Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/13708

Browse

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

item: Thesis-Abstract
Developing a toolkit to incorporate environmental improvements into the fashion design process
(2023) Munasinghe PD; Dissanayake DGK; Druckman A
The fashion industry plays a vital role in the development of the global economy while creating significant stress on the environment throughout its supply chains, due to high resource consumption, waste generation, and carbon emissions. The mass-market is the major market segment that creates sustainability concerns due to high volumes of production and low product prices that motivate consumers to buy more and throw away often. Consumer awareness and governmental concern regarding the sustainability of the fashion industry have increased and the industry is now being urged to take steps to mitigate environmental concerns. The literature reports many initiatives by various parties to address the environmental challenges in the fashion industry, but little success has been achieved to date. To address the sustainability issues of fashion products, environmental impacts need to be taken into consideration during the early stages of the product development process, and not once the product is being made. Most of the decisions of a fashion product are made in the product development stage, yet a comprehensive tool that supports making environmentally conscious decisions is lacking. This study describes the development of a user-friendly toolkit for mass-market fashion designers, that facilitates environmentally responsible decision-making during the product development process. The toolkit is expected to provide a simple, timeefficient and inexpensive method that integrates sustainability into the design of apparel products. This study employed a mixed-method approach which used both quantitative and qualitative investigations. A systematic literature review was conducted with a meta-analysis to investigate the environmental impact of the life cycle of the fashion product to develop a database which comprises impact data across the clothing lifecycle Semi-structured interviews were conducted with mass-market fashion designers and sustainable design practitioners to investigate the key activities and decisions of the mass-market design process and to explore views concerning the impact of those decisions on the environment. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Later the interconnections of both quantitative and qualitative aspects were made and those interconnections were composed into a comprehensive structure to develop the toolkit. The model is simulated as a simple web-based application that can be used as a toolkit to facilitate sustainable decision-making in the product development process. The toolkit structure includes data processing and visualisation methods, decision support protocols to improve the sustainability of the design, and a user interface of the toolkit: data inputs, decision making, presenting results and a bridge to link each interface. Finally, the simulated IT-based toolkit was validated by the fashion designers, during which the toolkit was proven to be successful in facilitating a user-friendly sustainable decision-making process.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Sustainable entrepreneurial business model to uphold Sri Lankan textile handloom communities
(2023) Thushari WKD; Dissanayake DGK; Downs C
This study develops a sustainable business model that can foster the growth of the textile handloomindustry in Sri Lanka. The research identified opportunities for product innovations through design intervention and highlighted the potential for community-based entrepreneurship, allowing the development of a novel theoretical model that emphasizes diversified interventions to encourage benefits including and beyond economic growth. This study relied on qualitative data from empirical work, including 9 case studies, 35 semistructured interviews and field observations. Additionally, three participatory action research focus group workshops were conducted using the KETSO tool. The study reveals the textilehandloom industry is inherently sustainable but structural barriers hinder innovation and growth. The environmentally conscious manufacturing process and social inclusion within weavingcommunities are the key driving forces of sustainability in the sector but the structure of the industry, lack of skills in product design and development, and limited access to markets act asbarriers to innovation and growth. The study further discovered that entrepreneurial culture is notprevalent in community life. As a result, the study proposes a theoretical notion of sustainable community-basedentrepreneurship within the textile handloom industry is determined by the four factors of socialcapital (networks), family web, social status and innovation mix. The proposed business modelconsists of four layers; economic, social, environmental and entrepreneurial.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Decision making model for the front - end of apparel innovation
(2022) Seram NCK; Nanayakkara LDJF; Lanarolle WDG
A systematic, well-documented approach is absolutely essential in today’s context of apparel innovation to manage and implement the activities of the innovation process in the winning goal of developing fashion-forward innovative apparel products. Decision making at the front-end of the innovation process is the most significant aspect of the success of the entire innovation process. As such, decision making in the front-end by incorporating co-creation of value in the Business to Business (B2B) customer context is vital as this is deemed to be the best way to put the company in a strong position in the market with respect to competitiveness and survival. The existing models for decision making in the front-end have limited clarity on what decisions should be made at different stages, how the decisions should be made and what the specific roles of the B2B customers are, in the process of innovation. Though enormous focus and efforts are evident in developing innovative apparel products by the Sri Lankan apparel industry, no standardized procedures have been laid down for the decision making in the apparel innovation process, as revealed from the discussions with the senior managers of the Sri Lankan apparel industry. Thus, this study aims at filling these gaps in the literature and apparel industry practices by developing a model for decision making in the front-end by incorporating ‘co-creation of value in the B2B context’ to provide a useful guide for the apparel product innovation process. Initially, three companies in Sri Lanka, who have heavily concentrated on apparel product innovation for the past ten years were studied to identify the type of innovative product offered and the key decisions involved in the front-end of innovation. The findings indicated that 9095 percent of innovations are incremental in the practical apparel setting in Sri Lanka. The world reputed international apparel brands are directly involved in the manufacturing process as the apparel products are made available to end consumer through apparel brands. Three innovation initiation approaches are practiced by the apparel brands; innovation ‘initiated by company for customer’, ‘initiated by company with customer’, and ‘initiated by customer’. The key decision gates vary in the three innovation initiation approaches, eight in the first two approaches and seven in the third approach. The inputs from apparel brands and suppliers are also in different forms and in different intensities. The front-end decision making process is controlled by the core competencies and climate of the company and the operational competencies and relationship characteristics of the external actors. The results obtained in the case studies for two initiation approaches found within incremental apparel product innovation (innovation ‘initiated by company’ and ‘initiated by B2B customer’) were re-examined and verified using two concurrent studies: semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey. Three individual components (i. decision making process steps, ii. interactive roles of B2B customers, producers, and suppliers, and iii. factors that influence the front-end decision making process) were included in the Meta decision model as they closely interconnect to each other. The Modified Delphi technique was employed in the process of model validation to verify the Meta decision making model in terms of the levels of clarity of the content, overall reliability, practicality, and appropriateness for the apparel sector. The opinions of experts involved in the validation Modified Delphi study confirmed that the Meta decision making model provides a deeper understanding of what decisions should be made at different stages, the responsible decision makers for each key decision, and how the decisions should be handled systematically at the front-end of apparel innovation. The Meta decision making model could assist apparel producers to improve the quality of design solutions, avoid ineffective solutions, create the best value for customers, and meet the needs of demanding customers.
item: Thesis-Full-text
A Novel approach in formulating a size chart for female pants
Vithanage, CP; Jayawardane, TSS; Niles, N; Tilakaratne, CD
Each country understands that they need their own size charts representing their population because researchers have found that human body shapes, proportions and measurements change significantly due to the geographical and demographical differences. Even though, many countries have developed their own size charts, ready-to-wear apparel industry still faces the problem of poor fit of apparels. Reasons for this fit problems may be due to several factors such as limitations of existing size chart development approaches, lack of up-to-date anthropometric data of the relevant population, vast body shape differences among the population, and restrictions in mass production systems. In this research, one of the above problems; issues in existing size chart development approaches, was studied comprehensively in order to identify drawbacks of the size chart development approaches. Statistical approach which uses descriptive statistics, k-means clustering combined with factor analysis and classification and regression decision tree method were widely used popular size chart development approaches. With the current lower body anthropometric data of Sri Lankan females of age 20-40 years, limitations of the above approaches were investigated. Through this explorative analysis, limitations of current approaches and potential improvements for a better approach were discerned. Thereby a novel approach for development of size charts was formulated. The proposed approach is capable of handling linearly inseparable data with high dimensionality without variable reduction. Further, number of clusters can be objectively determined and the transformation function could be optimized by tuning the parameters of it. Kernel based learning is one of the latest data mining approaches in pattern recognition. A kernel based clustering technique called “global kernel k-means clustering technique”, was adopted to cluster lower body anthropometric data in the proposed method. Selection of proper kernel function and tuning of kernel parameters are crucial in successful data clustering. For determining the number of clusters objectively, kernel based Dunn’s index, which is one of the cluster validation technique, was successfully instrumented in the said novel approach. Thereby the lower body anthropometric dataset of females was successfully clustered through the proposed novel approach taking all variables into account. It was also proved that the developed size chart could successfully eliminate the fitting problems of Sri Lankan female pants. The size chart was validated through a well accepted index called Aggregate Loss of Fit index on theoretical ground and the live model fitting of fabricated pants according to the size chart through a standard feedback questionnaire. The complete approach in developing size charts could be of interest to other clustering applications in many fields also
item: Thesis-Full-text
Enabling the transition from product provider to service provider an empirical investigation in the apparel industry
(2015-10-20) Mataraarachchi, R; Wickramasinghe, D; Godsell, J
Consumers are expressing preferences based upon some degree of product-service differentiation and not simply on cost. This trend is more prominent among apparel consumers in the major markets. In this context, the success of traditional low cost supply bases will be twofold: first, they can further compete in terms of low cost, or second, they can see opportunities to differentiate themselves through upgrading themselves to provide innovative service offerings. This calls into question the upgrading of the traditional low cost supply bases with the evolving consumer needs to provide innovative service offerings. The strategic management literature domain discusses the need for dynamic capabilities for upgrading the resource base to meet the needs of an evolving market. Hence the stream of literature identifies the need for learning capabilities as an enabler for an industry upgrade. Supply chain management literature emphasizes the need of integrating demand (Market oriented view) and supply (Supply oriented view) to provide the consumer requirements. On the other hand, “Servitization” has been introduced as a concept that describes the process of the industry upgrade for creating customer value. Emphasizing the need for developing super supply chains, this stream of literature also argues the need for knowledge integration for creating customer value. However, neither literature domain provides an appropriate supply network design that enables the industry upgrade to provide the required service offerings. Therefore an opportunity exists to understand an appropriate supply network design that enables the servitization process. The purpose of the thesis is therefore, to link servitization with competitive priorities, network relationships and integrative capabilities. The research design that was developed to address this opportunity is a case with four embedded units of analysis. This provides the opportunity to look for theoretical replication of the guiding principles and generative mechanisms that underpin the industry upgrade for servitization. The research concludes that an industry upgrade for service offerings needs supply networks with appropriate integrative capabilities that both link the competitive priorities of the specific market and enable the integration between cross functions, as well as cross organizations, in order to enable the learning required. Accordingly, the thesis contributes to the applied literature domain through providing an empirically refined conceptual framework for an industry upgrade and further contributes to the underpinning theory through providing an empirically refined conceptual framework for upgrading the resource base. The thesis also provides a practical contribution through identifying a framework for industrialists to upgrade with the changing consumer needs. Accordingly, industrialists should consider incorporating appropriate integrative capabilities through processes, structures, organization design and key performance indicators that align with the market requirements. Finally, the thesis highlights the limitations and proposes further research areas.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Investigation of high volume bio materials as potential colourants and finish chemicals for fibrous substrates
(7/22/2011) Wijayapala, UGS; De Alwis, A; De Silva, NGH
The modern consumer (1990 onwards) is aware of the toxic chemical residues on textiles/garments (resulting from dyes and chemicals used) which can have carcinogenic/ dermatological and allergic effects on the wearer, especially because textiles are in contact with human skin for 24 hours of the day. The second aspect deals with the 'pollution' (air/water) at each of all stages in production of textiles. The third concern is about the 'ecological' problems during disposal (of garbage / on incineration). The aim of this research is to show feasibility of producing high quality natural dyes from plants, creating new opportunities for both farmers and the fabric / garment industry in line with the current consumer trends towards eco-friendly natural products. The direct national benefit is shown. Environmental and economical factors too need to be considered to make this viable in the long run. Investigation of the traditional dyeing techniques and dye producing plants with special reference to Sri Lanka, and development of natural dyes and investigation of their suitability as textile dyes were the two major objectives of this research study. Research investigations based on the comprehensive analysis of 10 best dye yielding plants which have been chosen from 47 dye yielding plants in Sri Lanka are presented. The available raw material spectrum had been reviewed. The ten (10) selected species are Kothala Himbutu (Salacia reticulata), Weniwal tCoscinium fenestratum), Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum), Mangus tGarcinia mangostana), Big onion skin (Allium cepa) , Marigold (Tegetus erecta), Tea (Camellia sinensis), Jak (Artocarpus heterophyllus), Walmadata (Rubia cordifolia) and Turmeric (Curcuma domestica). Some of the above plant extracts have not been used before in textile dyeing. Environmental performance was another aspect of the research. Results from effluent characteristics of best dyeing solutions reveal significant reduction in pollution potential. The concept of ready to use dye concentrates is also presented

Browse

Recent Submissions