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To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2009.01251.x Byline: Paul Kamau (1), Dorothy McCormick (1), Nicolas Pinaud (2) Abstract: Abstract (1251) Paul Kamau with Dorothy McCormick and Nicolas Pinaud Kenya has enjoyed a relatively diversified economy (at least by SSA standards), with light manufacturing industries in particular playing a significant growing role. The rise of Asian competition (locally, regionally and on third-country markets), partly due to the erosion of trade preferences for clothing and footwear, has raised fresh policy challenges. The specific relevance of the clothing industry in the analysis of China's and India's impact on Africa is manifold: this is a low-skilled labour-intensive industry, and hence an avenue for African economies' diversification; the competition from Asian producers vis-a-vis the SSA clothing industry is felt at the local, regional and global level (on third-country markets): it is therefore direct and indirect; also, the Asian Drivers' impact on African clothing industries has both a trade and investment dimension while being competitive and complementary. Author Affiliation: (1)Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi (2)OECD Development Centre, France

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.06.003 Byline: Nazneen Ahmed Keywords: workers' rights; textile; Asia; Bangladesh; computable general equilibrium Abstract: This paper applies a CGE model to analyze the effects of better addressing worker's rights in Bangladesh's textile and apparel industries. Results show that an increased minimum wage for unskilled, low-, and medium-skilled workers has negative impacts for these workers in aggregate and also for the economy in terms of export, GDP, and welfare. This comes from the decrease in employment. However, labor productivity-increasing improvements in factory conditions and services to workers not only increase incomes of workers, but also welfare. Entrepreneurs also enjoy higher incomes, enabling them to pay for improving the work environment. Author Affiliation: Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Agargaon, Dhaka, Bangladesh Article History: Accepted 9 June 2008

A robust approach is studied to solve the scheduling problem of parallel machines with sequence-dependent set-up costs, typically found to arise in textile and fiberglass industries. A fuzzy mathematical model is formulated by considering the uncertainty regarding processing times and the proposed approach requires solving a nonlinear mixed integer programming model. A solution technique has been proposed, consisting in formulating a reduced MIP model where the piecewise linear functions are approximated in turn and the computational results prove the efficiency and effectiveness of the approach.

A mathematical model for forecasting the inventory requirements in textile companies, duly incorporating forecast for lead times, mean-term and short-term is presented.

The factors such as culture, fashion, technology, etc. that influence the future of clothing are examined.

The article examines the business logistics practices of the clothing industry firm Zara. Topics include closing the communication loop between designers, production staff, and shoppers, and concentrating capital on supply chain speed and flexibility. The role of queuing theory in these processes is discussed.

This paper considers multiprocessor task scheduling in a multistage hybrid flow-shop environment. The objective is to minimize the make-span, that is, the completion time of all the tasks in the last stage. This problem is of practical interest in the textile and process industries. A genetic algorithm (GA) is developed too solve the problem. The GA is tested against a lower bound from the literature as well as against heuristic rules on a test bed comprising 400 problems with up to 100 jobs, 10 stages, and with up to five processors on each stage. For small problems, solutions found by the GA are compared to optimal solutions, which are obtained by total enumeration. For larger problems, optimum solutions are estimated by a statistical prediction technique. Computational results show that the GA is both effective and efficient for the current problem. Test problems are provided in a web site at www.benchmark.ibu.edu.tr/mpt-hfsp. Keywords: multiprocessor tasks: hybrid flow-shops; make-span minimization; genetic algorithms

This article explores how labor market trends and current employment assistance policies affect reemployment opportunities and emotional well-being in a sample of female dislocated apparel workers. The study follows the displaced women from the time the plant closed for 6 months to assess their financial and emotional well-being as they reentered the job market or enrolled in training programs. Average wages of the reemployed women were less than their former plant wage; 14% lost their health insurance, and only half the women in training were in programs leading to higher paying jobs. Although some emotional recovery occurred, single parents still showed signs of depression after 6 months. Continued financial difficulty over time was strongly correlated with depressive symptoms. Depression, in turn, was significantly related to satisfaction with spouse and children's behavioral problems. In a multivariate analysis, baseline depression, financial difficulty, and single parenthood predicted depression 6 months later. Keywords: dislocated workers employment policy; labor market trends; economic trends; service industry; poor workers

A pair of genetic algorithms (GAs) which can solve a layout problem in the fashion industry is developed. The ability of the algorithms to find optimal or near optimal solutions and the importance of their genetic operators is investigated.

This paper focuses on labour practices in the Thai garment industry. In the context of developments in the Asian garment and textile industries, the authors investigate key factors effecting the [...]

The four numbers in David Ricardo's example of comparative advantage have been traditionally interpreted as unit labor coefficients in the production of wine and cloth in UK and Portugal. A recent interpretation suggests that they represent instead the labor needed to produce the amounts of wine and cloth actually traded. Ricardo's four numbers are shown to yield each country's gains from trade by simply subtracting two of the numbers from the other two. Since the numbers also indicate each country's comparative advantage, Ricardo established a close connection between comparative advantage and the gains from trade. Keywords: David Ricardo; Comparative advantage; Gains from trade JEL classification: F10; B12

Through serialized fiction, the fashion lithograph and the history of dress, the rhetorical force of the written garment as it pertains to late nineteenth-century Argentina are examined. Female emancipation on fashion columns of La Ondina del Plata and of Oasis en la vida is discussed.

The proliferation of both online and bricks and mortar outlet stores underscores the observation that secondary markets are readily accessible to retailers of short-life-cycle products. These secondary markets provide recourse channels for retailers to sell excess inventory of out-of-favor items at reduced prices when overstocking occurs in a primary market. We study the problem of determining when a retailer should terminate its primary selling season by selling remaining inventory on a secondary market. The retailer has a single opportunity to procure prior to a primary selling season consisting of multiple periods. Demand in each period is random, but correlated. At the end of each period, any remaining inventory incurs a holding cost. Then, based upon the current level of inventory and the cumulative demand-to-date, the retailer decides either to terminate the primary selling season by selling all or part of the remaining inventory on a secondary market, or to extend the current primary selling season by another period. We develop structural properties of the optimal policy for determining when to terminate the primary selling season, and we develop corresponding implications for procurement., 1. Introduction The proliferation of both online and bricks and mortar outlet stores underscores the observation that secondary markets are readily accessible to retailers of short-life-cycle products. These secondary markets [...]

The operations at the Eckhardt Mills later named as the Brigus Knitting Mills and looks into various factors that went into manufacturing at the mills and the conditions of the employees. It also talks about how the mill competed, not only for a share of funds from the Premier b ut also the changing and extremely competitive marketplace.

In Europe, the perennial stinging nettle was cultivated during the 19th century until the Second World War and has a long history as a fiber plant. Clone varieties dating back to the early 20th century are still maintained at European research institutions. The fiber content of clones ranges from 1.2 to 16% dry matter, and fiber yields range from 0.14 to 1.28 Mg [ha.sup.-1]. Varietal purity of fiber nettle can only be achieved by planting cuttings. The harvesting of fiber starts in the second year of growth and the crop may produce well for several years. Several agronomic practices influence fiber quality, but causal relations are not yet well understood. Various parts of the fiber nettle plant can be used as food, fodder and as raw material for different purposes in cosmetics, medicine, industry and biodynamic agriculture. Organically produced fibers are in demand by the green textile industry and show potential that is economically promising. Key words: fiber nettle, fiber production, fiber processing, natural textiles, organic farming, renewable resources

A hybrid genetic approach is proposed for the cutting operation in the clothing industry. Garment cutting is a typical strip-packing problem, which is considered to be NP-complete. With a combination of genetic algorithm (GA) and a novel heuristic algorithm Lowest-Fit-Left-Aligned,' the cutting problem is transformed into a simple permutation problem which can be effectively solved by the GA and the searching domain is greatly reduced. From the simulation results, it is demonstrated that the optimal results can be obtained in a reasonably short period of time. Index Terms--Clothing industry, cutting problem, genetic algorithm (GA), heuristic algorithm.

The operations of Zara are discussed.

KALANTARIDIS C., SLAVA S. and SOCHKA K. (2003) Globalization processes in the clothing industry of Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine, Reg. Studies 37, 173-186. This paper sets out to examine the integration of a region undergoing a process of post-socialist transformation in the global marketplace. In doing so it draws upon the experience of the clothing industry in Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine. The findings of extensive fieldwork investigation suggest that, during the mid 1990s, subcontracting linkages were established through intermediaries located in economies, which achieved significant advances in the process of transformation (such as Hungary and Slovakia), between local manufacturers and parent enterprises abroad. The role of the mediators was subsequently diminished, partly due to the adoption of greater commitment strategies by some parent enterprises and the emergence of local mediators and a handful of entrepreneurial manufacturers. This led to the formation of complex networks of production and r ole differentiation among local and global economic agents. The resulting recovery in the employment provided by the industry to some 60% of the pre-1991 levels constitutes a rare success story in the regional context. However, there are serious concerns about the long-term viability of this pattern of growth. Globalization, Post-socialist transformation, Clothing industry, Ukraine KALANTARIDIS C., SLAVA S. et SOCHKA K. (2003) La mondialisation de l'habillement dans la Transcarpathie, en Ukraine occidentale, Reg. Studies 37, 173-186. Cet article cherche a examiner l'insertion dans le marche mondial d'une region en voie de developpement post-socialiste. Il puise donc dans l'experience de l'industrie de l'habillement dans la Transcarpathie, en Ukraine occidentale. Les resultats d'une enquete detaillee, menee sur le terrain, laissent supposer qu'au milieu des anmies 1990, des liens de sous-traitance ont ete etablis entre des etablissements industriels locaux et des maisons mere a l'etranger par des intermediaires situes dans des economies qui ont fait d'importants developpements (a savoir, en Hongrie et en Slovakie). Par la suite, le role des intermediaires s'est vu reduit, en partie a cause de l'adoption de strategies d'engagement plus fortes de la part de certaines maisons mere et de la naissance des intermediaires locaux et d'une poignee d'entrepreneurs industriels. Cela a entraine la c onstruction de reseaux de production complexes et la differenciation des roles des agents economiqes, locaux et mondiaux. Le regain de l'emploi, qui en a resulte, fourni par cette industrie a hauteur de quelque 60% du niveau enregistre avant 1991, constitue une rare reussite d'envergure regionale. Toujours est-il que la perennite de cette croissance laisse serieusement a s'inquieter. Mondialisation, Developpement post-socialiste, Habillement, Ukraine KALANTARIDIS C., SLAVA S. und SOCHICA K. (2003) Globalisierungsprozesse in der Bekleidungsindustrie Transkarpathiens, Westukraine, Reg. Studies 37, 173-186. Dieser Aufsatz beabsichtigt, die Integration einer Region zu untersuchen, die einen ProzeB post-sozialistischer Umstellung durchmacht und sich gleichzeitig dem globalen Markt ausgesetzt sieht. Dabei stutzt er sich auf die Erfabrung der Bekleidungsindustrie in Transkarpathien, Westukraine. Die Befunde ausgedehnter Untersuchungsarbeiten im Felde legen nahe, daB Mitte der neunziger Jahre durch Vermittler in Wirtschaften, (wie Ungarn und der Slovakei) die dank des Umstellungsprozesses bedeutende Fortschritte erzielt hatten, vertraglich weitervergebende Verknupfungen zwischen Herstellern am Orte und Muttergesellschaften im Ausland geschaffen wurden. Die Rolle der Vermittler verlor spater an Bedeutung, zum Teil dank Umstellungen in manchen Muttergesellschaften auf Bestrebungen zu vermehrtem Engagement und dem Auftreten von Vermittlern am Orte, sowie ein paar He rstellern mit Unternehmungsgeist. Dies fuhrte zur Bildung komplexer Produktionsnetzwerke und Rollendifferenzierung unter ortlichen und globalen Agenten. Die sich daraus ergebende Erholung des Arbeitsmarktes, welche die Industrie auf einige 60% der vor 1991 bestehenden Hohe zuruckbrachte, stellte im regionalen Zusammenhang eine seltene Erfolgs-geschichte dar. Man macht sich jedoch ernste Sorgen uber die langfristige Wettbewerbsfahigkeit dieses Wachstumsmusters. Globalisierung, Post-sozialistische Umstellung, Bekleidungsindustrie, Ukraine

In recent years, a key focus of research on industrial and regional dynamics has been oriented toward understanding the conditions that lead to the clustering of economic activity. The apparent [...]

Republican lawmakers have pledged the textile industry to exclude or limit textile imports from the Andean Trade Preference Act in return for support of President Bush's trade promotion authority. Compelling U.S. interests, such as the promotion of free trade and fight against the narcotics trade and terrorism, mandate the renewal of the Andean Trade Preference Act. This could be done while expanding the act to uphold the regrettable, but non-retractable, deal with the textile industry.

Retailer Eddie Bauer found a way to retain good employees by offering benefits specifically tailored to lifestyle and individual needs. The company?s work/life programs, in place since the early 1990s, have attracted much attention from the business community

Foreign direct investment has played a significant role in the economic growth in mainland China. This FDI impact and spillover especially in the case of electronics and textiles industries, is summarized. The tendency of FDI to reduce the productivity and market share of the domestic firms, is analyzed.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, rebellious behaviour of women workers, especially in the garment industry, was not unusual in various newly industrialized countries. To depict such militancy a [...]