...a textile manufacturer can increase their profitability by 50% by reducing the quality cost from 14% to 6% in which major cost comes from internal failure cost...
Enrico Ruhle, Managing Director of TUV Rheinland India, shares his thoughts on the need for apparel testing and certification during a conversation with Fibre2Fashion Correspondent Manushi Gandhi.
Synopsis:
TUV Rheinland Group pioneers in providing technical services worldwide for more than 140 years. TUV Rheinland India is a subsidiary of TUV Rheinland Group headquartered in Germany. It started its operation in 1996 in India and the company is a part of the India, Middle East & Africa Group and caters to the Indian market as well as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan & Maldives markets.
Mr Enrico Ruhle is the CEO and MD of TUV Rheinland, India and South Asian countries since 2007. He joined the group as a management trainee at Taiwan in 1998. He is also the Founder and Director of TUV Rheinland Bangladesh since 2011. He is educated from University of Applied Sciences Mittweida (FH) as Dipl. Ing. (FH), Electrical and Computer Engineering, Business Administration. From 2011 to 2013 he also perused Executive MBA, General Management, Finance, Technology and Innovation Management from Euro*MBA International Executive MBA.
Excerpts:
Please tell us something about the latest achievements by TUV Rheinland in apparel industry.
We started our Softlines operations in India in the beginning of 2013. All our three Softlines labs in India (Gurgaon, Bangaloreand Tirupur) are accredited by NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) as per ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 which is an international standard for laboratories accreditation. All our three laboratories are approved for CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) which is the mandatory requirement of testing for any children product being exported to USA.We have been successful in penetrating the market in this one year with many leading brands and retailers from Europe and America approving us for their quality testing requirements.We have been able to deliver as per the expectations of our clients with competitive pricing and sharper turnaround time compared to competition.
What is the position of countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Middle East countries when it comes to adopting apparel testing standards and getting such certifications?
There is a long way to go for all such countries compared to developed countries like European countries, America, Japan, Korea as well as China. Though with globalisation, more and more people are traveling, consumer awareness is increasing in these countries which should drive these requirements in near future.
One of the leading apparel brands was found using toxic dyes in its apparels, which can also cause adverse effect on human health. What should be ideally done in such cases?
In Europe and America there are controlling bodies that checks the products randomly. In case any product is found having harmful chemicals beyond the limits, these are recalled from market and retailers are penalised for the same as well. The same is published in the media which results in bad publicity for retailer apart from enhanced scrutiny of their products in future.
Apparel brand should do a comprehensive review of their quality system to see whether there are enough check points which are effective and controls the use of harmful chemicals in their supply chain. Apparel brand should make a policy to ensure mandatory testing is done for all their products lot wise apart from doing mill/factory audits to ensure proper systems are followed to avoid the use of harmful chemicals in the entire supply chain during the manufacturing process.
Why do you think that there is necessity for garment manufacturer to get his goods tested as eco-friendly?
Globally, consumers have become more aware of the product safety and quality. They want to choose an eco-friendly product over a product that is made of harmful chemicals. So, all global retailers have come up with their quality requirements to ensure compliance through testing of their products. Furthermore regulations have been made in Europe countries and America to ensure that either the use of these harmful chemicals is restricted or these are banned. There are controlling bodies that randomly pick the products from market and test them for these harmful chemicals. Products are recalled if those are found to have any banned substance or any chemical exceeding the maximum permissible limit. The products of those retailers also go through enhanced scrutiny. So it becomes essential for the manufacturers to get their products tested to meet the retailers’ requirements as well as meet regulatory requirements of the country where the goods are being exported.
How do you see the sustainability of certification industry in the future? What are the reasons?
India is a developing country where the manufacturing as well as the export industry is gradually expanding. We provide passport to enable Indian manufacturers to export their products to foreign markets. In addition we also focus on the growing domestic services, wherein we help Indian players to manage complexity in the market. For instance, the Indian Apparel and clothing sector exports in bulk to countriesaround the world. With a network in 65 countries, we help them manage the complexity in regards to exporting the same, through inspection, and quality control etc.Until the manufacturing and exporting of goods or products stops certification industry would be alive.
Do you agree that testing is equally important for home soft furnishings just as for garments?
Yes, testing is equally important for home furnishings also. Testing is done to see that product is durable,safe for human health and environment apart from meeting all the regulatory requirements of a particular country .It’s important to see in case of home furnishings also to check that products are safe for use as like garments most of the furnishings products also come in direct skin contact of the user.Some of the homes furnishing products come in contact with food also. These products are tested to ensure that these are food safe. Most of the global home furnishing retailers have their own quality system in place to ensure regular testing of their products just like garment retailers.
While adopting for ethical business practices, how can an apparel maker maintain its profit levels as well? Does it actually need to raise the product cost?
There are various studies done to see the impact of cost of quality on the overall cost of the product. This has been established that there is initial cost to have a proper quality assurance system in place and compliance to all the social and product requirements which results in savings in terms of efficiency enhancement and reduction in internal failure cost. As per a study conducted with support from Ministry of Commerce, Govt of India, a textile manufacturer can increase their profitability by 50% by reducing the quality cost from 14% to 6% in which major cost comes from internal failure cost which can be addressed with a proper quality assurance/control system in place.
What steps should be taken in order to make consumers aware about the clothes which they are buying are eco-friendly?
Consumers in developed countries are more aware of the standards, regulations and labels used in the apparels and clothing. There are mandatory requirements for testing to ensure that safe and environment friendly products are being sold. On the other side, people in India are more concerned about look and feel of the garments than anything else though awareness among consumers is increasing slowly with the globalisation. Government should make strict regulation to check the quality of clothing manufactured in India or imported from abroad to ensure products being used by Indian consumers are also safe for human health and environment. Accordingly government should run a campaign in various media channels to make the public aware of its initiatives. India is a fast growing country and I am confident that in near future with enhanced consumer awareness, India will have its own testing and certification standards in clothing also.
There are many testing and labelling standards available in the market. How can an apparel manufacturer judge the credibility of any such organization?
There are many labels available in the market which tends to give an assurance about a durable and safe product though most of these labels in apparel industry are voluntary in nature. In general apparel manufacturer follows the guidance of their end buyer and gets their product tested/certified accordingly.
Can you please tell us something about functioning of TUV Rheinland Softlines Labs in India?
In line with our global strategy, we invested in 3 labs in India (Gurgaon, Bangalore and Tirupur) which ensures that we are covering all the major sourcing locations which are important for textiles, leather and footwear industry in India. Our Gurgaon lab works as a centre of excellence for other two labs in India.
Our labs are the backbone of our company which helps us to serve our customers better. We concentrate more on developing our capabilities in-house asapparel and footwear is a fast fashion industry where customers want faster turnaround time when it comes to testing.We have laboratories which are well equipped with cutting edge technology to perform mechanical as well as chemical, safety and regulatory testing including REACH for apparel, leather, footwear, home textiles, toys, jewellery, fashion accessories etc. Some of our high end imported chemical testing instruments include LC MSMS, ICP MS, XRF, GCMS,FTIR, HPLC, GC ECD etc. We have totally invested close to 3.4 million euros in our softlines lab network in India.
