Lectra, the technological partner for companies using fabrics and leather, the French business school ESCP Europe and their joint ‘Fashion & Technology’ Chair explored the impact of Industry 4.0 on fashion’s value chain at a recent round table discussion at ESCP Europe’s London campus. From brands to manufacturers panellists from across the value chain stressed on the need for the industry to embrace alliance between man and machines to leverage enormous benefits from quicker decision-making to cost-reduction.
Exploring the advantages of Industry 4.0 technology, Evelthon Vassilou, CEO, Alison Hayes UK, disclosed, “Interpreting the data of what is and isn’t, selling should help to speed up decisions. You can react very quickly across the entire supply chain and either stop producing something unsuccessful or ramp up production if successful. Data and data analytics is not sufficient, to succeed this also requires a high degree of trust and integration between retailers and suppliers.”
Robert Diamond Founder and CEO, Fernbrook Partners said, “It’s about using technology to deliver continuous improvement in everyday business. People are not good at making a large volume of repeatable decisions with many different data inputs. If business decision, or the outcome of the resolution tomorrow, is pretty much the same as what happened yesterday, then there is a chance for machine learning to help improve the situation.”
Pierre Mercier, Senior Partner and MD, Boston Consulting Group noted that technology propelled by Industry 4.0 is disrupting former sources of competitive advantage, “forcing companies to rethink how they want to compete in their respective industries and how to use data to compete differently. The common denominator in the fashion ecosystem is that everyone is facing the opportunity for a step change and need to figure out where to double down and accelerate their transformation.”
UK fashion brand’s AllSaints, Dan Hartley, Global Head of Digital Commerce, shared his trade secrets, “We take customer feedback very seriously and we use it as a framework for our internal road map - from a tech and development point of view, through to design and fit, the customer is at the heart of everything we do.”
