has been devoted to an analysis to explore which were the currently adopted
solutions to make the fashion industry greener, and more in general how it would have been possible to
exploit the on-site production in an effective manner. These phases consisted mostly in the gathering data
and documentation about similar experience from books and from the Internet as well as from visiting
partners potentially interested in being involved with the project.
Later some months were devoted to create a clear statement of the goal of the project as well as to have a
clear subdivision of the tasks among the different teams that worked on Fas.P.onSite. At that point each team
went on with the development of its own aspect of the problem independently from the other teams.
The greatest fraction of the time available has been taken by the actual development of the project. During
that phase at first the feasibility of the usage of an on-site production system, in order to improve the
sustainability of the fashion industry, has been studied. Then the research moved on the definition of the
fibres to use and consequently on the selection of which kind of collection could be realized in the on-site
production store.
The refinement of the project dealt with the organization of the spaces in the shop and in the dimensioning of
the resources and of the work-force that have to be used in order to be able to run the production effectively.
Finally some more precise business considerations have been taken into account in order to have a better
idea of the effort required to turn the concept into an actual company.
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3. USERS’ REQUIREMENTS
Needs of the various stakeholders involved in the problem, how these needs were translated into
requirements, and the method that has been used for gathering them.
Requirements can be classified (e.g. technical, economical, impact on the individual or society).
3.1 User’s needs into requirements
Before starting talking about the actual content of the project there is the need to clearly understand the
setting in which the work is going to be placed. Therefore the needs of the different stakeholders have to be
translated into some more specific requirements that could be used to guide the development of the project.
Stakeholder
Needs
Requirements
Alta Scuola Politecnica
Innovation
and Propose
multidisciplinary
approach
productive
in
management
a
Methodologies
new Original
problem
perspective statement;
the for the fashion industry multidisciplinary
of
a (Technical)
team
composition
complex problem
Fashion industry
Reduce the waste and Design of an optimized Identification
make
the
of
the
fashion and sustainable supply causes of the waste;
industry greener
chain
(Technical/Impact
proposal of alternative
on solutions
society)
Machinery suppliers
Supply of the machinery Partnership to implement Research on the state of
for
the
on-site the on-site production the art machinery;
production
place
studies
on
how
to
(Technical)
integrate the machinery
in the shops
Yarn suppliers
Supply of certified, high Partnership to integrate Research of the most
quality and sustainable the yarn suppliers in the suitable
yarns
yarn;
new production model
identification
(Technical)
possible partners;
integration
of
the
of
the
suppliers in the supply
chain
Costumers
High
quality
will
to
clothes, Produce the clothes that The collection should be
save
the best meets the desires of produced on site, every
environment, customized the users
items
step should be visible
(Technical/Impact on the and
individual)
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the
users
could
customize their items
Team C
The fist stakeholder is of course the Alta Scuola Politecnica that has the mission to produce innovative and
multidisciplinary complex projects. That need turned out in the requirement of a new solution that used a lot
of different competencies to propose a new perspective for the fashion industry. These requirements have
been taken into account from the beginning at the very first phases. For instance both the problem statement
and the composition of the teams focused on the creation of the conditions to make it possible to meet these
objectives.
Taking a look at the goals of the project, the fashion industry in general is the next stakeholder that has to be
considered. It has the challenging need to reduce its waste and make the fashion industry greener and more
respectful of the environment. This abstract idea turned into the definition of the technical requirements of
the reorganization of the supply-chain making it more optimized and sustainable. Even though the
requirements could seem relevant only from the technical perspective, it is important to remark that the final
goal would have an impact on the society changing the way clothes are produced.
The methodologies adopted to face these requirements have been a first research phase to better understand
which are the points our work should be focused on. When the problems of the current fashion industry were
clear, the project started the exploration of the possible alternative solutions.
Looking to the more technical stakeholders, there is the need to take care about the needs of the companies
that are going to take part as suppliers of the project. The needs involved with the technical partners covers
the supply of the machinery and the materials that are going to be used in the shop: to build an on-site
production place there is the need to team up with the producers of the machinery as well as with the
suppliers of yarns. The requirements for the suppliers are the creation of a strong partnership that on the one
hand creates a business opportunity for them while on the other enables the creation of the innovative
production model developed in this project.
The involvement of these stakeholders in the project has been carefully studied: at first the different
companies that produced the machinery and the yarns meeting the requirements of the project have been
studied and analyzed. Later the focus shifted on the development of the possible ways to integrate these
technologies in the on-site production shop. The partnership with the yarn suppliers requires the definition on
a collaboration model in which the suppliers integrates with the needs of the shop by providing much more
limited quantity of high quality yarns with respect to the requests of the traditional fashion industry.
The needs of the costumers are the most important aspect that have to be considered since the whole project
aims to the production of goods that have to be sold. One of the key needs that have been considered is of
course the idea of sustainability that guided all the development of the project. However that is not the only
need that has been taken into account: the quality of the clothes is another primary aspect. Moreover in order
to make the experience even richer the shop allows the costumers to see all the phases of the production and
even to take part in it with some small customizations.
These needs turns out in the requirement of a production site that is able to deal in a green way with high
quality yarns. At the same time the process has to be visible and also flexible enough to allow some
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customization. These requirements can be fulfilled by taking care of the on-site production machinery as
well as of the design of the shop that should be able to show what is going on in its productive section.
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PART II exploring the fashion industry and its state of art
4. FASHION INDUSTRY
This section presents an overview of the fashion industry, by presenting some data and facts about the
current situation and the trends of the market. This information could be really useful to better understand
the industry and to find where there is room to propose an innovative approach.
4.1 Fashion Industry: numbers and statistics
To better understand the market there is the need to get some information about how the fashion industry is
structured. The data reported in this report mainly focuses on the Italian situation, since that is the place
where this project will be located. However the information and the considerations reported are rather
general and also apply to other developed countries which have a background similar to the Italian one. The
Italian situation is also really interesting for another reason: in that country the textile industry is well
developed and its revenues represent the 35%1 of the overall income for the whole European Union in the
fashion sector. The presence of a significant market on the one hand makes available a lot of case studies that
could be performed in order to know better the industry. On the other hand that means that the innovation
presented with this work could have a major impact on the industry being the target one of the most relevant
markets.
For the scope of this work it is important to understand how the supply-chain of the fashion industry is
structured both from the logistic and from the organizational perspective.
A key factor that affects the sustainability of the fashion industry is the nature of the firms. It is possible to
observe two completely different approaches. On the one hand there is the global multi-national brand (e.g.
Kappa and Benetton) that offers the same product all over the world producing the clothes in some
developing countries and then transferring the goods to the markets where the items are sold. On the other
hand there are a lot of small production district that contains all the elements needed to get the raw materials
and then produce and sell the clothes. Of course there are a lot of possible combination of these two models
that lies between the extremes keeping some elements from the one and some other elements from the other.
In order to understand the magnitude of the transportation required by the fashion industry it is possible to
have a look at the data about the amount of import and the export related to such an industry. Getting to
know which is the impact of transportation is quite important from the sustainability point of view since the
need to move items from one location to another place has a relevant effect on the overall environmental
footprint of a cloth. Moreover it is clear that the impact is even more relevant considering the fact that a
significant portion of the transportation moves the raw materials and the products from one continent to
another.
Looking at the data it comes out that Italy has a significant role on both import and export. For instance in
1 Source: International Trade Statistic 2001, based on UNSD Comtrade data; Eurostat fos US and Italy
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2001 it was accounting respectively for the 3.3% and the 7.2% of the global market share2. The same data
showed also an increasing trend of the export from the emerging countries that are constantly making bigger
and bigger their market share in Europe and in the United States. These trends are going to deeply affect the
sustainability of the whole fashion industry, and, considering that these trends are increasing, in the future
the effects are going to influence more and more the condition of the industry. Similar information comes
from other data3 which shows that fashion industry covers a significant share of the commercial exchanges
between the European Union and the United States: about 13.9% of the goods exchanged are related to the
fashion and textile industry. It is important to remark again that these exchanges involve inter-continental
shipment.
The described trends also reflects on the nature of the shops: while in the past there was the dominance of
small shops each one with its peculiarities, recently the market has been occupied by a relatively small
number of big firms that proposes the same clothes in the whole country. While in Italy this trend is taking
place at a slower pace than elsewhere, it is still present and has to be taken into account in an analysis since
although later than in other countries also in our nation the mass distribution has overtaken the model based
on the presence of a lot of small and specialized shops. In other countries the mass distribution has been
prevailing since about a decade, while in Italy the amount of sales of small shops has been reached just in
2005. In Italy, the traditional retail has reduced its volume of sales from 60% in 1995 to 46% in 2005, at the
same time the mass distribution has increased its sales of 18%4.
The increase of unsold items is also due to the enlarge collection trend; Seasonal collection are continuously
updated in order to satisfied the consumer’s demands, who is focusing more and more on latest fashion
trends. So there is an increasing in number of collection that are to be delivered in the sales point, so that to
overtake the concept of seasonal collection. In confirmation of this assertion some retail brands as Zara,
Promod and Benetton drawn, manufacture and deliver new collections during the year, the so-called Flash
collection or integration for Benetton, therefore the offer can vary every fifteen days and clients are drive to
come back more frequently to the shop.
The rise of the mass distribution market opens the issue about how to stock the clothes and what to do with
the items that are unsold. That could be an important environmental issue since the items could turn into
being useless and therefore becomes at first a big waste of raw materials and of the energies spent in the
production, but also it introduces the need to find a way to save them from being trashed. A solution to this is
the creation of outlets where the outdated clothes are sold at a discounted price; however this is more a
workaround rather than a really effective solution to the problem.
The considerations and the data exposed so fare were referring generally to the whole fashion industry.
However the work of this project is focusing on a particular part of the whole industry: it deals with the
production of knitwear items. For this reasons in the next paragraphs there are some information about that
specific sector.
2 World Trade Organization International Trade Statistics, 2001
3 ICE-ISTAT, 2001
4 Source SITA NIELSEN – F.N.D.T.A. elaboration; in Regione Sicilia, “Analisi di mercato Settore Tessile-Abbigliamento,
Progetto per la di un network di animatori territoriali a sostegno dell’internazionalizzazione”, Page 10, 2003
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The first data available5 about knitwear are not so encouraging since there is a decreasing trend in the
quantity of items sold. That data could be misleading since splitting the data according with the nature of the
items it turns out that, while for low quality products the quantity of items sold is actually lower, the high
quality section is actually performing quite well and there is even an improvement with respect to what
happened in the previous years. That data could be interpreted as a clear signal that there is room in the
market for new shops that sells high quality products that comes from fine yarn giving to the consumers a
reason to choose to buy a good knitwear product.
That data makes a clear statement about what the market is looking for: rather than low quality items there is
the preference of good items, even if this means that the consumers has to pay more to have a better product.
Quality is not the only factor that drives the choice of the costumer to buy an item rather than another:
especially in the most developed countries, quality and the brand that is offering the cloth are considered
together with other factor like the sustainability of the process that lead to the production of the item. The
choice to focus on these intangible values determines also a selection in the kind of clients that the shop will
have. Usually the person who cares the much about these themes has a more advanced mentality than the
mass. This is not a limiting factor since, as the similar bio-food market shows, usually this kind of clients are
willing to pay more in order to have a product that totally satisfies their needs both from the qualitative and
from the moral perspectives.
For the aforementioned reasons a new project that would like to challenge the current fashion industry
bringing into it some innovations and reshaping it, does not have to concur with the mass distribution. It
rather has to look for a niche and try to satisfy in the better way possible the needs of the people that the
project wants to reach. For instance it have to provide high quality clothes with a very low environmental
footprint in order to leverage both on the desire to have a good item and on the environmental feelings of the
consumers.
In order to explore an alternative model it is important to get to know which are the solutions currently
adopted that are somehow similar to the approach developed in this work. A first example of something
similar to what we intend to develop are the productive district that are already present in some part of Italy
(e.g. Biella, Carpi, Castel Goffredo, Como, Prato, Vicenza). The historical presence of such districts that
traditionally have been flourishing places for knitwear could be taken as an example of a supply chain with
other characteristics than the one present in the mainstream fashion industry.
An example of such districts in Italy is the one located in the Carpi area that is well known for its knitwear
production, in particular of clothes for women. In a district there are in the same location all the members of
the supply chain that could leverage the closeness in order to generate valuable synergies. When there is a
place that gathers together the producers of the raw materials, the manufacturers and the retail stores it is
possible to guarantee a very quick time to market as well as higher quality products and a variety of items the
consumer can choose from. This model is a response to the mainstream approach of the fashion industry and
privileges the production of clothes for a niche of the market rather than for the mass. This implies on the
5 ICE-ISTAT, 2001
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costumers are more satisfied and are willing to spend more in order to have high quality items that also
guarantees some environmental property.
The production in a district opens several challenges in terms of the retail system. In fact while the
production happens in one place there is the need to open some shops in order to be able to sell the products
to in other area than just within the district. A common choice is to open stores or to create a franchising
network. That makes possible to maintain high qualitative standards without having to be active just on a
very limited geographical area.
That productive model also affects the whole supply chain. On the one hand there is the need to maintain it
competitive with respect to manufacturers that are not part of the district. On the other side it is important to
find a way to maintain a high quality. A way to do that is by specializing each manufacturer in the
production of a single product or in some value added niches like for instance the addition of decoration to
the clothes. That specialized factories then should group together in order to compose an integrated supply
chain able to perform the whole production.
4.2 Fashion and environment
The attention of the fashion industry to environmental issues can range from the materials used in the
production, to the eco-friendliness of the process itself and to the limitation of the consumption due to
logistics and supply chain-issues. The choice of the materials is one of the most evident problems that have
to be faced in order to obtain an item that is respectful of the environment. For instance there is the need to
take into account whether it is better to use natural yarns rather than some other synthetic fibres. The first
have the advantage that being directly produced by the environment itself could be less invasive and could
turn out in a lower impact than other fibres that require chemical processes to be produced. For natural fibres
there is the need to double check even how they are obtained and whether these conditions meets the desired
quality standards.
In the past there were fashions clearly damaging to the environment, such as feathers used to decorate ladies
hats during the last century, but the same is today about the fur and skin for shoes and bags. The introduction
of synthetic fibres, derived from crude oil, has made fashion more easily reached to all and apparently less in
conflict with nature; but an economy based on oil and exploitation of natural resources has lead to climatic
changes, exhaustion of raw material and waste. Fashion, with its short-life items, is partly responsible for a
dissipate attitude, the right opposite of what we nowadays need: reduction and efficiency. In this situation
stylists should not only go along with consumers’ expectations, but they also have to guide and anticipate
people’s needs in order to redesign the future fashion according to the principles of durability and
recyclability. Fashion can thus become sustainable and this should not be intended as a limitation, but instead
as a way of confronting with limits and using scientific knowledge in order to assign a footprint to all our
actions, as the Life Cycle Assessment does. Therefore stylists have to keep in mind they can use technical
devices both for manufacturing and for monitoring all the production phases since they have the
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responsibility to create the consumption of people in order to avoid that the fashion of today become the
waste of tomorrow.
4.3 Two trends: mass luxury and eco-sustainable fashion
Two opposite trends are presents in the fashion word: the mass luxury industries and the eco-sustainable
fashion; they are the consequence of changes in the productive chain and in the consumers’ behaviour,
therefore it is interesting to deepen the research activities in this field in order to better refine our service.
The production of mass luxury commodities is the final outcome of a half a century course that starts in the
‘50’s and ‘60’s with the prêt-à-porter and the industrial production, it goes on in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s with the
industrial district and mass distribution, initially American and now Swedish (i.e. H&M) and Spanish (i.e.
Mango and Zara), and it ends in the new century with luxury cloths items and accessories. The prêt-à-porter
launches itself thanks to the image of maison of haut couture, the industrial district takes advantages from
agglomeration and mass distribution brands brought low cost fashion design to medium-low income
consumers, therefore they are present in all the word markets. On the other side, mass luxury cannot be
assessed as elitist because it focused its distinction on innovation and goods that are able to give identity, but
it does not always respect the environment and the rules of fair since entrepreneurs are in search for profits.
It is based on the brand identity, intellectual property right, and symbolic sphere neglecting the
impoverishment of the product itself in favour of delocalization, distribution and brand communication.
Concerning the eco-sustainable fashion, it is a trend which is raised from the consumers’ preferences about
natural, equity, respect of the environment versus artificial, exploitation and pollution. Therefore it is
preliminary a sustainable approach in term of environment and nature and partially in the sense of local
development because it needs not only consumers’ preferences changes but also education, economical and
political logics changes. The eco-sustainable fashion is environment-conscious, it produces with saving
energy principle, it recycles and it uses natural raw material (e.g. linen, hemp, wool, silk, jute, cotton,
cashmere) without toxic dye in order to have a new product that can be sold at a right quality/price ratio that
can witness the artisan’s work and develop its own traceability.
The new fashion chain purifies itself: agricultural without pesticides, water filtration in dyeing and washing
shop, natural dye, paper packaging. The supply chain not only becomes greener but also more transparent,
thanks to detail label, and more short in such a way that fabrics production is directly linked to the final
product as it happens in the emerging on-line and made-to-measure sales. Therefore it is clear that in order to
empower this trend it is necessary to educate the consumers in such a way that their preferences can become
the engine for a market and economical shift otherwise the political and profit law will succeed on the
environmental problems. To pursuit this goal international organizations are needed in order to establish
trade rules and to prevent resources exploitations. It’s necessary to underline that sustainability should not be
a philanthropic term, but the key, for the companies, for the future survival, since sustainability will become
the unique balance between the concept of development and consumption.
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To conclude the “speculative luxury” model is the one which most is paying the highest costs in this global
crisis, even if there are some exceptions. The strategies, which have been followed, are about the exploitation
of brand image and the strong communication campaigns, these results in exorbitant costs for intangible
components neglecting the intrinsic quality of the product. The policy of the exploitation of delocalized
production, that is based on low cost labour, together with high willing to pay for “brand name” products, it
has been stimulated by consumers which are becoming less interest in the value of the product. Therefore if
any future evolution will be possible, the luxury entrepreneurs should incorporate in their brands strategies
the principles of the eco-sustainable trend; this could lead to a new generation of sustainable fashion/luxury
products.
4.4 Eco fashion
To better explain what Eco-fashion is and which principles it follows, it could e helpful to refer to STEP
(Sustainable Technology Education Project),that defined Eco-fashion as to “make clothes that take into
account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion
industry”.6
Eco-fashion garments:
• are made using organic raw materials, such as cotton grown without pesticides and silk made by worms fed
on organic trees.
• don’t involve the use of harmful chemicals and bleaches to colour fabrics
• are often made from recycled and reused textiles.
• are made to last, so that people keep them for longer
• come from fair trade.
So it that tends to privilege not only the design and the quality of the clothes but also cares about the
environmental impact of the production of the items. That trend on the one hand is born by the desire of the
industry to become sustainable in order to preserve the planet. On the other hand it is the part of the fashion
industry which is increasing since it meets the requests by the consumers that care the most about the
environment to have ecological products; it is both a material and process matter in term of
environmentalism and social responsibility.
The so called eco-fashion has its origins in the 2005 in New York City’s fashion week7 when Earth Pledge
collaborate with Barneys to sponsor a fashion show called Future Fashion, during which clothes of ecofriendly fabrics (e.g. hemp, bamboo), designed by renowned and up-and-coming stylists, has been showed.
After the event Barneys was so delighted to display the collection in its shop windows for several weeks, so
as to launch this new emerging green trend among the fashion world. Earth Pledge is a no-profit organization
that “partners with businesses, communities and government to accelerate the adoption of sustainable
6 http://www.stepin.org
7 Jeol Gershon, “Wearing your values. Eco-Fashions are on Today’s Runways”, The Environmental Magazine, Vol. 16, Issue 4,
July/August 2005
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practices”8, it has different initiatives in various field with the common objective of “demonstrating
economic viability today and make a real difference tomorrow”9. The fashion sector, called Future Fashion,
gives support to designer, manufacturer and distributor in order to shift toward sustainable fabrics and
processes. Another no-profit organization, the National Association of Sustainable Designers (NASD),
provides education, training and resources to designers and entrepreneurs in order to help them in generating
a social change trough fashion and design.
In the end eco-friendly consumers are in search for simple products, but conceptually sophisticate in term of
fibers and in tune with a sense global responsibility, following the three R: Reduce, Recycle and Reuse.
5. SUSTAINABLE APPROACH: STATE OF ART
5.1 Material investigations
In order to develop a sustainable service it is necessary to deeper understand the differences between natural
fibres and organic textile, their certifications and regulations and it is also interesting exploring new and
innovative yarns. Part of these research activities is reported in the following paragraphs.
5.1.1 Natural fibres10
Natural fibres come from plant which includes: seed hairs (e.g. cotton), stem or bast fibres (e.g. flax and
hemp), leaf fibres (e.g. sisal) and husk fibres (e.g. coconut); they also derive from animal which include
wool, hair and secretions (e.g. silk).
Almost all the natural fibres are produced in developing countries, and they are vital for the economies of
these nations since yarn production represents a relevant share of their gross domestic product. Unfortunately
the current usage of cheaper synthetic yarns is reducing the demand for the natural fibres, threatening those
nations’ trades. For example China, India and Pakistan manufacture more than 60 % of the world’s cotton,
the major silk producer are the asian countries (i.e. India, China, and Thailand) and the Sri Lanka is the
larger producers of brown coir fibre.
Natural fibres are in line with the values of the sustainable economy: the use of renewable resources, energy
efficiency, processes with low ratio of carbon emission, waste reduction and recyclable material. In fact
since they absorb the same carbon dioxide they are carbon neutral; they generate organic waste and their
residues can be used to generate electricity or make ecological housing materials; moreover they are 100%
biodegradable.
Talking about energy consumption, a FAO study underlines that in the production of a tonne of jute is used
the 10% of energy that is needed for the production of the same quantity of synthetic fabric. The natural
thread generates biodegradable residue of processing so it does not pollute the water, in contrast to the heavy
8,5 http://www.earthpledge.org/ep
10The data and information have been extracted from http://www.naturalfibres2009.org/
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metal remains of synthetic yarn. Also the emissions are in favour of natural fibres: the production of one
tonne of polypropylene emits 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide, whereas jute absorbs 2.4 tonnes of carbon per
tonne of dry fibre. In the last phase of the life cycle natural fibres are decayed by bacteria and can be use as
fertilizer or incinerated with zero emission, whereas synthetic yarn recycle necessitates expensive separation
process while the incineration generates pollutants.
In addition to the energy and ethical benefits, natural fibres are a healthy choice because of their
“breathability” and hygiene. As a consequence of the less compact molecular structure, natural textiles
absorb perspiration and release it in the ambience as natural ventilation, this process is called wicking. This
is evident in the woollen blankets which absorb water, lost during the sleep, up to 35% of their weigh and
leaving the sheets dry and guarantying hygiene. The “breathability” of natural fibres prevents skin rashes,
allergies and itching; in particular organic cotton is ideal for the tender children skin, the hemp textile has
both a high rate of moisture dispersion and anti-bacterial characteristic, while linen is the most hygienic
materials. The wools fibres, instead, hold back air, so acting as insulators they are ideal both for the summer
and for the winter (the Bedouins wear wool suits in order to maintain their body temperature).
Considering the natural fibres qualities, for the eitCO garment it has been chosen cashmere. Cashmere is
obtained from kashmir goat (Capra hircus laniger), native to the Himalayas which are combed or sheared
during the spring moulting season. The word major producer is the China, while the Mongolia has the most
finest fibres; the US standard set 19 microns as maximum fibre diameter and 14 is the top quality. The
distinguishing characteristic of cashmere is the lightness, in fact thank to its natural crimp, it can be spun into
fine fabrics, whereas the small air spaces between fibres makes this textile extremely warm. It is a very rare
and high quality fibres, ideal for etiCO collection.
5.1.2 Organic textiles
During the phases of industrial processing, water is used to remove impurities, to generate steam, for dying,
for finishing agents and then discharged with chemical substances. To estimate the quantity of chemical
agents that there are in processing water, just consider that it takes 1kg of chemical to produce 1 kg of
finished textile.
The use of chemical product is not only a source of pollution for the rivers and environment, a risk for
workers, but also for consumers’ healthy such as the diffusion of Allergic Contact Dermatitis (ACID). An
Italian survey, conducted in the ‘90’s by GIRDCA11 (Gruppo Italiano Ricerca Dermatiti da Contatto e
Ambientali) on over 40,000cases, estimated that DAC from clothing represented 10% of non-professional
ACD which, according to another research project12, are mostly caused by dye use to colour textile fibres and
elements used for finishing.
The current legislation in generics and a government level coordination is absent, there are only private
certifications and the European Ecolabel standard, but this is insufficient for a global control for the safety of
11 American Journal of Contact Dermatitis, Volume 10, Issue 1, March 1999, Pages 18-30
12 For further information see F.Giusti, L. Mantovani, A. Martella, S. Seidenari, Hand dermatitis as an unsuspected
presentation of textile dye contact sensitivity, Contact Dermatitis, Volume 47, Issue 2, Pages 91–95, August 2002
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the textile production. In this variegated and confusing setting it is hard for the consumer choose a cloth with
high quality standards and understand which certification a textile item needs. For this reason the Textile and
Health Association has coordinated a UNI workgroup in order to define the Italian position with a standard
entitled “Management of textile, apparel, upholstery, footwear and accessories safety” (that has now been
brought to CEN level). This regulation, in a preliminary phase, aims at limiting the term biological only to
natural fibres, produced by a biological agriculture (EU directive), at using the same food certification, at
developing their traceability, and at allowing only this label “textile article made with X% of (.....) fibre
produced by biological agriculture”. In a second phase they aim at bringing order to private standards and
perfecting the substances admissible in every producing stage.
Concerning the consumer protection and the traceability of both the whole supply chain and products used
during the fibres treatment, the Textile and Health Association issues, to textile companies, the following
certification : “the product … manufactured by … meets all Textile and Health requirements and is part of
the Textile and Health Project financed by the Ministry of Health, aimed at safeguarding human health, to
guarantee consumers the safety and transparency of the textile product”.
5.1.3 Quality: product standards and certifications
In order to understand the Italian and European certification setting and choose which regulation are
compulsory, the team has developed a research on the standards that are most important and common,
besides the identification of the main criteria. It is important to underline that textile ecology and
consequently the certification can be subdivided in four areas: the production ecology about the effects of
manufacturing processes on human and the environment; the human ecology about the consequence of
chemical elements on health; the performance ecology about the issues of textile use; the disposal ecology
related with recovering, recycle and disposal. Below are reported some products certification13
The Oeko-tex ® Standard 100 focuses on human ecology since it is a testing and certification system for
textile raw materials, intermediate and end products at all stages of production, the test comprised prohibited
substances or regulated by law and chemicals which are harmful to health; whereas The Oeko-tex® Standard
1000 deals with the production area since it is a testing, auditing and certification system for
environmentally-friendly production sites throughout the textile processing chain, moreover companies have
to provide evidence that at least 30% of total production is already certified under Oeko-Tex® Standard 100.
Another important standard is the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is worldwide spread, it includes
ecological and social criteria, it is valid for fibre, yarns, fabrics and clothes and provides independent
certification for the entire textile chain from the production through processing, manufacturing, packaging,
labelling, exportation ending with importation and distribution. Therefore it has both processing and fibres
criteria, the last ones labels as ‘organic’ a textile product that contains a minimum of 95% certified organic
fibres, whereas the wording ‘made with organic’ stands for a minimum of 70% certified organic fibres.
13 Classification reported in “AA.VV., Il settore tessile in Italia: fibre naturali e comfort ,Issue 1.1, pages 14-42, September
2005” in order to distinguish the product certification from the process certification which are about the “Sistemi di Gestione
Ambientale” (SGA).
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Whereas the two previous trademarks are international, the Ecolabel is a European label established in the
1992 in order to encourage businesses to market products and services that are kinder to the environment,
therefore it is not exclusively for the textile. Final product with the flower logo can be simply identify by
consumers who can trust on the rigid criteria about the environmental impact throughout the life-cycle (i.e.
raw material extraction, production, distribution and disposal); Ecolabel helps not only the purchaser but also
manufacturers, service providers and retailers gain recognition for good standards, it is available only for
final product and lass three years.
An Italian trademark is Tessile Biologico AIAB which links the organic product (food, cosmetics and
cleanser) which follow the AIAB (Associazione Italiana Agricoltura Biologica). It analyzes the
environmental impacts form the fibre growing to the analysis of the whole production chain. Moreover it
provides an analysis of work conditions in the textile field for ensuring comply with worker right. Thus this
is an ethical and environmental certification. It certificates a textile product made of organic yarn: congruent
to CE 834/07, without bleach washing containing chlorine, without use of metal as nickel, chrome, copper
and cobalt in the dyeing and printing phase.
5.1.4 New fibres
The team has investigated also in new fibres that could be use for enriching the sustainability of the service,
following this purpose two innovative yarns has been identified: Ecotec and Milkofil.
Ecotec is a new yarn composed of 75% - 90% of recycled material; The scraps of apparel factories, instead
of damping them in a landfill, are converted into 100% cotton fiber that can then be re-spun into yarns. The
scraps are shredded in order to turn the fabric into fiber, the outcome is a pre-colored cotton that can be
blended to achieve any desired color, the final fiber is sent into spinning to be spun into various size. This
process besides reducing landfill, it also avoids replanting of 20 million pounds of new cotton every year and
consequently it eliminates additional pollutants (e.g. pesticides, fertilizers and associated fuel) and finally it
saves five million gallons of water per week required for dyeing.
Milkofil is the innovative organic milk yarn, particularly comfortable for the skin; it is produced by Maclodio
filati. The fibers, which comes from casein, emits negative ions, so it stimulates the flow of blood, it is
antibacterial and sterilized. Besides the 100% milk protein fiber, Milkofil it is also available blended with
cotton (Milkotton) or wood (Milkwood).
The textile industry is investing a lot in the development of new kind of fibers that comes from the recycle of
raw materials that otherwise would become waste. In addition to this, there are experiments to extract fibers
from plants (e.g. nettle, broom) which so far have not been used by the textile industry.
5.2 Eco-fashion designers
On the wake of these ecological and sustainable trend many stylists and brand are developing eco-collection.
Patagonia, the “2008 Ecobrand”, in the ‘90’ has used organic cotton for its clothing collection and in the
2005 has proposed the “Common Threads Recycling Program”, a program for the recycle of items of
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clothing. The 2008 collection was quite entirely made of ecological fibers (organic cotton, hemp, recycled
polyester, wool dying without chlorine), the 53% of items are recyclable among which the first jacket in
nylon completely recyclable. In the same year the companies has launched Footprint Chronicles, a
temporary site where the client can monitor the impact of five Patagonia products from the design stage to
the deliver one.
A different rout has been followed by FIN, a Finn fashion company that produces organic cotton garments
without chemicals. What is new, FIN cultivates the cotton used in its collection in order to eliminate
middle passages with positive effect on the price that can be very low. To strengthen the environmental
attention the companies buys portion of CO2 emission through CDM (Clean Development Mechanism), this
is a project approve by United Nations.
In Italy is the High Fashion that is shift toward “green”, luxury and ecological seemed incompatible, but
famed stylists are the most active. Giorgio Armani is using recycled cotton, recycled polyester, hemp and
organic cotton. Also in the accessories sector there are many new, the most interesting for eco-compatible
materials and glamour coexistence is the New Yorker Charmoné that produces sophisticated, trendy and
absolutely eco-friendly shoes made of synthetic materials in replacement of the traditional leather. Charmoné
uses Italian microfibers of high quality that have the same characteristic of real leather, maintaining
perspiration and lightness, moreover the microfibers manufacturing process is less polluting in comparison
with the one of tanning leather transformation.
An important “green collaboration” is between Stella McCartney and Adidas; the American stylist designs
many collections that are part of the Adidas Better Place program, this initiative promotes an eco-sustainable
fashion without danger or toxic substances, in line with the standard for the safety of worker in the
manufacturing factories.
What is new in term of traceability is the brand Flocks design by the young Dutch designer Christien
Meindertsma, that sells garments obtained by the wool of a single animal; from a single sheep, alpaca,
Angora rabbit or goat of Flocks breeding she produce a unique handmade jumper, a scarf or a hat. Every
items has a label with a code that shows from which animal it comes from (also with the sheep photo); since
they are made with natural raw material, they have the exact color of the animal, but it is also possible have
them colored with the identity card of the plant from which the color is extracted. The idea is creating cloths
with a story, that can be traced and that is not limited to the shop where the cloth has been buy.
In Milan, also among the less glossy stylist, eco-collections, made of recycled materials, begin to make their
own way; an interesting case is Caira Design with linea Unique, unique items of cloth, made of fine vintage
garments. The recycling activity includes button, household linen, piece of clothing that are unstitched and
reassembles in order to generate new creations.
With the same Caira Design philosophy the creative brand of Milano Asaplab produces cloths entirely made
of the rests of textile factories. In fact many fabric are discard because they are of an unfashionable colour or
similar problem, so they stay in warehouse and cannot be used; Asaplab buys this yars and uses tham in
order to produce refined and fashion cloths that are also cheap.
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The ecological brand, thanks to the great stir of the sustainable topic, are improving their turnover,
unfortunately some prices are still a bit too high for the general public, but it is important to keep hoping that
eco-fashion will not become unfashionable.
6. FEEDBACK ABOUT EXPLORATION ACTIVITY
The research activity has focused our attention on the emerging attitude of asking the provenance of clothes,
just as it happens for food, but fashion, by its ever-changing nature, can appears unsuitable for the
application of sustainable methods of production. However, by planning a service, we can speed up this
trend and influence consumers purchasing just proposing the bio-sustainable fashion both as something
glamour and innovative from the environmental point of view; in turn, designers and consumers can have
influence over the material preferences and the production processes, therefore the whole fashion word can
together become “greener”. Focusing on this assertion we search for an alternative way of production in
order to manufacture garments in an environmental friendly background. Following all these green principles
we are persuade that, within constriction, there are possibilities to develop an innovation in textile in order to
create something more exciting than what it already exists today, because sustainable fashion is more
desirable than the polluted one. This is our first step towards a greater issue.
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PART III The Solution
This part can have an arbitrary structure, can be divided into several sections if needed, but it must provide
enough detail on the solution being proposed in terms of:
-
system specification (as derived from user requirements),
-
description of the concept (including functional and technology selection decisions),
-
concept selection (including a comparison with alternative concepts and solutions),
-
feasibility analysis and concept evaluation with respect to aspects such as technology, performance,
sustainability, social/economic impact,
-
suggestions for building a prototype / demonst rator / concrete solution and testing it.
7.
THE ECOLAB
7.1 An innovative model
The Ecolab is an innovative clothing store that allows to re-organize and optimize the supply chain for the
fashion industry. In the Ecolab, production and sale are merged, creating an on-site and on-demand service
that deeply changes the supply chain and the customer experience. Taking advantage from this opportunity,
the Ecolab is designed in order to reduce the environmental impact of the clothes and in order to minimize
material waste. The aim is to produce and sell high quality clothes with a low environmental footprint. Each
step of the supply chain, from raw materials to the delivery of the clothes, is optimized visiting all the
opportunities that guarantee a sustainable product.
Ecolab allows also an innovative and unique experience for the customers through a basic dress
customization and the possibility to follow the entire production process. Moreover Ecolab guarantees a
complete traceability of the clothes that improves the purchasing experience.
The Ecolab is a prototype store and its model can be expanded in order to create a network of ecosustainable shops.
7.2 An innovative supply chain
The production on-site is possible thanks to a new knitting technology provided by Shima Seiki. This
computerized knitting machine is able to produce a complete and finished dress in a reasonable amount of
time (about 1h and 20 minutes). A single knitting machine can memorize more than one dress model and
these models will be produced only after the demand of the customer.
The main advantages from a sustainable point of view can be explained comparing the traditional industrial
supply chain with the new one allowed by the EcoLab.
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The traditional fashion industry production model presents a lot of aspects that could be improved in order to
make it more efficient by reducing the waste and producing clothes with a lower environmental footprint.
The current model presents inefficiencies at several levels. The Ecolab re-design the supply chain, proposing
a new model more efficient and sustainable.
The first issue that should be faced is the reduction of the waste: currently there is a relevant part of the items
produced that is not sold. This is a direct consequence of a model that produces the clothes in advance in
order to have them ready in the warehouse or available to the consumers on the shelves of the shops. Since it
is not possible to predict how many items will be sold that model leads to two possible solutions: on the one
hand, there is the need to produce a lot of items that nobody will buy. On the other hand, if the production
does not match the requests, the costumers could be unhappy when they try to purchase an item that is not
available.
Another thing that has to be taken into account is the origin and the kind of the materials used for the
production. The choice of the materials could have a significant impact on the footprint of the cloth. For
instance the usage of natural fibers rather than some other synthetic materials could really help making the
whole industry more sustainable. Another issue that has to be faced is the transportation of the goods from
one site to another: in the traditional supply chain there is a fragmentation of the production phases and
before the item is sold there is the need to take the yarns from the supplier to the manufactory, then once the
good is produced it has to be taken to the warehouse and finally to the shop. Furthermore nowadays big firm
and textile-fashion industries more and more decide to delocalize the factories increasing the distance
between shops and manufactories. The journey of an item is definitely too long and there is the chance to
shorten it a lot with a more efficient supply chain.
Give these consideration it is clear that a new design of the supply chain could improve the efficiency of the
whole industry, making it more sustainable.
The new supply chain model switch from the traditional produce and then sell philosophy to a more
sustainable and efficient production on demand.
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Transportation of the goods between manufactories and shops can be avoided thanks the unique place for
production and sale. Furthermore The Ecolab can use local supplier for raw materials in order to guarantee
high quality yarns. The image behind shows the difference between the traditional supply chain and the new
one.
7.3 Maps of the service
The Ecolab is organized in two different entities:

The Back Office

The Front Office (The store)
If a single prototype store is considered the back Office and the Front office are merged in a unique entity.
Otherwise if a network of eco-shops is considered the Back Office’s role is to organize, integrate and
coordinate the stores with the sustainable yarn producers.
Map of the service: Ecolab Back Office
Another task of the Back Office is to define the Collection of clothes (Meta Collection) that will be produced
by the computerized knitting machine in the stores. More generally the role of the Back Office is to
accomplish the common needs of all the stores in the network.
It is also important to notice the different timing of the two offices. In fact the Back Office operations are
occasional and have to be updated on a predefines schedule, typically on a six-month basis according with
the winter/summer collection. Differentially, the Front Office activities are a continuous process, which has
to be performed daily during the Ecolab life.
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The service can be summarized in the following map:
Map of the service’s steps
The description of each single step of the service will be detailed in the next paragraphs. The value added for
the customers occurs in different steps of the service: firstly in the selection of the interchangeable
components (turtleneck collar, sleeveless undershirt, ecc..) that allow the customer to customize the dress;
secondly in the possibility to follow all the phases of the production, from the knitting machine at work to
the washing phase; finally with a unique “Identity Card” of the dress that guarantee the complete traceability
of the item.
The Activities of the store are as follow:
Map of the service: Activities
Obviously the activities are strictly correlated with the service phases showed before. The daily activities are
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related with the Production on demand. As it possible to see from the Map there is also a minimal yarn
stock. The stock is in contradiction with the philosophy of the Ecolab, however is necessary in order to be
able to address growing demand in critical periods of the year (i.e. Christmas Eve).
8. HOW etiCO WORKS
8.1 Service phases
The process that leads from the item ideation to its production and sale is composed by many different
phases, which are performed in different location and time periods, with the help of physical and virtual
tools. These activities are performed by professional figures responsible for a single or multiple phases.
However, considering the project architecture, it is possible to argue that they will have a more global and
holistic vision of the entire process, giving it more flexibility and velocity in adapting to the constantly
changing costumers needs.
It is possible to consider two different time windows in which the operations are performed: before entering
into the market and after the entrance.
The fists category is composed by all the operation needed in order to create a fully operative Ecolab, which
will be carried out mainly by the back office. The first activity to be performed is the Garments Design. This
phase involves the transformation of the stylist sketch in an industrially producible item. The back office will
perform this phase twice a year, generally a few months before the delivery of the new collection, with the
collaboration of both a stylist and a modeller.
The Stylist will be responsible of the collection ideation, which has to be composed by basic design (ex
undershirt, vest, cardigan…) plus some interchangeable components (collar, cuffs…) that could be
assembled to create a unique garment. This final assembly will be performed directly in the Ecolab, where
the client will realize his own product with the help of a Shopper.
###inserire immagine di esempio per visualizzare la collezione####
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After the collection ideation, the Modeller will transform the Stylist drawings on machine codes that could be
executed in the Ecolab to produce the different items. This process will be support by the utilization of the
Shima Seiki software Shimatronic SDS-One and will be followed by the realization of both virtual and
physical prototypes to assess the product fit and quality. Moreover the utilization of such virtual technology
will permit to speed up the entire process and to perceive the project objective of waste reduction. When
ready and fully tested, the machine codes and the related item information will be uploaded on the websystem, giving immediately to the Ecolab the possibility to produce and deliver the different products.
The entire Garment Design process is briefly summarized it the figure below.
####Fare schema del Garment process, in parte basandosi sulla figura sottostante###
In the meantime, the back office will also provide the network to find the best materials suppliers nearby the
shop, creating the km zero supply chain.
The second main activity of this pre-opening period is the Ecolab design, which has to transmit to the client
the brand values. Here the focus will be the process visibility and its transparency, permitting to the client to
feel and touch the transformation from the yarn to the fashion item. This location will be composed by…
####inserire breve descrizione del negozio e delle sue componenti principali###
### il dettaglio verrà presentato più avanti ###
After opening the Ecolab, the activities responsibility will shift from the back office to the front office. Here
will be performed the first contact with the client, and the customer has to be assisted in the product choice,
selecting the basic design, the additional parts and the item colour. These specifications will lead a release
order, starting the Garment Making process. It will be realized inside the Ecolab, utilising Wholegarment
Shima Seiki machines. This revolutionary production technique by Shima Seiki permits to create knitwear in
“one entire piece, three-dimensionally, directly on the knitting machine. Consequently it requires no
expensive, time-consuming post-production labour”14. In the Ecolab will be also present all the technologies
for the washing and ironing phases, plus a small warehouse to keep the minimal yarns stock, and all the
necessary packaging materials (label, bags and so on). Moreover here will be kept also all the necessary tools
14
Shima Seiki website
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for the ordinary maintenance of the machines.
The process will end with the product delivery, which could be performed in two different modalities; the
first one will be on site, utilizing a 24h delivery system, and it will be utilize by the customers whom decide
to return in the shop to keep their items. Differentially, customers could choose to utilize a sustainable home
delivery, which will be provided utilizing a third party logistic service.
8.2 Competences
In this project was decided to test the project architecture for a prototype store, developing a new fashion
brand, which was called etiCO.
The fashion brand development is a long and difficult process, which involves many different expertises.
Fist or all it is important to collaborate with a stylist, who has to predict the future customer needs and to set
the fashion trends. Moreover he has to be able to design a garment both with traditional and computer tools
and to know the production techniques and the material properties in order to choose the best combination of
factors to generate a beautiful, comfortable and durable product. However, the style design could be
considered an exceptional activity, which has to be performed only a few times a year. For this reason it is
not necessary to employ a stylist fulltime and it is enough to create ad-hoc partnerships when it is needed.
This flexibility will give the possibility to change the selected stylist, creating different collections and
providing a richer fashion proposal for the client.
Analogous activity is the brand creation and the related marketing, which will be performed by a specialist
studio at the beginning of the project. Then it could be followed ad (???) updated during the brand life, trying
to drive the customers’ demands.
On the contrary, the ability to transform the stylist sketch in a complete virtual model, which could be easily
produced within the shop, is a key capability of the project. For this reason it is important to establish a
strategic and durable partnership with a modeller, able to translate the style models in information
understandable by the machines and to select all the parameters to generate the final machinery code.
However, also this step is occasional and for this reason it is not necessary to provide a modeller in each
Ecolab.
After their generation, the machines codes have to be then executed in the Ecolab by a Shima Seiki Operator,
a machiner able to work on the different machine types, with respect of times and costs. Moreover he has to
provide the adequate maintenance of the machine, keeping it always efficient and avoiding any unexpected
break, which could influence the sale. The Machiner will be also responsible for the replenishment
management, ensuring the adequate yarns’ quality and their availability. For the above explained reasons, the
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machiner is the first professional figure always available in the Ecolab.
In the prototype ethical couture shop is possible to merge the figure of the modeller and the machiner,
employing only a few selected figure. The specific number of the personnel will be analyze later on in the
report, specifically when the economical feasibility analysis will be presented.
The second figure always present into the Ecolab is the finisher, which has to complete the item production
after the machine process. He will be responsible for washing, finishing and ironing the customer item.
Moreover he has to provide the final quality checks, giving the permission for both packaging and delivery.
The last figure is the shopper. He will assist the client in all the process, from his entrance into the Ecolab
until the delivery of the garment. He has to create the client account, suggest the best item according to the
customer needs, transmit the customer’s order and estimate the delivery date. Moreover he has to follow the
production and delivery process to give, if requested, feedback to the customers.
####inserire schema delle competenze richieste####
9. THE ETICO PROTOTYPE
9.1 The service in action
etiCO will be a new Italian fashion brand, situated within the city of Milan. Its aim is to create a new attitude
thought fashion, stressing the idea of sustainability, quality and transparency.
For these reason it was decided to develop a collection utilizing only natural materials and in particular was
chosen only 100% cashmere yarns. This material was chosen for its extraordinary properties, such as
softness, finesses, lightness and warmness. Moreover the choice will also permit to set the brand etiCO on a
high positioning on the market.
The cashmere will be proposed in two different finesses (2/28 and 2/56), giving the possibility to create a
complete collection suitable for both the winter and the summer collection, following the emerging trend of
summer cashmere clothes. To stress even more the sustainability of the brand, the yarns will be proposed
only in natural not dyed colour, which it is fair to assume will be proposed in five different shape, ranging
from white to brown/black. Only in a second moment will be inserted also naturally dyed colours, generating
a bigger item variety.
With these values in mind, after mapping the market, the Italian company Chianti Cashmere was selected as
unique suppliers for its outstanding sustainable characteristics. The firm guarantees in fact that the yarns are
produced only from the combination of the fibre combed from their own goats. Moreover they underline that
“every stage of production, beginning from the day the baby kid is born, is not only Sustainable, but 100%
traceable as well.”15 All the goats, in fact, are micro-chipped at birth, and everything they eat and produce is
15
Chianti cashmere website
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recorded to guarantee the best yarn quality. This total traceability will create a plus of the etiCO products,
and for this reason will be stressed developing a product Virtual DNA that will be given to the customer after
the payment.
The Virtual DNA, which is presented in the figure below, will constitute the product ID, containing all the
information about the specific item, its realization, its material composition, and so on.
It will be composed by two different part: first of all a little sample of the chosen garment, which will be
processed after the order release utilizing the remaining yarns that, differentially, will be thrown away. The
second part is the label, containing a QR CODE directly linked with the web page where the Virtual DNA is
created. For every item will be in fact automatically generated an individual web-paged containing all the
above-specified information.
#####Inserire foto del codice####
The QR CODE was selected as the demanded technology both for its simplicity and its fast diffusion on a
multitude of different markets, such as the customers or the publishing ones, just to mention the more
obvious. It was created in 1994 by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave16 with the primary aim of being a symbol
easily interpretable by scanner equipments. The QR Code contains information in both the vertical and
horizontal directions, holding a considerably greater volume of information, such as text, address or webpage
URL, as in the etiCO case.
The QR Code is constituted by a two-dimensional barcode, readable by photographing it with specific
scanners, computers or phones provided with adequate software. The last possibility seems to be the most
interesting and the software necessity is not considered as limitation, both for their availability in free
versions and for their easy usage. However, the etiCO shop will be provided of a 24h available QR Reader,
permitting to the customer to test the code functionality. This scanner will also used to recognise the client
item in the 24h delivery box. The QR Code, in fact, will also be used to identify uniquely a customer
whenever it is necessary. The delivery process represents a typical example of such identification.
The customer, in fact, will use its personal code either to open the 24h box within the shop or to identify
himself during the home delivery. The messenger will in fact scan the customer QR CODE to certify that the
item delivery was performed.
The home delivery typology will be provided, as already mention, utilizing third party logistic system.
However they will be selected in accordance with their environmental programs, in order to follow the etiCO
values. For this reason, within the city of Milan was selected to utilize Ubm-Urban Bike Messengers, a
service that was developed a few years ago with the idea to reduce at the most the environmental impact for
the delivery operation, as already happens in cities such as London, Paris, New York or Sydney.
16
Denso Wave, http://www.denso-wave.com
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However this service is just suitable for a delivery within the Milan metropolitan area, which is considered a
possible demand limitation. For this reason another service was selected for the longer home delivery, and in
particular the GOGREEN program by DHL. It is a carbon-neutral shipping option originally created for
DHL Express business customers in Europe and now available in 17 countries across the region, giving the
possibility to reach also foreigners and tourists. With the GOGREEN optional service, all transport-related
emissions of carbon dioxide are first calculated and then offset through internal and external carbonreduction projects. Every shipment, in fact, will receive a GOGREEN sticker certificating the total amount of
carbon dioxide emission and the project performed to offset them. Their emissions-calculation methodology
will be verified annually by the third-party service SGS.
9.2 “My Wardrobe”: an added value for etiCO customers
My wardrobe is referred to the personal account of the customer. After a login the customers, that have
already buy a dress in etiCO shop, can access to his personal page.
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The personal page has some classic characteristic that are presents in the most common web-application 2.0.
The customers can insert a personal photo, a brief description and more other external users can also add
some comment. The personal page presents all the dress bought by the costumer. The valued added is in the
possibility to have a list of all dress bought in etiCO shop: is a virtual wardrobe of the sustainable echo dress
bought by the costumers. This element plays a role similar to the loyalty cards and allows the customer to
extend the etiCO experience on the web.
The page is public and can be visible also by external users that can see the wardrobe, the information of the
customer and add some comments. Only the “proprietary” after the login, can modify the page choosing, for
example, which dress he wants to show in the public page.
There is also a page for each single dress, and also here there is the possibility by a customer to edit the page
(for example adding a personal image of the dress).
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In the dress page there is all the information about the dress, these information are reachable also by the
Virtual DNA. This information shows also the uniqueness of the dress: from the name of the goat to the type
of the delivery chosen by the customer.
The service can be compared to service like Flickr. This type of service doesn’t represent a social network
but are only a personal window (in Flickr users show their own photo, in etiCO web-site the users shows
their sustainable dress). In this case the idea of a social network build around etiCO was discarded. The
number of potential users and their activity on the site is limited by the number of potential customer in
etiCO that doesn’t allow to have an active community. However the public pages can be shared on
Facebook. This possibility allow the customers to add on their personal page the new dress that have bought
and in the same time they indirectly promote the brand on the most popular social network. This promotion,
made by the customers, is one of the most effectively promotion that are present on the web, is not intrusive
and, thanks to the dynamics of the social networks, the promotion is addressed to people that have probably
the same interests and lives in the same area of etiCO customers.
9.3 Web-service overview and Green Hosting
The schema of the web services can be summarized as follow:
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The architecture of the web site is based on the classic structure client-server. The information for each
clothes is saved on a database on the server and is identified by a unique code. This code is used in order to
define the web URL and the QR Code for the Virtual DNA. As the image show, reading the QR Code
through a camera allow the users to open automatically the web page of a clothes in the virtual wardrobe
without knowing the associated code. In the server are saved also the information needed for the 24h
delivery box. Finally, there is a link between the web-service and the three social network previously
mentioned.
There is the possibility to guarantee the sustainability also in the web-service through a green hosting
solution. Fairly widespread in U.S.A. Green hosting solutions guarantee to the customers that the dedicated
server used for the website is powered by 100% renewable energy. The SMART 2020 report, published by
the non-profit organization “Climate group”17, report: “in 2002, the global data centre footprint was 76
MtCO2 and this is expected to more than triple by 2020 to 259 MtCO2e – making it the fastest-growing
contributor to the ICT sector’s carbon footprint”. Green hosting is one of the services that try to reduce the
environmental impact of the web. There are several and certified companies that propose this type of
services, (for example GreenGeeks.com or Thinkhost.com), that could be used by EtiCO.
9.4 The etical couture shop architecture
Before analyzing the characteristic of the store inside, we have to understand the best location for it. It will
be surely positioned in an urban context and rather in a thoroughfare, young, vital and artistic area of the
city. We chose Milan as the ideal city in which to create the pilot store; in fact it is recognized as one of the
most important world fashion capitals and so it seems the ideal place to promote a new service related to
knitting. Within the city we selected the area called Garibaldi, and in particular Corso Garibaldi. This area
has always been one of the most experienced by the citizens of Milan and by foreigners on holiday, full of
quirky shops and cafes. It is also close to an area that is experiencing a strong renaissance (Isola district) and
close to Brera, where artists meet and act, thanks to the historic Accademia delle Belle Arti. Daily
experienced by people of all ages, Corso Garibaldi is particularly strong and careful in terms of new trends
and fashion, but without giving priority to brands that enhance the luxury without any interest.
The store of the brand etiCO is characterized by some simple elements.
First of all we have to consider the distinction of several areas which articulate the space:
-
vending machine and the window on the outside
-
access
-
selection area
-
dressing room and customization area
-
production area
-
refining area
17 (Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)(2008). SMART 2020: enabling the low carbon economy in
the information age. Available at http://www.smart2020.org/_assets/files/03_Smart2020Report_lo_res.pdf )
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-
warehouse
-
web-relaxing corner
-
cash
-
toilets
The 120-150 mq store has all its furnishings and finishes in natural materials, following the philosophy of
sustainability that underlies the entire project. The floors are covered by parquet of rough wood, walls and
partitions are left natural and divisions are made with glass or wooden rod, which return for supporting the
dummies or to characterize the furniture behind the cash. The curtains of the dressing rooms and the
covering of the seats are knitted, referring to the product sold. Everything is supported by technology starting
from Shima machines to the web station that allows customers to connect to the etiCO website and to the
projections on the walls.
Considering the single spaces we first analyze the window overlooking the street. The store has large
windows from which it is possible to see the machines room in which items are produced instantly, in order
to communicate to the people that etiCO is not an usual boutique but a store in which production takes place
when you go inside. To reinforce the idea, in front of the glass that contains the machines, there is a row of
mannequins that shows the items that have already been made, before their delivery. This makes it possible
to see from the outside some of the variations on the models. Next to the windows there is also a vending
machine, where the customer can withdraw its item if he considers the delivery at home not necessary.
The access is broad and introduces the customer in an area characterized by transparency that refers not only
to the materials used for the fitting of the store, but also in a metaphoric way because all the phases of the
process are visible inside. As a matter of fact, like in the outside, also in the inside the production room is
visible and accompanied by the dummies hung in front of the glass; but in this case the items of etiCO metacollection are showed, without any variation.
Once chosen the item the customer enters into the dressing room followed by a specialized shop assistant
who helps him/her to choose the ideal model and the best modifications, which will concern not only the
versatility of the single models but also the application of certain accessories on it (e.g. collars, sleeves,
buttons).
After the choice, the item goes into production and here it is also washed before being finished by a tailor
who works in an area adjacent to the one for the web. In this way customers can see all of the stages of
production and check the etiCO website, where he/she finds all the information about the brand and can
control his/her “client history”, with the possibility to choose other items to match with the previous
purchases. To strengthen communication, the web-relaxing area have also projections with information on
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production, yarn and so on.
Of course, the store have also a warehouse, which differs from the traditional ones for its small size, because
there is no stock.
The cash is placed near the exit and, thanks to its natural materials and strong communication, it helps to
communicate etiCO philosophy already from the entrance.
10. THE POTENTIAL MARKET
In order to optimize the production it is necessary to estimate the potential market for the etiCO shop. This
will be done basing on the data provided by the ISTAT in their report about the Italian fashion sector18. In
the last years the Italian market of knitting item was around 220-230 million units, where the 80% was
constituted by wool or fine fibres, such as Cashmere. Considering that the etiCO target is constituted by
families with a medium-high salary, living into the Milan metropolitan area, which interesting percentage are
presented in the chart below, it is possible to obtain a potential market of 340000 individuals 19. With these
limitations foreigners will not be considered as potential customers, obtaining a little underestimation of the
potential market. The selected individuals represent the 0,5% of the Italian population and, with the
hypothesis of a uniform distribution of the garment product sales, it is possible to argue that they will buy
around 1 million items per year. Of course this is not really true, because it is easy to imagine that the richest
people selected as target probably will buy more than the average ones. However also this hypothesis will
lead to a little underestimation of the potential market, generating no particularly problems for the feasibility
analysis.
####rifare mappa in inglese######
Then it is possible to consider an analogy with the Bio-food industry, which represent the 1.5% of the total
one, assuming that their customers could be interested also in the etiCO products. The bio-customers are in
fact already aware about the environmental problems, recognising a plus in the sustainable products, for
which they will pay something extra. For this reason it is fairly to assume that they will constitute the early
adopters of the new eco fashion products by etiCO. In this way it is possible to obtain an attachable market
18 Istat, La produzione dell’industria tessile e dell’abbigliamento, 2003
19
rilevazione condotta dalla camera di commercio di Milano sui consumi delle famiglie milanesi, 2008
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of 15000 items/year. Of that, a penetration point of 15% will be then considered as reasonable, developing an
Ecolab for a production of around 2000 items/year.
In order to optimize the production was important to consider the seasonality of the market, which according
ISTAT data is the following.
####uniformare tutti i grafici#####
It is important to notice that all these data refers always to item made of wool or fine fibres, which weigh less
than 600g. This confirm the growing tendency, in particularly for women, to utilize all the year light clothes,
which could be overlapped to obtain extra warm clothes in case of necessity. Moreover, the above
considerations are particularly true for the cashmere yarns, which now is offered both in winter and summer
version.
11. THE MACHINES
With the purpose to produce 2000 items/year, it is possible to select the best technologies, which have to be
inserted within the etiCO shop. Here the production area will comprise all the machines needed to produce
high quality garments and among these it is important to distinguish the ones responsible for the items’
knitting process from the ones utilized for the post treatments.
First of all, as already briefly introduced, it is important to underline that the etiCO fashion items will be
produced utilizing a WHOLEGARMENT process. With this process the entire garment is produced directly
from the machine, without any need of cutting or sewing. A Computer Aided Design System (CAD) is
utilized to create the garment pattern. Then the pattern information is saved and transferred directly to the
knitting machine. To knit a sweater, for example, three shaped tubes are knit simultaneously and then
combined to create the final product.
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This technique debuted more than a decade ago and has been continuous improvements to increase
productivity, design capabilities and better fabric quality. Today WHOLEGARMENT machines are capable
of knitting a wide variety of constructions and basically everything item typology could be produced.
Moreover, many machines come in different gauges, allowing for a wide variety of yarns to be used. The
needles could also be taken out of action to knit fabrics of different weights.
In such context was chosen to install two identical machines of the SWG-FIRST series, which could be
considered a synthesis of all of Shima Seiki's experience and know-how. It is a computerized flatbed knitting
machines offering tremendous capability. Everything from full-fashioning, rib shaping to 3-dimensional
shaping, as well as WHOLEGARMENT production can be performed. This all-purpose capability is made
possible through the development of the revolutionary new SlideNeedle, which offers remarkable
improvements in quality, variety and productivity. The new SlideNeedle does away with the concept of the
fixed "gauge" by permitting an assortment of gauge sizes to be knit in a single garment. This allows the
freedom to handle changing seasons and shifting trends without investing in a machine for every gauge or
resorting to the complex, time-consuming task of gauge conversion.
For the etiCO shop was also selected a SWG041N machine for its compact size specially designed for
producing a range of WHOLEGARMENT accessory items, such as gloves, socks, five-toe socks, hats,
mufflers, leg warmers, neck-ties and other fashion accessories. Moreover this machine will also used to knit
the garment little sample associated with the Virtual DNA.
After the knitting process, as represented in figure ##numero##, the production process proceeds with both
washing and finishing phases. While the finishing does not require special equipments, the items washing
process is a critical procedure for the garments quality. For this reason was selected to utilize the PW 6061
machine with the Profitronic M technology, developed by the leading German company MIELE. The freely
programmable Profitronic M controls, in fact, offer 16 standard programmes for optimum efficiency, plus
183 available programme slots for individual programming. Temperatures, washing times, drum rhythms
and spin speeds are all programmable from the machinery graphical display to suit the specific item’s needs.
Moreover the laundry to suds ratio is freely programmable, and the load recognition system automatically
controls the water intake to suit the size of each individual wash load. Finally it will be provide an automatic
weighing system and a dispenser pumps, available as optional, to ensure optimum dosing of detergent and no
overloading.
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The selected machines are presented in the figure below.
With this selection the process become as follow.
As is possible to see the production process will take approximately 120 minutes, 60 of which for the
knitting process, 30 for the washing and 20 for the finishing. Moreover, other additional 10 minutes are
necessary to set-up the machines before the production. All these times will be explicitly considered later
one during the simulation.
Another important part of the etiCO shop has to be optimized: the yarns warehouse. First of all it is
necessary to estimate the restock strategy, which could be assess on a weekly basis. Then, considering that in
the 4th quarter the medium demand is around 40 items per week and that each item requires around 500g of
yarn, the supply request will be of 20 kg per week. Of course it is not possible to forecast perfectly the
colours demands, so, at least in the first period, it is necessary to keep this quantity for all the five available
shapes. Moreover they have also to be kept for both the two finesses, obtaining a necessary 200 kg cashmere
stock. However this quantity will not represent a problem in term of space, in fact it will be constituted by
only 8 boxes with approximate dimension 120x60x60 cm, which could be stocked directly in the production
area. Moreover it is important to underline that all the production area has to be kept with controlled and
constant temperature and humidity, in order to provide always the same product quality.
12. BRANDING
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A brand is the set of tangible and intangible attributes, summarized in a properly registered trade mark that
creates the value of that particular brand. It is the expectation that resides in each customer's mind about a
product, service or company.
Its purpose is to build relationships with consumers by creating preference and loyalty, in order to become a
guarantee of quality as well as a different alternative, distinctive, relevant and credible compared to
competing offers.
The first step in building the brand has been the research of competitors, of market positions and of the right
position where to place it.
Through market research it was found that both on the Italian and international market, etiCO is the only
brand that produces clothing in cashmere with a strong focus on the ethics and sustainability. Hence, with the
increasing attention and demand in this area, the brand can attract a large segment of the market without
having to share it with direct competitors. Without direct competitors, it was decided to expand the market
range and research competitors in Italian fashion brands (not producing cashmere) with a strong ethical
approach and in brands producing cashmere made in Italy even though little attention to the ethical/eco
dimension.
12.1 Competitors and positioning
"Paolamela" is a young Italian brand that produces cashmere sweaters where quality, attention to detail, the
choice of material are the peak times.
"Mac's cashmere” is the brand expression of a knitting Umbrian tradition since 1979. The mission is to cure
the product from design and research to delivery to the final customer.
"Matilda" is the brand that in the late 90's introduced a new concept of style in the market for cashmere
knitwear for women.
"Caira Unique", a young brand from Milan that creates his clothes in unique pieces characterized by the
recycling of used clothing and textiles, materials that would otherwise be unused, gives them new life. "Redesign the World" is a young Italian brand that has created a ecoethical clothing line with a soul socially
sustainable. It combines the most innovative fabrics and ecological processes and washes, enhanced by a
smart production, care to the quality of life, not only about consumers but also producers, all in accordance
with environmental respect.
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"Altra qualità" an Italian brand that is developing the project "Trame di storie”, a line of textiles and
clothing, which involves several organizations of producers in Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. The idea is to
build a staff of people of different nationalities, education and culture, located in different countries, sharing
the common desire to work according to the criteria of fair trade: producers and their organizations together
with Italian fashion designers.
"Nicoletta Lenci" produces clothing made in India in respect of human rights with recycled silk and raw
cotton.
"Laboratorio Lavgon" where different materials are modified by combining African fabrics with silk, denim
with organic fabrics, cotton, flax, hemp, bamboo, velvet.
One of its objectives is the recovery of the craft: in fact it is used the technique of combining a manual
weaving with a creative tailoring. It is the manual creation that makes each piece unique and exclusive.
Waste materials have been recycled as well for the production of accessories and inserts.
"Isola della moda", a laboratory of production, born in Milan in 2004 to give space and visibility to critical
fashion projects, and to support young designers in the start up of their project.
"Stefierre" is a young brand that produces garments hand-finished in limited edition quantities over 10 pieces
ever. Accessories handmade with yarn, wool and cotton canvas.
"Cee Bee," the brand whose philosophy is to create a line of accessories using recycled raw materials, natural
and organic strictly handmade. It has always been committed to the environment and keen observer of the
evolution of lifestyles, more and more oriented towards environmental and social ethics.
"Mitzic," a young brand from Palermo that produces through a careful culling of the environmental industry.
The competitors are found in a market niche midway between the crafts and the fashion industry, with a
strong sustainability and environmental ethic.
The only exceptions are the brands of clothing in cashmere producers where they search only the highest
quality without stopping the ethical / eco-friendly.
This mapping is used to visually outline the positioning of the brand on an increasing axis of price and
sustainability.
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EtiCO is the most sustainable and transparent brand from all points of view, both for what concern raw
materials, supply chain, production and distribution. The price is high but it is justified by the raw material is
use: the highest quality cashmeres are used, and compared with other brands that produce cashmere
(Matilda, Paolamela, Mac's cashmere) is at a mid-price range.
In the end a SWOT Analysis was performed to underline the characteristics of the brand etiCO identifying
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It analyses the present situation within the organization, the
external environment and future prospects.
12.2 Swot analysis
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Strength
Weakness
• Local root and loyal relationship with supplier in • Lack of adequate training program and technical
the area
and industrial schools
• High market level positioning
• Difficulty in recruiting high qualified personnel
• Availability of skills and knowledge in the territory
• Low number of item for every product style, with
• High capacity to differentiate the production
associated high unitary cost for the collection
• On demand production
development
• High flexibility
• Innovation in terms of creativity, content, fashion,
style, design and research on new products
• Small dimension of the brand, with limited
investments capacity
• Difficulty in developing a durable network with the
• High sustainability
suppliers to support the local production and the
• High quality materials
real made in Italy
Opportunities
Treats
• Development of a network of small ethical couture
shop in different Italian cities
• Environmental certification of the production
process
• Lack of territorial textile knowledge due to the
production shift in emerging countries, with
potential less competitiveness
• Development of specific knowledge within the • Difficulty in attract the new generation to operate
areas of styling, marketing and communication to
in the knitting industry
reduce the need of third party services
12.3 Building brand identity
A second phase concerned the building of a brand identity, the visual and the verbal expression of a brand.
First we defined the vision, what the company wants to be, their vision of society that will liven up the
mission and values. Than we defined the mission: the mission for which the company was founded, the
justification of its existence, and what differentiates it from all others ones.
In the end we defined the values which outline the culture of the company, its attitude and style.
Our goal is not to sell more products to more customers but to create a more intensive and sustained
relationship between the brand and consumers so that consumers can identify themselves in the proposed
values of the brand that it becomes much more than a brand and becomes a real way of life in a sort of
lifestyle where the concept of ethical and sustainable are the base.
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A cashmere clothing is not a disposable good but something that lasts, that you grow fond of, to protect, to
take care. Our philosophy is therefore marked by the reduction: in terms of material waste, of packaging, of
used tissues (but all of the highest quality) and reduction of steps in the supply chain.
12.3.1 Vision
Redefine the client’s priorities, discovering the real values beyond a product.
12.3.2 Mission
Our mission is to develop a world where the consumer society becomes conscious of itself. We need a new
consumption education, a commitment for the right purchase; we need an “Art” of the choice of the garment,
a new image of the fashion item.
12.3.3 Values
Sustainability
Quality
Ethics
Excellence
Respect
Differentation
Biocompatibility
Critical consumption
Social Commitment
Innovation
Integrity
Technology
Uniqueness
Passion
Personalization
Creativity
Authenticity
0 km
Care
R&D
Trust
12.4 Building the visual identity
The third step is the construction of a visual identity, easy to remember and immediately recognizable.
At the beginning we designed the logotype and the trademark. The name needs to be simple, coincided, easy
to remember and easily pronounceable (considering sound and cadence), conceived to sum up the main
features of the brand: etiCO, which can be understood both in the literal sense of the word that as
abbreviation or words game of ETIchal Couture.
The font is Helvetica Neue LT Pro 65 Medium white and black.
The choice of a font sticks, white and black, denotes the desire to communicate the austerity and simplicity
of the brand but making it real and based on innovation.
The name says the main feature: sustainability.
The trademark is the negative of a stylized yarn and communicate us a young and modern image.
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We passed from the design of the logo to the design of packaging, labels and brochures.
The labels are made of fabric, printed with environmentally friendly ink and they are sewn into clothing on
the back side below the neck. The information above are:
- the embroidered logo
- the symbol of “wholegarment”, because all the clothes are manufactured in one piece, without
seams to assemble the pieces
- the type of fabric (cashmere) and provenance
- the fineness of the machine that has woven the apparel
- information about the goat from which the cashmere used for that specific clothe, in order to
convey the concept of short chain and transparency, and to create more contact between the customer
and the raw material. The information serves to emphasize the care and attention that farmers turned
to their goats, and which ensures a so high quality of cashmere
- the serial number identifying the garment
- the QR code by which you can get more detailed information on the clothe at stake
- the website
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The bag is made of recycled paper with a very simple layout. A folded sheet held together by two adhesive
strips. Lightweight, compact, 100% sustainable, reusable. 2 functions in 1. It can be used as an envelope or,
at the same time, as a bag, by simply applying two adhesive handles. This allows to store only a single item,
resulting in space savings. On the surface of the bag it is printed, in environmentally friendly colours, part of
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the logo, in order to make it immediately recognizable.
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12.5 Web and IT for etiCo
Information technology plays a fundamental role in two different steps of the service. Firstly, specific
software, provided directly by Shima Sheika, is necessary as interface between the knitting machine and the
designer. As aforementioned this software is a Computer Aided Design System (CAD) and is used in order
to define the instructions for the knitting machine. Secondly IT is present in the Virtual DNA procedure
through the creation of the QR Code and the URL about the information of a dress. These two phases are
mainly
internal
processes
that
are
not
directly
related
to
the
customer.
In the service the Information Technology for the costumers occurs mainly through a dedicated web
platform. The web platform is designed for two objectives:

Brand communication: the web platform could be the first touch point of the service for possible
customers and is a point of reference for the promotion of the shop and for the promotion of
sustainable values. In the web platform all the information about etiCO are provided presenting all
the production steps with particular attention to sustainable values. In other word the web platform
must answer the following question:

o
What is etiCO?
o
Where is etiCO?
o
How etiCo works?
o
Which are the advantages of etiCo products?
o
Why etiCO is sustainable?
o
Which are the raw materials used by etiCo?
The second objective is to provide the access to the identity card through a virtual wardrobe. Here
the customers can have a list of all the purchased items.
The virtual wardrobe is the key service that increases the added value of the dress that can continue his
experience also on the web.
12.6 Brand experience through etiCo website
Considering the dimension of the investment on etiCO shop and the dimension of the potential market (see
“Economic feasibility analysis” for more details) the web platform is one of the main channels for the
communication of the service. The navigation experience and the effect on the brand perception involved
different studies in psychology and marketing. These studies have been resumed by Brigitte Müller20 that
defines some features that influence the navigation experience. These features are the layout of the website,
the interactivity of the website, the depth of information available at the website, the entertainment produced
by the navigation, the efficiency of the website and the reactivity or response time of the website.
Considering
this
element
a
simple
proposal
of
a
possible
website
is
defined.
The main content elements that must be present in etiCo website are as follow:
o
etiCo philosophy (mission)
o
Environmental consciousness
20 (Brigitte Müller, Navigation experience on a brand's website and the consequences on brand perception, Institute of
research in Managment, HEC Lausanne, 2006).
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o
An overview of the meta-collection
o
Raw Materials and eco-sustanaibility
o
Production process
o
Where we are (to remark the commitment with the local area)
In addition, for etiCO costumers, a personal account for the virtual wardrobe must be provided. This part will
be discussed later.
Quality garments, transparency, sustainability and simplicity are some key words that can describe the brand
etiCO. The website layout was thought as a minimal place in order to communicate the brand values. The
idea is to create a white and floating space in order to communicate elegance and simplicity. Moreover the
name of the brand and the subtitle near the logo suggests also the sustainability of the project. A proposal of
the home page is as follow. In the center there is a simple show gallery that shows some key images in order
to describe the product and sustainability aspects of the brand.
The links on the left allows the user to navigate inside the different aspects of the project. For example the
section designer wants to underlines the link between the collection designers to the single shop.
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Team C
The transparency of the production process can be communicated through an interactive storyboard where,
through the description of each step, the user can see how a dress is made and why the product is sustainable.
This section improves the navigation experience and should entice the user to purchase the product. Finally,
another aspect of the design of the layout is the possibility to improve the level of the attention with a
different background. For example the screenshot below show a different background for the description of
the raw materials used. The background underlines the importance and the quality of the cashmere used for
etiCO products.
At the top right there is also the connection with the network of the main web-based application 2.0 (es.
Twitter, Facebook, Flickr). The presence of the brand in these channels is necessary in order to promote the
brand in places that can reach a lot of possible customers. For example be present on Twitter, a
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Team C
microblogging service is useful in order to communicate all the news of etiCO: from a new meta collection
to, for example, a video that describes the aspects of etiCO.
13. THE FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
13.1 The operative feasibility analysis
Obtained the market dimension and its timing and defined the production machines, it is possible to proceed
with a simulation analysis, in order to understand if the selected machine are enough to follow the demands.
This simulation was performed utilizing the queuing theory, in particularly a M/G/2 queuing system. A
detailed description of the mathematical implication behind this choice is out of the scope of this work.
However, it is important to know that the customers’ arrival times are considered a Poisson process, with a
parameter λ changeable according with the considered period (1st, 2nd,3rd or 4th quarter). Moreover, the
Ecolab will be consider furnished by two equal machines of the First Series presented above, which will
represent the “simulation servers”. Each one will be considered able to process one item in about 60 minutes,
plus a random incremental time of 5% to consider a minimal variation. The two machines will work
continuously on a first-come first-serve basis, processing the different orders as soon as possible when they
became available.
In the simulation will be considered also a setup time of 10 minutes, while the washing time will not be
taken in account, because its planning could be optimize only after understand the expected production time.
The simulation will be carried considering an Ecolab opened 9 hours a day, 300 days a years and with the
hypothesis that the demands are equally spread during the considered quarter. This choice will let open the
problem of what the Americans calls Black Fridays, typically the days before Christmas, which are
considered the busiest retail shopping days of the years. It is not interesting to insert explicitly these days
into the simulation, because they will just return the result that the production it is not enough to follow the
request. For this reason they will be omitted from the following analysis, for then be considered separately
without simulation.
The final objective of this simulation is to figure out the expected hours needed to complete the production
of all the orders of a “normal day”. This information will permit to optimize the best washing, delivery and
marketing strategies.
The results of the simulation are presented in the following figures and it refers to the 4th quarter. The first
figure represent the clients’ arrival times in four different days, each one represented with a different colour.
As it is possible to see, the points’ distribution is highly variable from day to day, obtaining a good
representation of the reality.
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Team C
The second figure is a graphical representation of how the simulation was performed. In the chart the blue
points represent the clients entrances, as in the figure before; then the black or red plus show the final
production time, identifying which machine of the two performed the operation. It is important to notice that
the simulation continues until that a client arrival time exceed the shop opening time. However, the
production time could exceed the opening time, with the objective to produce all the ordered items.
Collecting all the production time for the last ordered item, it is possible to obtain the following distribution.
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Team C
production time distribution, mean 8,9 h; variance 1,19 h
The diagram shows the expected daily finishing time for the production. It interesting to notice that also
during the worst period (the fourth quarter) with an extra hour of production time after the shop closure, it is
possible to finish the 96% of the orders. For the remaining ones, which will be probably just a few, it is
possible to consider letting the machines gone also during the night, utilizing a remote control to monitor the
procedure. With this organization it will be possible to complete all the production the same day of the
orders, giving the possibility to make both washing and finishing the following morning and to deliver the
items in the afternoon. In this way the production process will be organized as follow: the day j clients
arrives according with their distribution and generate the day j orders. In the meantime the production will
start to operate, processing the day j orders. As an adequate amount of products are produces, let say 4 or 5,
a first washing process could be performed and then the responsible personnel could finish them. As soon as
ready, the item will be available within the shop and the associated customer, if request, will be informed by
SMS. Moreover the product status will be immediately updated in the Virtual DNA, keeping the total
traceability. In the meantime the production of the remaining items will continues, if necessary also after the
shop opening. In such way during day j+1 morning all the day j items will be produced, and partially also
finished and ready for delivery. The machine will be so available for producing the day j+1 orders, while the
last day j products will be washed and finished. All these operations could be concluded during the day j+1
morning. Then the items will be collected and they will be delivered utilizing the services already presented.
This organization is in accordance with the predefined purpose of having at the most day after delivery,
confirming the project operative feasibility.
####inserire uno schema che spieghi il processo####
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Team C
Optimized a “normal day”, it is now time to considered the Black Fridays. In these days there will be an
extra request and the above strategies will not permit to produce everything. This will lead to a misalignment
between offer and demand, generating potentially unhappy customers. To avoid this possibility, it is possible
to follow two different strategies: anticipate the offer or delayed the demands. The first strategy, aiming to
sell everything the same days the orders are placed, will anticipate the production of some fashion items,
forcing then customers in choosing these ready to wear products. However, this strategy will uniform the
etiCO shop to a traditional retail system, losing some of the project key values, such as the on demand
production, the waste reduction and the product customization.
On the contrary, the second strategy aims to delay some of the orders in future less crowed day, continuing
with the traditional production path. This strategy seems to be supported by a particularity of the Black
Fridays orders: most of that are gifts. Considering this special order typology, the idea of realizing a kind of
garment voucher emerges as a potential solution. Moreover it will continue to perceive the brand values,
incrementing the etiCO reputation. However, the voucher is not an innovation and it is considered badly
from the customers.
####definire meglio il voucher####
13.2 Economic feasibility analysis
The final part of this report aims to demonstrate the economic feasibility of the project and in particular of
the etiCO shop. However before doing that it is important to notice that some of the project costs, for
example the stylist provision or the marketing strategy development, will not be considered explicitly in the
feasibility analysis, because it is possible to consider such activities as part of the entrepreneurs group
abilities. Moreover any estimation of their associated cost will be erroneous, due to their high variability in
dependence with the selected subjects, for example the stylist, which definition is out of the project scope.
Indentified the analysis limitation, it is possible to create a list of all the project costs.
First of all it is necessary to estimate the personnel number, which has to be recruit for the etiCO shop. As
already mentioned in the competences paragraph, the role involved within the shop are: modeller/machiner,
finisher and shopper.
According to the store opening hours and considering the constrains of the Italian national contracts21, it is
fair to assume will be necessary at least two modellers/machiners and three figure between finisher and
shopper. These last there employees will be selected and trained in order to be interchangeable, generating
both easier schedule planning and better working conditions.
The precise assessment of the personnel salary is quite difficult, because it strictly depends on the selected
contract. However it is possible to estimate a medium costs around 30000 Euro/year for each
modeller/machiner and around 25000 Euro/year for the finisher and shopper roles, due to their less
qualification and difficulty in being substituted. Anyhow, these represent just medium salaries and it is
21 ASSOCIAZIONE LAVORATORI ARTIGIANI E PICCOLE E MEDIE IMPRESE RIUNITI, CONTRATTO COLLETTIVO NAZIONALE
DI LAVORO PER I DIPENDENTI DA AZIENDE INDUSTRIALI METALMECCANICHE, 2009, http://www.associazionealar.it/
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Team C
obvious that they will not represent the real ones. However, they provide a first indication for the economical
feasibility evaluation of the shop.
The second big voice of the economical evaluation is represented by the Shima Seiki machines, which is
possible either to buy or to rent. However the ranting option seems not to be really promising, due to their
lack of availability into the market. Moreover the machines could be considered a strategic asset for the
etiCO brand and for these reason it will be definitely more attractive to buy them. Unfortunately their high
prices, which range around 170000 Euro for the SWG-FIRST and 70000 Euro for the SWG041N, could
generate a hesitation for many potential investors. However, exploring the market was fond a potential
solution. Due to the financial crisis, in fact, many company are downsizing themselves, reducing the
productions and selling some regenerate machines for the 30% of their regular price. Utilizing these
machines will generate a consistent initial investment reduction, generating interesting prospective also for
the rapid grow of the brand. Moreover reutilizing used machines will perfectly fit within the brand
philosophy of waste reduction and sustainability, probably generating also an additional appeal for the
clients. For these reason this is the proposed strategy and that one utilized in the economic evaluation.
Differentially the Miele machine for the washing process will not represent a particularly problem, due to its
limited initial cost of 10000 Euro.
There are many other costs associated with the etiCO shop opening, such as the ones related with shop rent,
furniture purchase, marketing campaign or capital cost. However they do not represent particularly
challenging problems, which is interesting to discuss. For these reason they will be just presented with the
economical calculation in the following chart, without further considerations.
However, for a few numbers it is possible to spend some additional words. In particularly it is interesting to
notice that the company is quite profitable, with a return rate of about the 30% per years if it is considered an
initial investment of around 450000 Euro for machines, personnel, shop rent and furniture, advertising and so
one. Moreover it was obtained a breakeven of 1391 items/years, which represent the 70% of the expected
demand. This factor is quite positive and give some confidence about the market dimensioning and in
particularly of the estimation to obtain a 15% penetration point.
Finally it is possible to perform a sensitivity analysis regarding the items price, which was now set at 300
Euro. This analysis show that the breakeven price is 228 Euro, with a 25% discount regard the initial price,
giving another confirmation of the productivity of such shop.
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Production plan and economics
GARMENT
PERSONNEL
g/item
500
€/100g
10
Total cost
50
30000
C_28
Number
2
€/item
Finisher
25000
Number
2
Shopper
Number
25000
1
€/y
MACHINE
SWG-FIRST
51000
€
numbers
Life
2
15
years
coeff dep
€/y
Machiner
€/y
OTHER COSTS
13600,00
€/y
Shop rent
70000
€/y
variable cost
12
€/item
Shop expense
20%
shop rent
SWG041N
21000
€
Furniture
50000
€
numbers
1
Vu
9
y
Life
15
years
Dep
11111,11
€/y
coeff dep
2800,00
€/y
variable cost
10
€/item
MIELE PW6061
10000
€
Advertising
50000
€/y
vu
9
Distribution
10000
€/y
dep
2222
€/y
Finance
20000
€/y
variable cost
2
€/item
PRODUCTION
ECONOMICS
Demans
2000
items/y
Sales
600000
€/y
Item pure cost
64
€/item
Production cost
128000
€/y
Item Price
300
€/item
Machines cost
32222
€/y
Margin
236
€/item
Personnel
135000
€/y
Extra cost
161111
€/y
143667
1391
€/y
item/y
PROFIT
Breakeven
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Conclusion
Summarizing the main findings of the project, pointing to follow-up activities that could take place or events
that should be monitored, possibly giving advices on how external institutions may use the project’s results
and outlining a plan for the continuation of the work after the end of the ASP project.
Bibliography
[1] AA.VV., Il settore tessile in Italia: fibre naturali e comfort, Issue 1.1, pages 14-42, September 2005
[2] J. Gershon, “Wearing your values. Eco-Fashions are on Today’s Runways”, The Environmental
Magazine, Vol. 16, Issue 4, July/August 2005
[3] F.Giusti, L. Mantovani, A. Martella, S. Seidenari, Hand dermatitis as an unsuspected presentation
of textile dye contact sensitivity, Contact Dermatitis, Volume 47, Issue 2, Pages 91–95, August 2002
[4] ICE, “L’Italia nell’economia internazionale”, ICE Official Report, 2001-2002
[5] Istat, La produzione dell’industria tessile e dell’abbigliamento, Official Report, 2003
[6] B. Müller, Navigation experience on a brand's website and the consequences on brand perception,
Institute of research in Managment, HEC Lausanne, 2006
[7]Regione Sicilia, “Analisi di mercato Settore Tessile-Abbigliamento, Progetto per la di un network di
animatori territoriali a sostegno dell’internazionalizzazione”, 2003
[8] A. Sertoli, S. Francalanci, M. C. Acciai and M. Gola, Epidemiological survey of contact dermatitis in
Italy (1984–1993) by GIRDCA (Gruppo Italiano Ricerca Dermatiti da Contatto e Ambientali)”, American
Journal of Contact Dermatitis, Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages 18-30, March 1999
Cite the references using the style: [Number]. List references in the bibliography in alphabetic order,
indexed by numbers. We expect about 20-30 references per report. Use the following formats for books,
journal articles, and conference articles:

Books: Authors, Title, Publisher, Editor, City, Year

Journal articles: Authors, Title, Journal Name, Volume: Issue, Pages, Year

Conference articles: Authors, Title, Conference Name, Location, Publisher, Pages, Year
For authors use: “first name, initial, last name”; for lists of two authors use: “author” and “author”; for
lists of three or more authors use “author”, “author”, and “author”.
[1] U. Eco, Il nome della rosa, Bompiani, Milano, 1982.
[2] A. Elsemberg and J. Melton, XQuery 1.0, ACM Sigmod Records, 34:4, 76-84, 2005.
[3] M. Paolucci, T. Kawamura, T. R. Payne, and K. P. Sycara, Semantic matching of web services
capabilities, in ISWC ’02: Proceedings of the First International Semantic Web Conference, London,
Springer-Verlag, 333–347, 2002.
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Internet web sites
http://www.chianticashmere.com/
http://www.denso-wave.com
http://www.earthpledge.org/ep
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/
http://www.ecotecyarn.com
http://www.filatimaclodio.it/IT/milkofil
http://www.global-standard.org/
http://www.naturalfibres2009.org/
http://www.oeko-tex.com
http://www.shimaseiki.com/
http://www.stepin.org
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