Mixing the Elements of MASS Customization

As the market for mass customization begins to heat up, companies such as The Pietrafesa Corp. and Brooks Brothers are joining forces to develop innovative technologies aimed at improving product development and production efficiencies.

Mass customization is quickly evolving from an art into a science, and in the true spirit of research, companies within the apparel supply chain are now combining their elements in hopes of getting the chemistry just right. From consumer data capture to short cycle manufacturing to drop-ship deliveries, the wheels of progress have been set in motion -- and industry authorities are now predicting a surge in the market.

One such expert is Pete Butenhoff, president of [[TC].sup.2], the Textile/Clothing Technology Corp. In a presentation at a Gerber Technology Inc.-sponsored press briefing this past fall in Olgonquin, ME, he stressed: "The vision still has a long way to go, but if you can sell [a garment] before you make it, you will offer great value to the consumer. The ultimate of Quick Response is 'sell one, make one,' and while you're at it, why not make what the customer wants. ... Mass customization will apply to a much larger percentage [of the population] in the future as we transform and develop the process."

To date, most of the technological progress in mass customization has been made in the pre-production arena. For example, there has been continued development of body scanning technology over the past few years and the parallel introduction of computer-aided design (CAD) functionality, which is automating many aspects of product development and pre-production, from design conceptualization through marker making.

"3-D body scanning and measurement extraction technologies will be key technologies going forward," Butenhoff stated. "Tape measurers simply are not accurate enough, and every manufacturer of custom-made apparel we have talked with agrees."

Apparel manufacturers and retailers are now starting to realize the benefits of the latest body scanning technology and step up to the plate, Butenhoff reported. Levi Strauss & Co., for example, recently unveiled a [[TC].sup.2] body scanner at its San Francisco, CA, flagship store (see "Levi: A Landmark Case for Customization," Bobbin, October 1999), and Brooks Brothers is seriously investigating the technology to collect measurements for its men's custom shirt program.

However, 3-D body measurement -- a media darling over the past year -- is only one piece of the mass customization puzzle. As Butenhoff pointed out, the industry also must be able to master short-cycle, flexible manufacturing; virtual try-on capabilities (which will allow consumers to accurately model garments via computer); and digital printing (which will provide manufacturers with a means to print fabric for individual garments).

Solving the Puzzle: The Pietrafesa-Brooks Brothers Partnership

Finding ways to successfully mix these elements of mass customization has become an important quest for many companies in the apparel supply chain. As a result, collaborative partnerships are beginning to emerge among retailers, manufacturers and the developers of mass customization technologies. At this point, these ventures don't necessarily represent the ultimate mass customization model, but they are the petri dishes from which entirely new business philosophies are likely to grow.

Case in point: Brooks Brothers' made-to-measure suit program, which is orchestrated through a partnership with The Pietrafesa Corp., a Liverpool, NY-based manufacturer of private label suits for many leading retail chains. The companies' joint strategy has expanded the scope of traditional made-to-measure production into the mass customization arena. How so? The firms have developed integrated information technology (IT) and manufacturing infrastructures that function with the efficiencies typically found in a mass production environment.

Their system, called "eMeasure," is being used in 17 Brooks Brothers stores and Pietrafesa's company-owned store in Liverpool. It is the culmination of four years of research and development, which began with the introduction of a manual made-to-measure process that required stores to fill out and mail to Pietrafesa order forms with alteration information.

Today, eMeasure has evolved into a touch-screen kiosk system that allows customers to create and visualize 25 different made-to-measure suit silhouettes in 300 to 500 fabrics, which can be referenced through swatch books in the stores. Each screen has audio and visual instructions that help engage the customer and enable him to easily mix and match styles and fabrics without the assistance of a salesperson. However, after the selection process is complete, a salesperson must validate and enter an order into the system along with the customer's measurement information.

"We try to make each screen as simple as possible so that the customers as well as the sales associates are not overwhelmed with what they have to touch or what decisions are being made at that moment," explained Marisa Gorgoni Ovadias, manager of the samples department for Pietrafesa, who has been spearheading the development of eMeasure along with Jerald Karinsky, senior programmer analyst. "We also created four video vignettes that stereotype the made-to-measure customer, which we differentiate from the custom-order customer. The basic premise here is that we are using a pre-existing set of patterns and applying standardized alterations to those patterns."

For each new suit order, body measurements, including the chest, waist and over arm, are taken at the retail store and then entered into the eMeasure system. To assist the associates and tailor (if available), the system provides audio and video instructions that explain how to take the measurements, and features built-in safeguards and alteration limits to prevent data entry mistakes.

A retail associate who is familiar with eMeasure can turn off the audio instructions and complete the order entry process in approximately three minutes, Ovadias noted. The system then will suggest a try-on size from the store's inventory, which is an integral part of the process, she emphasized.

eMeasure also can store measurement profiles and quickly recall information for repeat customers. However, the individual Brooks Brothers stores currently do not share a common customer database. As Ovadias explained: "Right now each Brooks Brothers store is operating independently, although ultimately it would be in the stores' best interest to share client database information. With business being so global now, it would be great to be able to order a suit in New York and pick it up in San Francisco three weeks later. ... We are definitely capable of that."

There also is talk of some day incorporating body scanning into the system. According to Karinsky, who oversees IT development for eMeasure: "If we decide that we are going to use a scanner, we would have it calculate default measurements. We then would replace screens in the system that ask questions about posture, shoulder, etc., with questions like, 'Do you like your clothes to fit loosely or tightly?' "

Peter Tredwin, vice president of sales and marketing for Gerber Technology, also noted the importance of fit interpretation when considering the use of body scanning, adding: "What the scanner sees is absolute. ... On the other hand, someone might say to a tailor, 'I'm a 44 regular, but I like to wear my jacket loose,' and the tailor will add one-half inch for that. This is the biggest challenge with the technology right now."

Other eMeasure enhancements planned for the more immediate future will include a support program that will allow customers to call in with problems. As Karinsky explained: "We will have operators available to take calls and route them [to the appropriate department]. We also are going to track exactly what hardware and software we have at every location, so that when someone calls up, we can access this information on screen. We will have a complete customer history."

It's the Connectivity that Counts

Behind eMeasure's merchandising and made-to-measure product development capabilities is an integrated IT backbone that automatically processes orders. It was the need for this functionality, Ovadias said, that pushed Pietrafesa to develop the technology in-house.

"Before we decided to create this program, we looked at other [commercially available] programs that perform similar functions. However, most of them only addressed the merchandising side of the business," she explained. "They didn't provide the order-entry process, which we knew would save us at least two weeks, not to mention that we wouldn't have the issue of redundant keying or the increased likelihood of errors."

Today, from order entry to customer delivery, Brooks Brothers' made-to-measure cycle time is approximately five weeks, and the ultimate goal is to reduce this lead time to two weeks. The manufacturing process starts when Pietrafesa imports Brooks Brothers' orders from an Internet site, assigns work-in-process numbers and then allocates or orders the necessary fabric. (Fabric is delivered in one day from a distributor.) Next, patterns and markers are made automatically using Gerber Technology's [AccuMark.sup.TM] Made-to-Measure (MTM) System.

"It is seven times faster to make the marker through this system than it is to make it manually," pointed out Ovadias. "We can easily process 100 orders per day, and it takes about 30 seconds of entry time per order."

At the same time information is passed to the AccuMark program, the order information is uploaded to Pietrafesa's mainframe, where an application created by Karinsky's department creates stock tickets, labels and production coupons. It also automatically creates a style file, the bill of materials, costing information and the sales order.

Pietrafesa currently is processing about 150 made-to-measure orders per week at the company's Liverpool production facility, which operates three 63-station

and one 32-station GERBERmover(R) unit production systems. Overall, between 4,000 and 5,000 suits have passed through the company's made-to-measure production line in the past four years -- of which less than 10 have been returned, Ovadias noted.

"The beauty of this system is that the stores don't have to carry a lot of inventory," Ovadias added. "They only have to carry one of each model in the sizes that they need [for try-ons]."

In his presentation, [[TC].sup.2]'s Butenhoff also noted that minimizing retail inventory will have a profound impact on the profitability of the apparel supply chain. In his words, "There is a tremendous amount of profit potential for the manufacturers and retailers that embrace mass customization because they are going to eliminate so many hidden costs in the system. ... We think that this will become the new paradigm over the next decade, and it will change the whole scope of the industry for certain types of [high-value] garments."

Lisa C. Rabon is editor in chief of Bobbin.

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