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Strategic imperatives for Indian corporates

Anjani Prasad

Globalisation has opened the doors to competition at the highest level. Every industry must now produce products those are best in terms of quality and price. Customers now have a wide variety of choice in each price range and one who offers the best at a competitive price will survive and prosper.

For the Indian industry, challenges are even greater due to its vast geography and other diversities. Technologically speaking, in the industry there is still a lot to ask for. To get results which are the best and to ensure that one gets the best in process yields and most uniform results, special care has to be taken about the inputs which go into the processes even if auxiliaries, fabric quality etc, vary. The thrust areas for the industry are in the coming years will very much centre around:

• Process optimisation through improved shorter duration processes i.e. efficient and effective processes.
• Customised solutions
• Value addition
• Global competitiveness: High standard of quality at lowest possible cost
• Eco awareness

Each of these stages have developed in leaps and bounds over the years. Studies done indicate that India will be an overall gainer in the post-quota period as the India’s industry is competitive at every stage of the supply chain although weaving and processing remain the weak links. Thus, the coming years are sure to usher in a very competitive era wherein only the best will survive.

Global impact

In the Indian industry as well, the division of labour has erected separating barriers and broken up processes into tiny entities with the sole aim of increasing productivity and minimising costs. This heritage from the past has resulted in a multiplication of meaningless operations and an unreasonable prolongation of processing times, with the thoughtless suppression of synergistic effects, sacrificed in favour of quantity. From the raw material to the finished product, it requires more than 2000 hours about three months or 90 days inventory in most of the industry, This time corresponds to the payment time of our customers since millions of valued fabrics are pushed into long stock holding times, affecting the working capital of the enterprises. So, to achieve spectacular improvements by developing a competitive advantage, it is no longer possible to content oneself with doing the same better, although it is still possible to work more (engineering) efficiently. The future does not lie in price reduction but in quick response because there is always a local market for a rapid and short supply.

What the division of labour has produced must be undone and reinvented by a global reconfiguration of the industry to the end consumer in respect of our environment. In simple words, we need a new renaissance. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is becoming a common environmental management tool and a good analytical method for assessing and optimising the environmental quality of a system over the whole life cycle. The LCA approach is a global one, covering the complete manufacturing process, from the product’s birth to recycling to the disposal of waste. It aims at an improvement of the production of all types specially the polluting chemical industry; the promotion of a protected environment by establishing an ecobalance overview of the inputs, processes and outputs.

Life Cycle Inventory

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is the first stage of LCA and examines the entire production sequence of a product from exploitation of the raw materials through consumption and final disposal of the product for the various process phases.

The raw material and energy requirements as well as environmental emissions of textile finished fabric production are identified and quantified. The values are expressed as separate systems, using the production of 1,000 kg textile substrate as a fractional unit.

The energy requirements for textile sourcing and production can be analysed. Energy is expressed as Giga Joules (GJ) and it is split into transport, process energy and Energy of Material Resource (EMR).

Process energy is the energy consumed in all production steps via the use of primary fuel, natural gas, crude oil, coal, hydropower, nuclear energy and biomass.

The study focused predominately on cotton textile producers for the European market. These data must be overseen. LCI provides baselines for evaluating opportunities for resource and process optimisation, pollution prevention and waste minimisation within the process flow. In the textile industry, atmospheric pollution can be caused by processes using preparations of solvents, substances that can be harmful to the air and whose inhalation may have harmful effects on the health of the operatives.

The emissions of powerhouses represent the most important cause of pollution. During the latest decades, the temperature has increased by an average of 0.5ø C and the human is responsible for it basically by the atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions (7.1 billion of tons per year). Maybe a half degree celsius is not big. But it shows that something is happening. And if the greenhouse effect is spreading in this way. In 100 years the temperature of the earth will be increased by 3.5øC.

The pollution of water by residual waste will without doubt be the object of new international regulations with severe controls in order to limit damage. The recycling of waste water and the development of manufacturing processes that cause minimal pollution and require minimal consumption of water will be imperative.

Water is one of the most important factors for the textile industry. This is because it is involved at the level of conditioning textile substrates during manufacturing processes and its use is indispensable as a relational fluid during finishing processes. With an average consumption level of 100 litres per kg of textile material treated, the textile industry is one of the biggest consumers and polluters of water. Waste water must be capable of permitting a global evaluation of their probable quality and amounts respectively in the textile mill at the level of the treatment plant and of the natural waterways.

The soil is generally not influenced during textile finishing processes. It can, however, be contaminated by toxic chemicals that are improperly stored. Would your organisation be able to deal with this problem if it would be confronted with it? In future, the problem of soil contamination will occur with increasing frequency when sludge is produced at waste water treatment plants or in the disposal of finished textiles.

The garment is man’s most immediate housing. It represents protection. Its contact with the skin can cause irritations or even diseases, deriving from principal causes like content of metals; content of organic substances or chemical elements and pH.

This being the case, the first steps toward standards for textiles have been made in Europe with the MST standards, Eco-Tex, which serve as worldwide references and are the premises of international legislation. The manifest interest in ecology is also found in the boom enjoyed by natural fibres and the multitude of heterogeneous blends that are constantly appearing. Moreover, the new manmade “ecological” fibres such as Tencel, Lyocell, Newcell, etc have recently come out in the market. Their ecological characteristics come partly from their manufacture, which does not involve any chemical reaction, and partly from the total recovery of the solvent used in their manufacture.

LCA costs

Ecology has its price, but failure to take account of it will cause prohibitive expense in the long term, which will involve more serious consequences for a company and its environment if a probable accident should occur.

The environment represents already an economic criterion (9 per cent of total process costs) which has to be optimised within the process.

The efficiency of a product defines its function, and its technical performance is an even more important factor than its economy. Because, a product may be as cheap as possible, but if its performance is not efficient its price is meaningless. The aspect of ecology is still secondary, but it will continue to grow in importance and in future will become the major criterion for all new products. The evolution of the means of information and technologies with the coming of biotechnology, have profoundly changed our approach to manufacturing processes. It has improved results and brought real hopes of progress.

The new renaissance

End-consumers are seeking value for their money, thereby causing increased pressure on both suppliers and textile producers to become very focused and efficient. Concurrently, finishers face the demand by retailers or distributors to produce more quality, fashion, and increasingly frequent introduction of new collections, further challenging the capabilities of both producers and retailers. Since, consumers around the world want more value, we as an industry have to find ways to satisfy them. If we achieve this, the industry will be more profitable as if we focus purely on making things cheaply.

The old dominator model offered by the omnipotent technical people based on optical product prices is shifting to the partnership model introducing a global package deal based on innovation, service, financial and market strategies.

The new renaissance represents a new relational approach of the supplier with his customer that is based on an improvement in communication and of performance in the domain of operating processes and economical targets. It is the art of producing more with less in respect of our environment. In people we trust, in our environment we survive.

[The author is vice president, Clariant (India)]