You would be surprised to find out that approximately 3% of the clothing bought by Americans is produced domestically. The clothing industry has gradually rejected the domestic production of clothing by appropriating cheap labor and materials from Third World countries. This has caused major crippling effects for the local clothing industry. Moreover, the same items that are produced by inexpensive means are sold back to native consumers in these Third World manufacturing countries at triple the price. However, before businesses can consider using production options closer to home like how Joseph Ribkoff Canada does, they want to know what benefits they will attain from this. This article aims to provide you with a list of benefits of supporting local production to manufacture clothing in the fashion industry.
Advantages
Reactive Communication
Using employees from a different country may subject businesses to language barrier challenges. This can cause a myriad of problems that could potentially affect their control over their affairs. Moreover, when your production process is done locally, it is easier to appoint a local sub-manager who can oversee things and relay important information concerning business development.
Moreover, you maintain strong control over your business at all times. Having your production locally means that you source local suppliers. There is always efficient communication because the chances of a language barrier are minimal. Your items are always delivered and manufactured at a faster rate than they would if they were produced overseas.
Transparency
When you focus your attention and resources towards efficient small-scale local production, you are able to ensure transparency for your consumers. Moreover, you are able to uphold green practices adequately. When you can observe the process of development of your items, you will be able to control and improve the quality while reducing waste as well as overproduction.
Uphold Safety and Health Standards
When your production warehouse is a drive away, you are able to put more effort into risk assessment and conducting regular health and safety inspections. You will know what measures need to be improved or removed to maintain safe working conditions for your employees. When you can provide your employees with a safe working environment, they become more productive. This is ideal to ensure that you maintain producing quality products that can infiltrate the international market.
Supports Local Businesses
This is the most obvious advantage of focusing on local production in the fashion industry. When you focus on domestic production, you boost the local economy. You can create jobs and potentially build a new market for clients that you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to gain.
The Bottom Line
When more businesses focus on local development and rely on local resources to generate sales, it grows the local market and ensures that more people are employed. Even though conglomerates prefer to cut costs by using inexpensive labor and products, if more small-scale companies can focus on local production, the trend can grow to sustain more local businesses.
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