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This paper focuses on smart clothing. Smart clothing refers to items that have technology implanted into their fabric. Smart clothing is currently the future of wearables. The smart clothes industry has several different types of personal devices on the market, all of which are worn or attached to the body. The wearable tech market is full of fitness trackers, watches, shirts and pants, socks, and sports bras. Smart clothes are an up and coming market because of their never before seen technology and advancement.
The purpose of operations management is to provide what the customer wants into a deliverable product, design a set of processes that will consistently deliver the product in a cost-effective manner, and connect the management of these products and processes in a way that creates desired business outcomes for the organization. The possibilities of smart clothing are endless.
The wearable technology associated with smart clothing is a relatively new addition to the tech industry. Companies in the wearables market have gravitated to four primary marketplaces: infotainment, fitness and wellness monitoring, military and industrial real-time data transmission, and also healthcare monitoring.
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The research and development efforts can generally be classified into three distinct areas health/stress monitoring, protection against injury, and wound detection. Most consumers are now familiar with the concept of wearable technology because of the existing products in the market such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit, and Nike Fuelband.
Previously, products were very limited in capability, basically just used for counting steps and typically worn on the wrist.
More recently, smart clothing has taken wearable tech to a never before seen level by integrating more sensors and also making them distributable to different parts of the body. As an increased number of the technological barriers have been overcome, it has resulted in an explosion in sensor availability for clothing.
Understanding attributes can assist companies in developing appropriate marketing strategies toward meeting the needs and wants of consumers. The customer requirements are lightweight design, sweat proof and waterproof, relatively small in size, short charging time, GPS, compatible with smartphone, speed of product delivery/replacement. Consumers especially want to see things such as the items listed below in their smart clothing.
Affordability. The first question consumers will ask when deciding to purchase smart clothing is how much does it cost? It comes down to price most of the time no matter what the product is. If consumers can purchase smart clothing for the same cost or fairly close in price to the products they are currently buying they will be more likely to purchase them.
Comfort. Probably the most important attribute to consumers of smart clothing is comfortability. They want to be able to work and play in the comfort of their wearable smart clothing. A perfect size and fit plays a large role in comfort, along with fabric selection.
Customizable. Customers want products that are tailored to them. Offering special add-ons and packages can be an incentive for consumers. Everyone wants to feel special.
Durability. If consumers spend their hard earned dollar on smart clothing is it going to last? Durability is high on this list of importance to consumers. Until the technology in smart clothing can be throw in the washing machine is it really worth purchasing? These are things major producers of smart clothing should consider. Most tech consists of wires and gadgets that need to be able to withstand certain conditions, be it water or wear and tear. Lifespan of the smart clothing is also something consumers will consider when purchasing it.
Style. All of the ladies and some of the men will look for style when shopping in the wearable smart clothes market. They do not want large bulky pieces of technology that are highly noticeable. Smart clothing needs to be in line with the latest fashion trends. Most wearables are fitness focused, however they are being expanded into everyday wear.
Affordability, Comfort, Customizable, Durability, and Style are grouped together because they are the initial thoughts consumers think about before ever purchasing an item. How much does it cost, How good does it feel, Is this product made for me, How long will this product last, and How stylish is this product are often commonly asked questions.
Improvements in Health and Lifestyle. When using a product, consumers want to see and improvement in their health and lifestyle. Is this smart clothing benefiting the consumer in any way? Many aspects of smart clothing include heart rate monitoring and injury prevention as a beneficial aspect of obtaining the products. When consumers can see that their life is positively impacted by a product and they can see an improvement in the ease of their lifestyle they will be more inclined to wear smart clothing. Improvements in Health and Lifestyle, Injury Prevention, and Heart Rate Monitoring are paired together because they all affect the well-being of the consumer. These attributes are nice additional bonuses that consumers will look for when buying smart clothing.
When presenting smart clothing data accuracy is important because consumers rely on it. When you have told the consumer that heart rate monitoring is a key feature and the smart clothing says their heart rate is fine when in reality it is high or low it could be the difference in life or death of a person. Your product should do well what it says it is going to do in order to be successful despite the possibility of defects in some products. The possibility of defects should be relatively low to ensure quality and performance is met.
Utility/Usefulness. Product features are an important feature of smart clothing. People want more than just a glorified clock or cell phone. Smart clothing engulfs several markets other than just clothing and technology. When smart clothing encompasses many products into one it becomes more useful for the consumer to purchase smart clothing in comparison to the alternative product.
Data Accuracy and Utility/Usefulness are paired together because consumers want a useful, reliable and accurate product that they can depend to use whenever they need. Knowing your market and what consumers want is the make-it-or-break-it difference.
Lean manufacturing is the production of goods using less of everything compared to mass production: less waste, less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment in tools, and less engineering time to develop a new product.” The seven wastes are: overproduction, excess inventory, waiting, transportation, unnecessary motion, and defects. Overproduction means manufacturing an item before it is actually needed. Overproduction is highly costly to a manufacturing plant because it prohibits the smooth flow of materials and actually degrades quality and productivity. Excess inventory increases lead times, consumes productive floor space, delays the identification of problems, and inhibits communication.
Whenever goods are not moving or being processed, the waste of waiting occurs. Waiting is usually caused by poor design material flow and information flow. Transporting product between processes is a cost that adds no value to the product. Excessive movement and handling cause damage and are an opportunity for quality to deteriorate. Expensive resources also encourage overproduction in order to recover the high cost of this equipment. Quality defects impact to the business bottom line, resulting in things such as rework or scrap and associated costs such as quarantining inventory, re-inspecting, rescheduling, and capacity loss. Companies need to measure overproduction, excess inventory, waiting, transportation, unnecessary motion, over processing, and defects to see the desired results their company is seeking.
“Lean manufacturing is often linked with Six Sigma, which emphasizes reduction of process variation (or its converse smoothness). Lean manufacturing focuses on manufacturing cost reduction, whereas traditional Six Sigma focuses on defect reduction. Combining the two improves manufacturing productivity and quality to deal with challenges such as the bullwhip effect.”
Until now, clothing was primarily for covering our bodies and distinguishing ourselves between one another. With the creation and advancement of smart technology, clothing will progressively become a second skin that amplifies our senses, measures our individual differences, and makes sharing our personal data possible. The future for smart clothing is more possible than ever, and we will continually see improvements in sensors and smart textiles – such as the ability to place smart technology into clothing in a reliable and cost effective way. Because of this technological revolution, large-scale manufacturing of smart clothing is growing nearer by the day. The more we can detect and measure using these pieces of information from smart clothing, the greater the benefits will be in healthcare and the overall well-being of humankind.
The Emerging Smart Clothes Market. (2024, Feb 16). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-emerging-smart-clothes-market-essay
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