Material Exchange CEO, Darren Glenister, discusses how his company’s platform has transformed material sourcing and promoted transparency throughout the textile supply chain. Joe Link reports.
Reducing time-to-market coupled with an improvement in quality are key to success in the textile and apparel industry and both can now be achieved through the implementation of digitalised Industry 4.0 technologies. Innovative solutions which have come to market in the last decade are therefore enabling brands and textile manufacturers to meet the increasing demands of the end consumer.
One of the latest systems to assist textile-and-apparel-focused manufacturers and brands is PTC’s Material Exchange. Material Exchange is “an advanced filtering and material visualisation platform that allows material suppliers to upload material pictures and specs into one system”. Its initial focus was on footwear as a result of parent company PTC’s close relationship with the Footwear Distributors Retail Association (FDRA), however Material Exchange soon realised the value in branching out to the textile and apparel industry.
Innovative sourcing
The online platform aims to overhaul the traditional way of sourcing materials from a swatch book, which is ‘a slow and cumbersome process’, according to Material Exchange CEO, Darren Glenister. And the more niche the material is that’s required, the bigger the challenge will be to find an adequate sample.
Glenister says: “The first step in improving the traditional process was to digitalise the data behind the materials in a swatch book and enabling the designer to work with them. And what we have seen in the last year is that brands are moving to a fully-digitalised design process - so they’re moving from 2D to 3D.”
Glenister is keen to stress that the Material Exchange is not trying to replace the physical fabric sample completely, he admits there will also be a demand for one, however what it is trying to do is speed up the supply chain while enabling brands and manufacturers to diversify and provide the end consumer with a greater array of products.
Challenges
But getting the Material Exchange off the ground wasn’t easy. Glenister says: “PTC is not particularly a company that builds its own solutions, it usually relies on third-party companies.”
In this instance, the third-party companies were manufacturers and brands that were required to get the ball rolling for the Material Exchange. Without brands and manufacturers taking the plunge, the platform would have never got off the ground. However, according to Glenister: “The biggest challenge to start with was perception. The Material Exchange was first perceived as a website or a platform where you would automatically find all the manufacturers and material suppliers. But that is not currently what it is, that will come in phase two. Phase one was very much about getting brands, material suppliers and manufacturers on board.
“Initially, companies were reluctant to join the Material exchange until other notable brands, manufacturers or material suppliers had already made the move,” Glenister continues. “Until that happened many companies felt they would struggle to get value for money from the system. However, the good news is that we now have numerous leading brands and manufacturers using the Material Exchange who have the shared belief that digitalisation is the way forward for the industry and who want to create best practices and processes for other companies to adopt. I have spent a lot of time with brands and they have proven to be very open with one another regarding their successes and failures – they do think about the industry as a whole and they do want it to succeed.”
The Material Exchange remains in its infancy but now that it has generated traction within the textile and apparel sectors, the system has developed further to incorporate items beyond just materials. The platform has now become a hub for integral clothing components such as zips and buttons, Glenister says. This means the Material Exchange has essentially become a database of everything that a designer could possibly need to create any kind of footwear or apparel product. Additionally, the Material Exchange feeds into every stage of the production process which is valuable in connecting the supply chain end-to-end.
Transparency
With greater transparency throughout the textile and apparel market – something which Glenister believes is a strength of the Material Exchange – the supply chain has the potential to be shortened as brands, material suppliers, and everyone in between, communicate more effectively.
Glenister says: “When I was inside of PTC, I could see that the usefulness of the PLM system was growing – internally to start. It enabled us to see quite quickly which products were not selling and so it was advising designers to stop producing certain products.
“I also think that data analytics and providing the relevant feedback to suppliers is important. There is going to be a big drive towards sustainability and waste reduction, we are seeing the beginning of this now, and providing data analysis to suppliers will be a positive. Brands must, therefore, be open to that moving forward.
“But this information may not be provided to the material suppliers directly, it could come from the manufacturers through a top-down approach. It would mean there would be a two-way communication back and forth between the brands and manufacturers covering key market conditions, which will include the biggest selling products, to help them (the manufacturers) make better decisions when it comes to sourcing the materials that will ultimately end up in the next wave of products – I think that two-way communication will become more open. The Material Exchange is very much a one-to-one relationship but that’s not something a competitor would see.”
Investment costs
Nevertheless, financial hardships dictate the implementation rate of new technology throughout an industry. The textile market, for example, with a poor environmental record, has had to spend money on implementing greener manufacturing processes and solutions. Stringent environmental legislations in regions that span the globe have somewhat dictated what companies spend their budgets on. Unfortunately, some businesses – particularly in China – have failed to implement greener manufacturing technologies and processes and have also been unable to pay the subsequent fines. As a result, many of these companies have become insolvent.
In a bid to reduce high investment costs, Material Exchange opted to use a subscription model for its platform. There are two subscriptions available, one for brands and another for manufacturers and material suppliers.
For companies who are considering using the Material Exchange one of the biggest differences they will notice by using the platform is a reduction in the use of samples, according to Glenister. But another benefit of the solution is that it enables designers to be far more innovative and experimental as the Material Exchange opens them up to a far greater number of fabrics. There are benefits to be had for people at either end of the supply chain, Glenister continues.
Growing demand
With populations rising and the unsustainable fast fashion trend continuing to dictate the agendas of brands and retailers, the demand for textile products remains on the rise. But there are more trends which brands, retailers and manufacturers collectively need to consider. One such trend is on-demand, consumers expect to receive their order the next day at the latest. Thanks to technological advancements that is now possible, but as the on-demand trend gathers further momentum, will meeting this demand be sustainable for manufacturers in the future?
Glenister believes that the Material Exchange is ahead of its time and is ready to handle the future demands of textile consumers. There are already digitalised brands in the system and, by the simple nature of being there with them, manufacturers and material suppliers are going to become more refined. Similarly, Glenister hopes that the Material Exchange will help smaller businesses become more presentable to the bigger brands in the system, which will help generate more business for them at a time when competition in the textile and apparel market is fierce.