16th Edition of GARMENTECH Bangladesh-2017
showcased the latest apparel technology. Renowned technology leaders from the
all over the world have started to the 4-day event being held from 18th January
to the 21st January 2017 at the International Convention City in Dhaka,
Bangladesh
Day 2 marked the beginning of a seminar
organized by Textile Today addressing the opportunities and challenges before
the garment manufacturers in the nation’s quest for global leadership in RMG
exports.
“The leader is #1, if we continue to be
the second largest exporter, we will never be a leader in the RMG export
trade,” said technocrat Anas Shakil.
At present, Bangladesh is the second
largest RMG manufacturer and exporter worldwide. This year the nation exported
garment worth $28 million, however the aim for Bangladesh Garment Industry is
to reach $50 million worth export by 2021, the year the country marks its 50
years of independence.
A key speaker in the event, Anas Shakil
Country Head (Bangladesh), ThreadSol conducted a talk on unit cost economics as
the key for garment export growth in Bangladesh. Through his talk, he
emphasized that to ensure the target for $50 billion by 2021 is met, Bangladesh
will need to be more competitive in terms of cost. Cost per garment determines
the profitability of the garment business. And this cost per garment will have
to be lowered or maintained.
According past trend, the sole reason for
Bangladesh’s dominancy over other south east Asian markets have been low labour
costs. However, with the recent developments on the strengthening of labour
unions and demands for higher wages, this advantage is on the verge of slide.
“This is where the unit economics comes
into play.” says Anas Shakil, “Factories need to determine what is the major
contributing factor to a single piece of garment and work on reducing that
cost. 60% - 70% of the operational cost for a manufacturer today is the cost of
fabric, if that cost is targeted and reduced even by a small percentage, a
large part of the job is done.”
Technology like ThreadSol, in this case
will play an extremely important role in overcoming the excessive manual
intervention and fabric wastage the industry witnesses today. ThreadSol solutions, intelloCut and intelloBuy ensure that the garment manufacturer buys
the right amount of fabric and the fabric wastage is brought down to under 1%.
The need of the hour is to deskill the
jobs that are today being performed by skilled manpower which will result in Bangladesh
maintaining its position in the RMG Export game and also making it stronger.
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