The Impact of Computer Usage in Fashion Industry and Clothes Design

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1 Research Paper International Journal of Review in Life Sciences ISSN: Volume 6 (2016), Issue 1 (Jan-Mar), Pages The Im...

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International Journal of Review in Life Sciences

Research Paper

ISSN: 2231-2935

Volume 6 (2016), Issue 1 (Jan-Mar), Pages 5-10 www.ijrls.com

The Impact of Computer Usage in Fashion Industry and Clothes Design 

Atefeh Abdolsalami Faculty Member of Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract The main objective of the study topic is to determine the impact of using computer technology in the fashion industry and design of clothes. Computer Aided Design and Grafting (CADD) is one of the modern technologies firms in the fashion industry use to design outfits, create manufacturing models and marketing images. This study narrows its discussion to the impacts of CADD in designing, manufacturing and marketing of products in the fashion industry. The study samples include 10 medium sized firms, which were approached through email to provide manufacturing data based on manual methods and computer methods. Qualitative method was used to collect and analyze textual data from peer reviewed journals and article. Quantitative method was used to analyze numerical data from the 10 enterprises through one-way ANOVA to test the hypothesis. From the results analysis, CADD improves production and sales by 39.9% and 40% respectively. Therefore, computer usage improves efficiency of business operations in the fashion industry.

Keywords: Computer Aided Design and Drafting, CADD, Fashion Industry, Clothe Design



Corresponding Author

Introduction For several decades, computer technology and fashion industry have been growing gradually. The impact of computer usage in the industry has been continuously felt in terms of design, taste and trends (John-Otumu et al., 2015). The truth is that fashion design industry and computer technology have been parallel for decades. It was difficult to imagine that computer usage would one day be integrated in the fashion and design sectors. With the computer-aided designs, the fashion industry reached the highest level in the 21st century. The computer technology is changing the business operations in the fashion design, marketing and display (Li et al., 2012). Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) is one of the applications, which have been widely used in fashion industry and clothes design. According to Meng et al. (2012), the use of CADD helps fashion companies to create 3-Dimensional models with various color schemes, which they can discuss and modify based on the market demand. The CADD applications have helped in improving marketing strategies and hence improvement of sales. Therefore, we hypothesize that the adoption of Computer Aided Design and Drafting by firm in fashion industry and clothes design improve their production efficiency and sales. Objectives The main objective of the research study is to determine the impact of computer usage in improving production efficiency and sales of firms in the fashion and clothing industry. The study focuses on the use of Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) applications to create fashion designs; new fashion models, and improve marketing strategy and sales. The study also examines the impact of CADD and related computer technology in manufacturing and sales of fashions in terms of units. Methodology and Materials The study is based on online research in which 10 medium-size fashion enterprises were studied based the benefits they get after adopting CADD in drafting, design, manufacturing and marketing of their fashions products. The research methodology is based on two approaches. The assessment of the data studied was categorized in changes in manufactured units and changes in sales. The assessment was done in comparison to the annual manufactured units and annual sales using the traditional methods. The data provided for the traditional design approaches were extracted from the past companies’ data. The study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection and analysis. Qualitative approach was used to select 12 relevant peer reviewed journals and articles, which address the application of

computer technology in the fashion industry and clothes design. The main criteria used in selecting the used include the publication year and relevancy. All articles and journals were published between 2012 and 2015. The study also applied quantitative research approach in collecting and analyzing the numerical data from the 10 medium-sized companies. The names of the business enterprises interviewed were not disclosed because of the confidentiality need. It was based on their need to hold confidential information from access to the public. Therefore, the companies were denoted by letters A to J. The numerical data collected are for the manufactured units and sales units from the traditional designs and CADD designs. One-way ANOVA has been used as a descriptive statistical tool for analyzing the quantitative data collected from the study. The determination of the study hypothesis was based on the results obtained from the one-way ANOVA. Results In terms of the companies’ annual manufacturing units, comparison was done between previous traditional design-based manufacturing and Computer-Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) manufacturing. The results obtained were recorded as follows: Table 1: Comparison of annual manufactured units using traditional methods and CADD Methods Company Name

Traditional Production (Units)

CADD Production (Units)

% Improvement

A

800

1400

42.85714286

B

560

1234

54.6191248

C

647

978

33.84458078

D

763

1280

40.390625

E

1002

1600

37.375

F

911

1430

36.29370629

G

991

1501

33.97734843

H

1103

1789

38.34544438

I

408

733

44.33833561

J

844

1350

37.48148148

Average

802.9

1329.5

39.95227896

Table 2: Comparison of annual sales units using traditional methods and CADD Methods Company Name A B C D E F G H I J

Traditional Sales (Units) 700 508 598 702 948 799 933 1000 405 812

CADD Sales (Units) 1320 1111 901 1202 1488 1378 1432 1650 668 1302

Average

740.5

1245.2

% Improvement 46.96969697 54.27542754 33.62930078 41.59733777 36.29032258 42.01741655 34.84636872 39.39393939 39.37125749 37.6344086 40.60254764

Table 3: Descriptive results obtained from one-way ANOVA data analysis tool for annual manufacturing. Anova: Single Factor SUMMARY Groups

Count

Sum

Average

Variance

Column 1

10

8029

802.9

46589.88

Column 2

10

13295

1329.5

91127.61

Column 3

10

399.5228

39.95228

38.30025

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups Within Groups

8407767 1239802

2 27

4203884 45918.6

91.55078

9.35E-13

3.354131

Total

9647569

29

ANOVA Source Variation

of

Table 4: Descriptive results obtained from one-way ANOVA data analysis tool for annual sales. Anova: Single Factor SUMMARY Groups

Count

Sum

Average

Variance

Column 1 Column 2

10 10

7405 12452

740.5 1245.2

38448.06 83963.96

Column 3

10

406.0255

40.60255

38.06905

SS

df

MS

F

P-value

F crit

Between Groups Within Groups

7318779 1102051

2 27

3659389 40816.69

89.65423

1.2E-12

3.354131

Total

8420829

29

ANOVA Source Variation

of

Discussion The fashion industry is one of the oldest economic sectors in the world. Traditional fashions and clothe designs have been in used since time immemorial, with various fashions coming in the market. In the mid-20th century, computer development continued to get its way in various industries (Marie-Cecile & Anne-Sophie, 2012). As we approached the end of the 20th century, the rate at which industries started to adopt computer technologies in their business operations increased at a very high rate. Fashion industry and clothe designs were not left behind in the revolution approach in business operations. In the fashion and clothing sector, computer technology has been adopted in the design, manufacturing and marketing strategies (Cherenack & Pieterson, 2012). This is due to the modern technology features, which improve efficiency in business operations. One of them is the computer aided design and drafting (CADD) software. This study has evaluated the use of CADD software and related application in the improvement of manufacturing and sales efficiency.

Figure 1: A sketch-based garment design and animation (Yasseen et al., 2013). From the study results, manufacturing fashion and clothing using CADD increases the number units produced in a year. At the same time, the number of units sold also increase when CADD is used compared to the traditional methods of marketing and selling strategies. The results are in support of the study by Niinimaki & Hassi (2012) who argue that computer aided manufacturing in the fashion industry and clothe designs reduce the time and cost of operations. In terms of production, the use of computer and its application in drafting, designing and production improved the number of united produced (Yuan et al., 2012). From the study result, the manufacturing improved by 39.9% from the traditional model to computer based model of production. The sales improved by 40.6% when computer related technology is used. The P-values in the ANOVA results are 9.35 X 10-13 and 1.2 X 10-12 respectively, which are less than 0.05. This supports the hypothesis developed for the study suggesting that CADD improve the business

efficiency in fashion industry and clothe designs. On the other hand, the F-value is greater than FCritical in both ANOVA results, which are 91.55>3.354 and 89.65>3.354 respectively. Computer aided designs has taken the center in clothes design because of various benefits it offers to the firms. Compared to the traditional manual designs, computer aided designs are fast and comparably cheaper. On the other hand, it reduces the number of employee needed in the fashion industry. The computer-aided design and drafting, also referred to as CADD, is a computer application widely used in the fashion industry in the design process and documentation of the designs. It also helps in the drafting process. The CADD software provides the user with various input-tools essential in streamlining the design, drafting and documenting as well as manufacturing processes (Fang & Tien, 2013). It is useful in designing 2D and 3D curves, figures, surfaces and solids.

Figure 2: 3D Computer aided design, modeling and animation for women suite (OPTITEX, 2014) This helps the designers to do 3D pictorial demonstration and simulation of the design to analyze it before it can be manufactured. Even though many designers sketch their designs by hand, computer technology allows for translating of these hand sketches into computer based sketches. Through the help of CADD software, designers are able to view the design sketches of the clothing using various virtual models, colors and shapes. This saves them time that could have been used to adjust the prototypes and samples. According to Shamsuzzoha et al (2013), the main economic benefits of using computer-aided application in the design industry are to the increased efficiency in production and marketing of designed products.

Figure 3: The technical drawing using CADD software to include measurements, seam allowances for garment manufacturing (Younas, 2014). Conclusion Computer applications and software are used to improve productivity, operational efficiency and sales strategies compared to the traditional models and approaches. The research study was aimed at discussing the impact of computer usage in fashion industry and clothes designs. Considering the broad concept of the subject, the study narrowed its focus to examine the impact of Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) on the design, manufacturing and sales of fashion products. Based on the results obtained from 10 medium sized companies within the fashion industry, it is obvious that the use of CADD in fashion design, manufacturing and sales has positive impacts. Computer applications improve the quality of products from the design stage to the manufacturing stage through to marketing. Through its 3-D and simulation features, a firm is able to demonstrate the effectiveness of its new designs and predict its acceptability in the market before manufacturing it. This enhances efficiency and lowers the cost of production by reducing the possibilities creating surplus rejected from by consumers. Changing from manual traditional approaches in the fashion design, manufacturing and marketing would improve productions and volumes of products sold in units. This is reflected in the study results where the production and sales improve by approximately 40 percent when CADD was applied compared to the traditional design approaches. Although the industry cannot totally abandon the manual operations, it is essential to integrate the manual systems with computer-aided approaches if firms want to improve their quality. The CADD has the ability to improve manually created designs, and use simulation features to demonstrate how it fits on the intended customers. Apart from facilitating the procurement of the right raw materials for production, manufacturers cannot waste resources during the production. Consequently, the product will fit the specific needs of the intended customers. It explains why production and sales increase when CADD is used.

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