Current Challenges of Textile and
Apparel Industry in Bangladesh
Sharmin Akther Diba
Industrial & Production Engineer
Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET)
Email: dibasrmn@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Sharmin Akther Diba
The ready-made garments industry or Textile Industry is the most influential economic sector
of Bangladesh. Because of labor intensiveness, technological improvements,
resourceful workforce, tremendous success, this sector going upper day by day.
This sector faces some challenges these days. Six major challenges are described
below:
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| A denim Garments- Made in Bangladesh |
1. Increasing
electronics, Motors & Hi-tech Industries:
At present people want good quality local products at a cheaper
cost. Keeping this in mind, so many renowned hi-tech, micro-tech, motors &
vehicles, electrical & electronics products & accessories companies
build up. Among them, Atlas Copco, Walton group, Runner group, Minister
group, Philips, Jamuna group, RFL group, Superstar group, My one, Best
electronics, Esquire electronics, etc. are doing very well to grab customers.
They are running continuously by embracing new technologies & customer
demand. In fact, they are competing with the garments sector by adding more value
to the economy of Bangladesh.
2. Order
speed up & variety increases:
Nowadays people's fashion choices as well as trends changing
rapidly. Classy, fusion & trendy items are top on a choice following
Hollywood or Bollywood. The globally competitive market also wants rapid feedback
from its suppliers. Order speeds up because of this reason. In some cases, buyers want delivery within two weeks which is a very strict time schedule to
follow for our RMG sector. Here things are not in ideal condition so every time
it’s not possible to follow supply chain rules to on-time delivery. Our fashion
designers are not to an extraordinary expert to give feedback soon as per buyer
specifications. We feel comfortable producing T-shirts, Sweatshirts, Hoody,
Jackets, Polo shirts, Pant, shirts, Home tex, etc. On contrary, our competitor
countries produce fancy items with a short lead time. For example, Amazon
brings custom-made products with a few hours of delivery time. Our weakness turns a threat to our growing apparel sector.
3. Recent
wage increment:
RMG sector's recent wage increment will affect our apparel
growth. After 51% wage increment there were some unrest demand issues & it
also cleared. From a minimum salary of 5300 takas (Gazette in 2013) for an assistant
operator to 8000 takas (Gazette in 2019), is a huge increment for about 4.4
million garment workers. With this direct cost increment, the per-minute cost of
the companies will increase also. It will rise product-making costs &
freight on board value. Foreign buyers will not pay high in accordance with
that. So, we may lose an order or sometimes need to business in breakeven point.
4. Dependency
& grading system:
We have a habit of being dependent on specific buyer orders.
In some cases, the company has one or two buyers to depend on their continuous order. The business policy needs to change. We should focus on open market policy rather
than our dependency. For this reason, we are adopting their illegal conditions
like continuous order or repeat order discount policy, rapid styles push policy, etc. Sometimes they are getting advantage of quality policies by grading system
of product & reducing payment. China & India have their own code of
conduct in these regards & they are not so dependent on any specific
regional buyers. We need to develop our negotiation & marketing strategies.
5. Global
technological improvements:
We are lacking behind in respect of technological
improvements. China uses fully automated machines which take 5 to 6 minutes
to complete a jeans pant sewing. On contrary, we invest in general 15 to 20
minutes to complete it with several machine & manual operations. It is not
necessary to grab all the methods, technologies, or techniques suddenly. Our
neighbor country India practicing slowly but rising rapidly. There are so many
foreign professionals working in our country. They follow production-friendly
methods, quick changeover steps, lean manufacturing, standardization, TQM
tools, TPM systems, MRP tools, Supply chain strategies, minute-based capacity
planning tools, precise software-based costing analysis, digital marketing
policy, and so on. Instead of learning or adopting, we are just following them
which in turn adds no value when they are not available. Most of the women
workers of the RMG sector be afraid of adopting semi-automation or methodological
change. It is necessary to train them, literate them. When the modern world works
for the elimination of non-value-added activities, we are interested to grab them
by making our efforts easier. Our middle & top managements are not trendy
in these regards that’s why they are wasting efficient workers capability. They
need to be more focused on grabbing modern machinery, technologies, methods,
plans, software, etc. to make successful business globally.
6. Safety
& green business policies:
After the Rana plaza & Tazrin garments incidents, industrial
safety becomes an important issue for foreign buyers. Every international buyer
has their own safety & compliance policy. Sometimes those are just a way of
making a hindrance. Accord & Alliance, OHS, WRAP, etc. become mandatory to get
international standards. Safety and compliance rules sometimes become the
reason for not getting renowned buyer orders. A green production system or green
business policy is another international requirement. USGBC & LEED
certification is mandatory to get top-class buyer's orders. According to a report
on The Daily Star published on 9th October 2018, there are 73 Bangladeshi LEED Green garment factories certified by the USGBC.
There are some 320 factories in the pipeline waiting to get LEED Green garment factories certificate. The economic zone
of RMG sector is strictly on these rules & regulations as well as other
sites factories are willing to certify themselves as safe & environment-friendly organization.
Other Factors
create challenges for our Textile and Apparel sector:
There are some weak points of our Textile Industry
which make our business challenging. They are:
1.
Limitation of modern machinery & automation
system
2.
Lack of technology-oriented labor force
3.
Fear of short lead-time shipment
4.
Limitation of raw material production
5. Time-consuming port services
6.
Lack of local professionals
7.
Mismatch between planning & implementation
8.
Not adopting software-based precise costing &
planning
9.
Political unrest condition &natural calamities
10.
Lack of marketing tactics & skillful middle
management
11.
Lack of negotiation power of order taking
12.
Lack of large group of companies to attract foreign
buyers
Also, there are some Threat points for our Industry
that make our business challenging. They are:
1.
Globally competitive export market
2.
Rise of the price of raw materials
3.
Wages increments of RMG workers
4.
Increasing making cost & FOB cost
5.
Speed order increases for all buyer
6.
Dependency on mother buyer of companies
7.
Short lead time & fragmented order
8.
Product variety & demand for fancy items
9.
Products grading system of buyers turn a reason of loss
10.
Zero traffic facilities of African countries attract
buyers
11.
China has more
technological & infrastructure facilities
12.
Bad fame of
country due to political issues& corruptions
RMG sector of Bangladesh passed so many ups &
downs, finally reaches present condition. In accordance to global changes, the Bangladesh RMG sector needs to improve technologically, need to modify
traditional methods, enhance marketing strategy & business policy, ensure
standard safety & compliance policy, Precise costing & planning, use
supply chain strategy, business process excellence technology, training &
implementation, research & development, Multi-skilled management systems,
practicing industrial engineering tools, etc.
References:
1. Hussain Jalal M., 2015,
‘RMG industry facing daunting challenges’, The financial express, Dhaka.
2.
Islam Shahidul M., 2011, ‘RMG Sector: Challenges Versus Opportunities’, Apparel
Bulletin of Bangladesh.
3.
http://ordnur.com/apparel/focusing-wages-increment-efficiency-improvement-equally/
search on 1st May, 2019
4.
BGMEA Website
5.
BKMEA Website
6. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5eb8/ bb3a4fa2597e9a11a8403a5ef77a1765525a.pdf
6. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5eb8/ bb3a4fa2597e9a11a8403a5ef77a1765525a.pdf