The textile industry dates back to more than 700 years whencotton was woven for the first time and it is now more than 200 years since thefirst mechanized textile machinery was introduced by England. Since then, theindustry, worldwide has gone through many ups and downs. The power centre ofmanufacturing has shifted from the US and Europe to the countries of Asia. India too had a glorious past till the early 80's, with Ahmedabad in Gujarat, calledthe 'Manchester of the East'.


But now the focus in manufacturing has shifted from otherparts of India to the Southern state of Tamil Nadu, which today has 50 percentof all textile production units in the country. Even the Indian textileindustry has had its own set of challenges, in the 80's as well as now.


&sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1675)%>" target="_blank">Fibre2fashionhad an exclusive interview with Dr. P. R. Roy; for some glimpses of challengesfaced by global textile industry today and steps to be taken to overcome thissituation. He replied in detail by saying, "In any walks of life includingbusiness, challenges particularly in an economic meltdown scenario bring out afresh leadership dilemma. For example, either one continues with the samevigour in his present business and pursues the growth strategy as planned or probes in depth the options of cost cutting including down-sizing and hold or abandon all hisfuture plans.


Textile Industry, as we know has been facing such challengesin the last few decades. Being confronted with such challenges in the 80s (nomeltdown) where the threat came from many Asian and South American countries,the global textile leaders opted for RTAs , FTAs , OPTs etc, to keep theirflags flying, whereas the emerging textile countries sensing a winning scenariostarted looking at large scale investments both in textiles and apparels .


In between, relocating and outsourcing turned out to bebuzzwords and in fact provided an opportunity to the emerging economies tolearn in depth the tricks of the trade. An entirely new textile world emergedwith the abolition of quotas, although immediately followed by some major protective measures against China. This history of the textile industry was one-sided where theslowing down or withdrawal of one side gave a tremendous scope to the otherside to out-beat or outsmart them in their own game. The present scenario issomewhat universal putting every global leader on the same side (thoughthe degree of concerns may vary) and being questioned 'Quo Vadis'?


The recent pattern of progress tends to give us some idea ofthe strategies followed though differently, both by the advanced economies andthe emerging ones. Advances in science & technology and as applied to textilescertainly gave an edge to the western world and also to Japan to move awayfrom manufacturing of traditional textiles in a big way and thus creating afresh leadership position through the advent of large range of technical textiles.


Japan on one side and the US-EU on the other adopted a different strategy in applyingnew knowledge and skills. Japan attacked the man-made fibre as their core activitywhereas the western world looked at the development of newer dyes & chemicalsauxiliaries as steps to sustain their leadership. For both, environmentremained a major concern. The potential of using such products has been become, so all pervasive that, all emerging economies have started having aserious look at it.


Even under the present meltdown scenario, the advancedknowledge based textile countries are expected to follow a similar path andlook at automation, robotization and application of micro-electronics, both in textiles& apparel as chosen paths to retain their supremacy. India, even before the present development has always been a slow starter in textiles andperhaps a poor believer of its own capability. India has also been a poor interpreter of the likely global development scenario of the post quota world.


In the process, choice of products, market mix, technology up-gradation,improving the academic and research inputs and finally creating a talentedforce and then taking advantage of all these factors, has remained highly questionable.Large scale unemployment, postponing investment decisions, major cost cuttingapproaches and a wait & watch attitude would have perhaps influencedthe Indian textile stalwarts in a big way.


Of course, it is hoped that there are bold, unconventionalleaders influenced by the 'Blue Ocean Strategy' who would be able find a newpath perhaps less competitive to march ahead. India needs to look at the textileand apparel industry from a multi-disciplinary angle and bring in its hugetalents, available in the other disciplines into productive actions and in turnbenefit the textile industry."

 

We then asked Dr. Roy to gaze through a crystal globe and tell us the trends he foresees in technological development in textiles in the future, to which he expansively replied by saying, "As discussed above, the challenges confronted and the opportunities identified would obviously influence the technology developments. Historically, the onus has been on the western advanced economies to develop technology whether it is in the field of machinery development or in the field of man-made fibres, dyes, chemicals, auxiliaries, bio-technology, material science, micro electronics, sensor development in particular, application of IT, nanotechnology, plasma applications, etc would continue to be the focus.


Growth in technical textiles would highly influence the technology developments. In the apparel sector, automation might become a reality in the next decade. On the traditional apparel and home textile fronts, compact spinning technology is likely to invade with much higher intensity. Higher ring frame productivity through novel approaches would continue to draw the attention of researchers. Although, there are no major developments seen on the horizon in weaving, 3-D fabrics may become a major interest for specialized application.


Knits would see more and more of 'Yarn to Garment' developments. Warp knits would find enhanced application in technical textiles. Nonwovens are likely to be of prime interest and perhaps newer products and newer production methods for nonwovens are expected to be the darling of researchers and machine manufacturers. Biomimetics, the love of Japanese where the nature is mimicked through the developments in man-made fibres is also likely to attract major attention.


Expectedly, the developments in the different disciplines of Science & Technology would continue to influence the technology developments in textiles and also the product developments for newer applications", with which he closed the interview.


We deeply thank Dr Roy for enlightening our global readers with his optimistic views.


About Dr. Roy:


Dr. Roy is a PhD in textiles from the University of Manchester, UK and a former Chief Executive Officer of the Lalbhai group owned, Ahmedabad based, Arvind Mills Ltd and has over 40 years of rich experience in industry, research and teaching. He is considered an expert in denim manufacturing technology and is currently working as an independent management consultant for textile industries globally.