Lean Concept in Fashion and Textile Manufacturing

The concept of “lean manufacturing” refers to a process of manufacturing, starting from raw materials until the delivery of the finished goods to the end-users, with prudent management of resources resulting in monetary and time savings. Lean principles have helped fashion and textile firms become more competitive and sustainable. Lean manufacturing has minimized waste and in turn reduced costs by applying reforms introduced by “Toyota” in the 1990s, and from which the technical term “lean” was derived and became popular. This chapter discusses the benefits and challenges of key lean principles in the fashion and textile industry from product, process design and supply chain perspectives using lean operations. Modular design and postponement are two major lean operations that have had a significant impact on the fashion and textile industry. The literature and real case information from the most prominent fashion retailers, Zara, Benetton and H&M, have been used to illustrate lean applications and their implications for the fashion and textile industry.