Since the advent of Covid-19 in 2020, the world apparel market is going through a series of uncertain situations. The pandemic put the textile and apparel industry of Bangladesh into immense distress, ruptured multiple systems, and left it out of breath. Lockdown halted sales, business operations, and disrupted the supply chain. Many workers lost their jobs in the industry. The situation started to ameliorate with positive growth in the year 2021 after an exerted effort by the industry stakeholders. And it is expected that the growth will continue in the year 2022.
Shafiur Rahman, Country Manager, G-Star Raw shared his thoughts on the performance of the textile industry in 2022.
People in 2022 are more familiar with living with viruses, also vaccines are available which helps to enhance confidence. All are anticipating another promising year ahead. However, restructuring, rebuilding, redesigning are the key factors of sustaining nowadays. Investment in up-scaling people & technology should be based on the long-term plans as the chance of sustaining for technologically leading companies will be higher.
The RMG industry is not getting a sufficient workforce as a consequence of reducing the number of helpers on the floor, squeezing entry pathways to become operators which are creating a skilled workforce crisis. Easy way to connect with training centers & bigger scale industrial zone wise or rural training center may help to mitigate this crisis. Aligning people with technological upgrades and adapting to new technology will be another challenge and surely opportunity too.
Developing a talented team to sustain business growth & smooth supply chain, enhancing managerial skills by proper training for creating a problem-solving mindset, the ability to accept failure & its analysis, being ready to take risk, adapting frequent changes & knowledge on high-tech will be key factors.
Collaboration & integration of horizontal and/or vertical research units for Innovations will be another key challenge to win in the super-competitive market.
Training people along with upgradations of the right technology can help to build a sustainable value chain which is the path of a smart factory too, Towards Leadership 4.0, Textile 4.0, Apparel 4.0, Industry 4.0.
