Manufacturing and Merchandising Activities in Apparel Industry

Literature Review

The apparel industry is a highly competitive global business. To be successful, manufacturers and
retailers must serve their consumer markets. Manufacturers must produce apparel that meets
performance, quality, and value expectations of retailers and consumers. Manufacturers produce
goods with appropriate intrinsic quality merchandised and marketed with the desirable extrinsic
apparel.

To stay in business, each firm must grow and make a profit. Apparel firms grow through internal
growth. vertical and horizontal integration. and conglomerate mergers. Manufacturers and retailers
have become partners in QR. Competitors both in manufacturing and retailing, and suppliers and
users in the trade matrix. Apparel firms operate in a global market that involves international trade
regulation and image problems related to sweatshops. However, corporate social responsibility in
the form of WRAP has become a serious quest. Excesses of imports over exports have created a
severe trade deficit in apparel in the United States.

Expertise in executive leadership, marketing. merchandising, production. operations, finance, and

Quick Response are essential for operating an apparel firm. These functions must be performed,
regardless of the size of the firm or product line, in order to carry out the manufacturing process and
meet the needs of the target market. among these functional areas is the key to an apparel
manufacturing firm. Information technology and computer to computer communication are
essential. The focus of this article is on apparel manufacturing processes and interrelating quick
response, marketing, merchandising and production areas of specialization