Manufacturing is one of the most important steps in the production process. This is where you source your material, source your labor and source your distribution. There are two types of manufacturing: domestic and offshore. There are a great deal of differences in both types that leads to one to look at all pros and cons of which is the best route to go.
In terms of sustainability and having a positive social perspective, the best manufacturing concept is to source material that creates "true" sustainable raw material or has the means to source it. Next is to find a facility, that follows the laws and codes of health, and safety, do not practice child labor and provide fair wages that meet the minimum requirement. Last is to distribute the finish goods at low cost, transport goods though means of reduced carbon footprinting and can offer a short lead time.
These are ethical, environmental and social standards that my company will abide to when sourcing for materials and labor.
In terms of sustainability and having a positive social perspective, the best manufacturing concept is to source material that creates "true" sustainable raw material or has the means to source it. Next is to find a facility, that follows the laws and codes of health, and safety, do not practice child labor and provide fair wages that meet the minimum requirement. Last is to distribute the finish goods at low cost, transport goods though means of reduced carbon footprinting and can offer a short lead time.
These are ethical, environmental and social standards that my company will abide to when sourcing for materials and labor.
Who is the Manufacturer worker?
When you understand what an apparel manufacturer worker does, you understand the steps you need to take in representing your brand. This worker is responsible from taking the raw material and making it into the fabric that will create your garments. These workers usually work in a textile mill and to make this conversion, these workers have to work heavy machinery and be around a lot of unhealthy chemicals. After this process, the fabric is sent to contractors (either a CMT or FP) and these are the workers who cut the fabric, sew the garment, and/or add the trims and bundle the orders for shipping. These workers usually work in factories that too have to deal with working with heavy machinery, unhealthy chemicals, and having to work long, tiring hours. Factories in the US are open 24 hours so there are multiple shifts of workers.
Unfortunately, because of the intensity of the labor of apparel production and its cost, a lot of the manufacturing have gone offshore.
Resource: The Apparel Manufacturing Worker
When you understand what an apparel manufacturer worker does, you understand the steps you need to take in representing your brand. This worker is responsible from taking the raw material and making it into the fabric that will create your garments. These workers usually work in a textile mill and to make this conversion, these workers have to work heavy machinery and be around a lot of unhealthy chemicals. After this process, the fabric is sent to contractors (either a CMT or FP) and these are the workers who cut the fabric, sew the garment, and/or add the trims and bundle the orders for shipping. These workers usually work in factories that too have to deal with working with heavy machinery, unhealthy chemicals, and having to work long, tiring hours. Factories in the US are open 24 hours so there are multiple shifts of workers.
Unfortunately, because of the intensity of the labor of apparel production and its cost, a lot of the manufacturing have gone offshore.
Resource: The Apparel Manufacturing Worker
Domestic vs. Offshore Manufacturing
There are many advantages and disadvantages of domestic and offshore manufacturing.
The advantages of domestic manufacturing is: quality control, flexibility, Country of Origin effect and minimums. Domestic manufacturing allows one to visit the factories and inspect the quality of the production. Also, with the factories in the US, shipping time is lessened and there is a short lead time. If there is a high demand in a product, it would be easier to reorder the product. The Country of Origin effect is more of a brand/customer loyalty. "Made is USA" is more trusted than "Made in China".
Last, domestic manufacturing allows for smaller minimums of order placement.
The disadvantages of domestic manufacturing: high costs of labor and shortages of skilled labor. There is no question that cost is a huge decision when deciding who to manufacture with. Domestically, the costs of labor is 5x more costly than most foreign countries such as China, India and Mexico. And compared to countries like China and India, we have a shortage of skilled technical and manual labors. With the "American Dream" being going to college to become a doctor or lawyer, there is now a lack of people who go to school to learn the skills of construction and production of apparel.
The advantages of offshore manufacturing is: low cost for labors and country specialty. As stated above, foreign manufacturing is a lot of cheaper because of the national minimum. With the US federal minimum wage being $6.25, you have countries like China paying $1.45 and India with $.58 that provides a lot cheaper pay that is more enticing to apparel businesses. Also, many countries have specialities that are beneficial to them. Like stated before, the US has a lack of skilled workers. In countries like Mexico, workers are skilled in creating denim pants. In Thailand, embroidery is highly skilled. Not only skills, but the raw materials are cheaply sourced from these countries. Cheap cotton from India, Silk from China, and Wool from Italy are examples of materials that would be cheaper sourced globally than domestically.
The disadvantages of offshore manufacturing is: quality control, increased flexibility and increased lead times. Let's use China for an example. When you manufacture your product in China, it would be really hard to visit the factories. It would take a lot of unnecessary time, money and travel to inspect the quality of your product. You could hire a 3rd party to monitor factory conditions but that too costs money. Also with production overseas, you can't reorder if there is a high demand. Once you sell out, you're out; no reordering. So you have to take the gamble of determining how much you will need to make. This allows the risk of overstocking. Last, due to the time and costs of shipping, there is increased lead times. Most shipping takes place by sea so it takes weeks to arrive to a port compared to days if the manufacturing was done domestically.
Resource 1: Advantages & Disadvantages of Domestic vs. Offshore Manufacturing
Resource 2: Advantages & Disadvantages of Domestic vs. Offshore Manufacturing
Manufacturing in China
If I were to do offshore manufacturing, China would be a country I would do business with. There are two main reasons why I'd manufacture in China: low labor costs and material sourcing. Since my product specializes in the use of bamboo fabric, China is the only country that produces the fabric on a mass scale. So regardless of choosing domestic production, I would still have to source from China. But if I were to keep the entire production over in China, it will still be a benefit to me because of the low costs of labor.
When researching China, I found out they are the leading country of apparel manufacturing and because everyone sources their apparel from them due to cheap labor and resources, other countries have lost money in the billions in capital growth. The labor is really cheap. It use to be $1.14 but has risen to $1.45 which is still cheap compared to the US $6.25. The labor pay for factory workers is on par with the the country's minimum wage of $195 a month/40 hours a week of $1.22. So workers are paid fairly.
Working conditions varies. Most factories do abide by all health codes, safety codes and make the factories a safe environment for their workers. When you do offshore production, you can monitor the conditions of these factories through a 3rd party. They will visit each factory and make sure the conditions are suitable and the company is following all regulations. This could be costly but when it comes to maintaining a positive ethical and social outlook on apparel manufacturing it is necessary because unfortunately, sweat shop conditions do exist in China. So without monitoring your factories, you will not know what happens. Also, another reason why it's good to visit these factories, especially taking a personal visit, is to see you're getting what you're getting. The Chinese do have the tendency to mislead sometimes, especially on factory conditions and types of machinery available. It is a good idea to make sure that they have the machinery to do the job and not making harsh tasks, that should be done by machine, done at the hands of workers. One last thing is the Chinese are known to be not sustainable in regards to water waste. Some factories do and do not practice ways of dumping waste water/using water treatments in more environmentally friendly ways. You would need a 3rd party to monitor that.
Dealing with the advantages of offshore manufacturing, China is an amazing place to do it because of the technical skills provided are exceptional compared to the lacking skills of the US manufacturer. Whereas people in the US go through the process of high school to possibly college to get a degree for a certain major, people of China usually focus on a set skill, like an apprentice/master ordeal and is trained extensively on that skill. So the skills that Chinese workers possess, when it comes to apparel manufacturing, is far more superior in quality and craftsmanship than the typical US apparel worker. With this incentive and the cost of cheap labor, this is a no brainer for many companies to choose China as a source of manufacturing.
In China, bamboo is one of the main producer of the plant species for mass cultivation. After doing some research, bamboo is a great raw material because forestry is not being cleared out to plant bamboo. Also, the Chinese do not use pesticides and other chemicals to maintain the growth of the plant. And with so much land in China and the perfect climate, bamboo is grown best there than in the US. The chemical used to process the bamboo fibers into rayon is sodium hydroxide. Unfortunately, this chemical is quite toxic, however; this chemical is approved by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). What's great about this process is it is done in a close loop system meaning that 100% of the sodium hydroxide is reused and recycled. So this keeps the toxics out of the environment. This shows that the cultivation of this raw material and processing it into fabric is a lot more environmentally friendly than cotton.
After researching China, I found that it would be the perfect place to do manufacturing. They produce more bamboo than any other country so that is the main reason I'd manufactured with them. Their workers have exceptional technical skills. The labor is cheap. And through a 3rd party, I can successfully monitor the conditions of the factories. Overall, China do reflect the standards I have on ethical, social and environmental stances in manufacturing.
Resource 1: Chinese Apparel Production
Resource 2: Chinese Apparel Production
Resource 3: Bamboo Processing in China
Manufacturing in Nicaragua
While researching for China, I came upon an interesting article (Resource 1) dated this year that stated how the focus of global manufacturing is steering from China to Central America. One country they mentioned was Nicaragua and their cheaper costs of producing denim jeans. Nicaragua is also another country that can produce cotton so I highly doubt that they wouldn't be able to produce organic cotton as well. And because of a worldwide rise of cotton prices, Nicaragua has had a high demand for cotton for their slightly cheaper prices.
Something that is interesting that I did not know is Nicaragua grows a native bamboo, called the Guadua Bamboo, that is one of the 20 best species of the world! Compared to the bamboo grown in China, this bamboo is really big and thick. The bamboo is mainly used for construction and furniture but also paper. The same raw material to make paper is used to make fabric so if there was some way to get the "secrets" of the Chinese production of bamboo into rayon, then you have a powerful source of raw material sitting right there in Nicaragua!
Unfortunately, their factory conditions aren't that great but organizations are trying to improve conditions and the relationship with workers. Workers aren't treated as fair as they those in the US and the conditions of the factories are somewhat poor. But that is expected because I would label Nicaragua as a developing country that isn't on par with others such as China and the US. What this also means is they do not have the machinery capable of producing such fabric so that would be a setback. Their workers aren't as skillful as China or the US. Last, the pay is not on par with the national minimum wage of Nicaragua. Workers are, on average paid and the minimum wage is $2.00 and apparel workers are paid $1.05.
After researching Nicaragua, I think this could be a potential source for manufacturing. They're not as great as China or the US in terms of skilled workers or excellent conditions in the factories, but what they do benefit from is being an "untapped" market. Not many people have used Nicaragua as a manufacturing source. How this can benefit me is China is starting to get backed up on their production because of the high demand of resources and labor. So people are starting to shift elsewhere, mainly Central America. This would be great for me because Nicaragua is a lot closer so lead times can be shortened. What makes it not a suitable place for manufacturing is it doesn't meat my standards of ethical, social and environmental stances in manufacturing. I don't like that workers are not paid fairly, their factories don't meet up to the standards of US factories and that they don't have the means to process the bamboo into rayon.
Resource 1: Nicaragua Apparel Production
Resource 2: Nicaragua Apparel Production (Download the brief)
Resource 3: Bamboo Growth in Nicaragua
The Return of Domestic Manufacturing
Even before the research, my stance was regardless of costs, I would choose domestic manufacturing over offshore manufacturing, with the exception of fabric sourcing that is only native to that country, such as bamboo. The reasons why I choose domestic manufacturing is:
Employment - it is important to me, especially during these difficult economical times, to provide jobs for my fellow Americans.
Quality Control - the quality of my product is very important to me because it represents my brand so I want to be close
enough so that I can visit the factories anytime I want and monitor the progress without the use of a 3rd party.
Code Regulation - also with the factories near and being able to visit them, I can also inspect to see if the factories are
updated and following health and safety codes. I can see the employees are treated fairly and the working conditions are
suitable.
Flexibility/Lead Times - because of the costs of fabrics and labor, I know the price of my product will be pretty high. So,
because of this, I can't really gamble on big orders. I will be having small orders and if I have high demand on products, it will
be easier for me to reorder them and have them shipped to the warehouse in a very short amount of time.
According to this article, my view in having domestic manufacturing is the returning trend.
Resource: Domestic Manufacturing on the Uprise
Sustainable Manufacturing
In the future, when I'm ready to expand to use other sustainable materials, here is a site that will help me source other materials, such as organic cotton, hemp and recycled polyester.
Resource: Global Sourcing for Sustainable Products