Smart factories & FTAs, biggest disruptions in textile sector: FICCI TAG

“Global textile and apparel Industry is going through disruptive times. Buyers are looking to diversify beyond China and opening opportunities for other countries. However, China is still disrupting the global value chain and investing in emerging manufacturing destinations like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia, etc. on a large scale and also building smart factories that will give them a competitive advantage. In order to compete globally and win in the disruptive times, India needs to adopt manufacturing excellence and service orientation” as per a FICCI – Wazir Advisors Textile industry report on winning in disruptive times released at FICCI TAG 2020 annual seminar in Mumbai.

“India comprises a large fragmented industry and hence it is important for large anchor players to engage with smaller players and integrate the supply chain for bringing efficiencies. Further Indian companies need to adopt latest technologies and build smart factories that are digitally enabled with the value chain. Skilling of middle and top management is also important so that they are geared to follow best practices and build efficient and service oriented business. Indian domestic market is also growing and needs to be serviced with agility,” said Prashant Agarwal, Co-Founder and Joint MD, Wazir Advisors while giving a presentation on the report.

Report also stressed upon Government’s policy intervention to help in neutralising cost disadvantage with global competitors and also help build infrastructure to produce large scale manufacturing zones with focus on manufacturing excellence and sustainability. Indian industry has become cautious in investing due to global disruptions. The industry needs to have better risk taking capabilities and ability to speedily align with emerging mega trends to remain in the business opined a panel of CEOs during the conference.

RD Udeshi, President – Polyester Chain, Reliance Industries, stressed upon the product delivery time and quality and finishing of product as per the international standard to remain competitive in the global market and companies should focus on value addition and skill development. He also said that Indian textile industry can have advantage over its competitors like China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam, etc. with the manufacturing excellence and scale of the factories.

Rahul Mehta, Managing Director, Creative Garments was of the opinion that Indian companies should stop being scared of scaling up and start manufacturing clothes closer to the place of raw material and cheaper labour instead of being close to the place of market.

Agility, speed and transparency is the key to win in disruptive times said Rajendra K Rewari, Executive Director & CEO, Morarjee Textiles. He also said that we should bring young talent in the business in this disruptive time and to attract this talent we have to change the system of our business and make our industry more remunerative.

Earlier in the opening session, Sanjay Katkar, Deputy CEO, MIDC shared opportunities for Textile Industry in Maharashtra and SP Verma, Joint Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textile, Government of India said that Indian companies should Integrate Market Intelligence and IT in their processes more efficiently and utilise textile Centre of Excellence to its full capacity.

The theme of the TAG 2020 conference is very contemporary. In these disruptive times it’s important that the industry experts discuss the issues and challenges and seek possible solutions to overcome those. TAG conference offered an excellent platform for giving a clear roadmap in that perspective said GV Aras, Director, A.T.E. Enterprises, during a panel discussion.

With innovation, technology, versatile fibre availability and ample manpower resources, India should aim to be superior quality producer in the world said Anil Nair, President, Shubhalakshmi Polyester during a panel discussion.

Vikas Sharan, Director – India Operations, Saurer Textile Solutions, applauded the TAG 2020 conference and said that relevant topics on surviving through disruptive times, sustainability, size and scale of business, investments and interventions for winning the global race, were deliberated by industry’s stakeholders with active participation by the audience.