Rinaldo Rinaldi

New Product Development in the Fashion Industry: An Empirical Investigation of Italian Firms

This paper investigates how companies in the fashion industry organize, plan and perform their New Product Development process (NPD). The results have been achieved through an empirical study carried out by the authors with the support of the GeCo Observatory, an Italian research initiative launched in 2012. This paper shows the details of eight selected case studies from the Italian fashion industry.

Thermodynamic optimal design of heat exchangers for an irreversible refrigerator

Thermodynamic optimisation of energy systems is essential in reducing the environmental impact of energy utilisation. Yet, the refrigerators commonly used for this purpose have improvable efficiency levels. Their performance, as shown by the literature, is highly influenced by the size of the heat exchangers and by internal irreversibilities. In this paper the maximum coefficient of performance (COP) is obtained for an irreversible inverse Rankine cycle refrigerator working with the environmentally friendly fluid R134a. This is a steady-state refrigerator working as an open system which consumes external work, subtracts heat from a cold fluid stream at an inlet fixed temperature and assigns it to a higher fixed inlet temperature stream. Heat transfer irreversibilities in the shell-and-tube heat exchangers and external friction losses in the water streams are considered, ignoring only the internal pressure drop of vapor. A simulation program was developed to search the maximum COP at given external fluid temperatures, as a function of mass flows, dimensions and temperature differences in the heat exchangers. Owing to the large number of control variables involved, a numerical optimisation method was used to determine the maximum COP. The proposed method is fast, producing the maximum with acceptable approximation. It provides the refrigerating fluid evaporating and condensing pressures, the heat exchanger dimensions, and the water flow rates for a given cooling power with predefined inlet temperatures of cold and hot water streams. The heat exchanger area closely conditions the COP, so each maximum represents the optimum thermodynamic working conditions for a given area of the heat exchangers.

Sustainability practices and web-based communication: An analysis of the Italian fashion industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine which environmental and social sustainability practices companies in the Italian fashion industry adopt and how these companies communicate their sustainability commitment through their corporate websites. Design/methodology/approach – The multiple case studies approach was selected and the practices of 12 companies in the Italian fashion industry were investigated. Findings – The findings showed that four different approaches in the field of sustainability practices and web-based communication are available within the Italian fashion industry (i.e. low commitment, high commitment, low disclosure, high marketing) by highlighting the alignment (i.e. fit or misfit) among these dimensions and by discussing the practices as well as the drivers/barriers of each approach. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature by deepening the understanding of both the environmental and social dimensions of the sustainability issue. Moreover, the work invest...

Exploring replenishment in the luxury fashion Italian firms: evidence from case studies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how luxury Italian fashion companies manage the replenishment process, and how they leverage supply chain (SC) to be able to match supply and demand of fashion products. Design/methodology/approach – Literature review was the first step performed; then, a case study research has been conducted in order to have a comprehensive view of the real context of luxury Italian fashion companies concerning merchandise planning and replenishment processes. After the sample was individuated, a questionnaire has guided the interviews and then data have been collected. Analysing data has concerned a primary case analysis and then cross-case patterns have been searched. Finally, several variables coherent to the aim of the study have been pinpointed and a framework has been designed. Findings – The paper provides a characterization of the luxury Italian fashion industry concerning merchandise planning constraints and the replenishment processes. To guarantee the flex...

From theory to application: Tabu search in textile production scheduling

This paper presents the experience of applying the tabu search metaheuristic to production scheduling in weaving. The problem, known to be NP-complete, partially belongs to the class of parallel non-identical machine scheduling problems with non-linear delay penalties and sequence-dependent set-up costs and times. The huge problem dimension and the presence of transversal constraints among machines suggests tabu search application. The authors show some results pointing out the good behaviour of TS in several aspects.

Improving new product development in the fashion industry through product lifecycle management: a descriptive analysis

New product development represents a core process within the fashion industry: it is a knowledge-intensive set of tasks that needs to be improved in order to enhance a companys competitive advantage. In this context, through product lifecycle management (PLM) product data are shared amongst the various actors and processes in the different phases of the product lifecycle. A descriptive exploratory research allows the authors to recognise the importance of PLM in the fashion industry, after an in-depth analysis of the existing literature. PLM includes modules supporting many industry-specific processes, reducing time-to-market, lead times and inventory. It is not just a product centric lifecycle-oriented business model, but it also represents a strategic approach that is spreading in the recent years also in a complex industry, as that of fashion.

Strategic approaches to sustainability in fashion supply chain management

Abstract Today, the sustainability challenge has become a relevant issue in the fashion industry. However, given that the request for sustainability is relatively new in this industry, empirical research that could guide companies towards supply chain sustainability is lacking. This study aims to deepen the understanding of the main strategic approaches to sustainability used in fashion supply chain management (SCM). Ten case studies were examined in terms of the practices that characterise these approaches. Moreover, contextual factors, drivers and barriers that support or hinder different approaches were identified. To accomplish this goal, both environmental sustainability and social sustainability were investigated, and all the areas of fashion SCM (i.e. new product development, source, make, deliver, retail, return, governance) were considered simultaneously to offer a wide overview of this industry’s sustainability issue.

How Product Development Can Be Improved in Fast Fashion Industry: An Italian Case

The fast fashion industry is characterized by a complex supply chain configuration, lots of players and an important critical success factor: time to market. In order to ensure the compliance to the fashion collection timing, the entire Product Development process has to be optimized through the analysis of both the flows of material and information. The authors have personally been involved in an in-depth case study, aiming to investigate the earlier phase of a PLM implementation and trying to merge business processes with proper enabling information technologies. The present study strives for analyzing the underexplored topic of improving Product Development in the fashion industry as well as identifying best practices for business process re-engineering in the industrial environment.

Analysing Product Development Process and PLM Features in the Food and Fashion Industries

The food and fashion industries are well-known as areas of excellence representing Italy globally. Their products include innovative features, have short lifecycles and a high level of customisation. Both the pipelines have to respond quickly to unpredictable demand in order to minimize stock-outs, forced markdowns, obsolete inventory and they focus their Supply Chain (SC) strategies on quality and time-to-market. Although they are characterized by many different aspects, both leverage on the same point of strength: their internal Product Development (PD) process. The opposite occurs in the automotive industry, with its standard and functional products and its efficient pipeline centred on cost reduction. Starting from previous works presented during the last PLM conference (PLM16), the research aims at investigating similarities and differences between these sectors, focusing on their PD process and their main critical success factors. Moreover, the authors analyse how Food and Fashion companies are managing the entire set of information throughout PD and the strategic role of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). In order to reach these goals, a multiple case study analysis has been performed, involving companies belonging to the Food and Fashion industries. The results will be relevant both for academics and practitioners. Indeed, there is a literature gap about this topic, because of the lack of researches concerning Food and Fashion PD. From the practitioners point of view, the results of this work will help Food and Fashion companies to support their business analysing the PD process and to better understand how the use of the PLM system could improve it.

Dual Frequency Tag Performances in the Fashion Industry

The paper strives at benchmarking performances of dual frequency inlays, operating in UHF and HF bands, when deployed in the apparel logistics and end-user retail processes. The developed testing protocol makes it possible to evaluate performances of RFID devices in simulated supply chain and end-user-oriented processes. It has been designed according to the needs for identification both of the supply chain and of the end-users, who can take advantage of the adoption of NFC technology. We applied the testing procedure to RFID inlays equipped with an innovative IC and two antennas, capable of managing both EPC communication in UHF band and NFC communication in HF band with smart devices. The performances of the inlays have been compared to standard tags commonly used in EPC and NFC fields. We measured and compared read rate, accuracy, and read time when testing EPC capabilities, and read/write throughput, time and distance when measuring NFC functionalities. By simulating a real-world environment, test results give a direct insight of performances to be expected from different dual frequency RFID inlays. Therefore, IT and logistics managers can find answers to how these innovative tags perform and which would be the best choice for new RFID applications.