Product Development

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IV: TREND ANALYSIS AND PRODUCT CONCEPTUALIZATION Product Development To create the next product in a company’s product line, a design team goes through product development process steps. Starting with a product idea, the team moves through several stages to generate all the details and documents needed to get the product built. A new product development process goes through the same steps, however, as this product has not been developed by the team before, new risks and uncertainties are introduced and often additional information is documented and shared with manufacturing. The flow of typical product development process in apparel industry is provided in figure, this remains common for all categories of product development. In apparel industry, once, the market potential, customer requirements like, colour, silhouette, fabric and design aspects are evaluated by the fashion forecasting process, the conceptual design is developed by the designer in paper as a 2D form. Once the designs are finalised, the designers and merchandiser will sit together to finalise the specifications and technical aspects of the garment. Here, they will use their knowledge from their previous experience with their market and product. The product development process in apparel industry generally happens in three different levels, i) New product by buyer – Once the forecasting process is completed in all sectors like, customer, product design, market requirement, etc., the first steps of silhouette development and fabric selection are approached in different ways by different designers and companies. Many companies base their lines around fabric and print designs. Their designers start by selecting fabrics and then create silhouettes for those fabrics. These designers are fabric driven. Other designers are silhouette-driven designs and product specifications are developed by the buyer and all the necessary information PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IV: TREND ANALYSIS AND PRODUCT CONCEPTUALIZATION will be provided to the manufacturing merchandiser to develop the product prototype. ii) New product by manufacturer – The manufacturing organisation’s design team along with merchandiser use to develop new products for their buyer. The product development is the business policy of the organisation which includes the development of the new designs and styles within the organisation. This process provides more business to the organisation, by showing pro-activeness in design development process by knowing the needs and wants of the customers/buyers and it helps in impressing the clients. Production merchandiser must update the buyer time to time about the product development done by organisation. The buyer visiting the factory is one of the key activities, where merchandiser can develop some positive opinion on the company by showing their facility and designer teams. This motivates the buyer to give the design development to the organisation instead of doing themselves. Whenever buyer visits the organisation, new colour, prints, embroidery patterns and desk loom developments need to be presented to them by production merchandiser. Merchandiser should influence the buyer to select the designs from presentation presented. A very good presentation and convincing ability of production merchandiser bring more business to the organisation. iii) Product development by external agencies / Studios – In this case, the external agencies perform the product development process based on their expertise and research data they have. Buyers or manufacturers will source the designs concepts and specifications from these agencies with respect to the season and needs. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IV: TREND ANALYSIS AND PRODUCT CONCEPTUALIZATION Role of merchandiser in product development process Fabric selection The fabric selection process is the important process in the product development stage. Fabric selection is a crucial step in designing a project because fabrics are designed for specific applications, a fabric manufactured for one purpose, may not be adaptable for another use. Therefore selecting the appropriate fabric is only the first step in providing serviceable fabrics for apparel manufacturing. Designers specify the fabric as part of their design concept. Designers may develop new styles for fabrics that have been successful. Fabrics used in garment manufacturing can be based on their properties and characteristics. Property is a static physical dimension such as yards per pound; whereas, characteristic is the reaction of the fabrics when a force is imposed upon it. In general, the selection of fabric is performed by three different views: i. The consumer’s viewpoint ii. The fabric producer’s viewpoint iii. The garment producer’s viewpoint In consumer point of view, the fabric for apparel is selected solely based on the appearance and wearability characteristics of the fabric – the durability, utility and style values. The fabric producers are mainly focused on the fabric characteristics than the properties. A fabric property is of no interest to the apparel/fabric manufacturer unless it controls a fabric characteristic or cost factor vital to him, or unless the property itself such as thickness or weight, has definite utility or style value. The same concept applies for the garment producer also. The fabric selection process involves designers and merchandisers going to major fabric PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IV: TREND ANALYSIS AND PRODUCT CONCEPTUALIZATION markets to collect ideas, check trends, examine few products and get samples. The designer and merchandiser may visit fabric shows in and out of the country and fabric manufacturer’s showrooms. They attend fashion shows and also attend meetings with the representatives of textile fabric manufacturer to present their product line. The fabric selection is done based on aesthetics as well as technical demand of the garment. Following things need to be considered while selecting the fabric for product development. • Fibre content • Fabric construction—basic structure • Texture and engineered effects created by weave configurations • Yarn selections • Prints • Colour range • Performance characteristics—wear factors, care requirements, sewing • Compatibility and drape • Versatility for use in multiple styles • Price and terms • Availability • Minimum order quantities During the selection process, the designer and merchandiser mainly think about the intended use of that particular apparel product. This will help them to identify the needs of that garment and aid them to focus either on technical aspects like abrasion, UV protection, elasticity, colour fastness, tensile strength, etc. or aesthetic aspects like texture, structure, etc. Textile, Fabric and Yarn Trade Fairs • Heimtextil – Germany