Technology Innovation Enabling Supply Chain Management Sustainability. A Framework for the Apparel Industry

Key trends in the apparel industry are significantly impacting the apparel supply chain by modifying its configuration and by intensifying the competitive pressure. Global sourcing strategies, product proliferation, together with product life-cycle-speed, are the emerging competitive drivers but at the same time can have a negative impact by the sustainability perspective. Technology innovation plays a key role in breaking the above trade-off. Many technology options are available to entrepreneurs intended to improve their company’s efficiency and sustainability. An interesting supporting framework for apparel supply chains management and integration, the extended smart sustainable organisation (xSSO), is presented and discussed. It is based on the research work developed within the Leapfrog European research project and it is suggested to become the new networking oriented, integrative framework for the organisation of flexible and sustainable apparel manufacturing of the future.