A stitch in time...
... can save a lot of water. While most might not be losing sleep over water wastage in the textile industry, one person thankfully is.
Decoding the complex issue of inventory in the textile industry, Nitin Kapoor introduced Just In Time (JIT)
The textile industry today is the second most polluted in the world. It has become necessary that the industry must lead the way with more modern technology for cleaner processes that save energy and water. — Nitin Kapoor, entrepreneur
When we take action towards saving the planet, it mostly consists of abstaining from using fossil fuels, cycling to places, not using plastic products and so on. However, rarely do we think about how our fashion choices affect the planet.
Did you know that an average T-shirt uses 400 to 600 gallons of water to be produced? Or that the amount is thrice as much in the case of jeans? Compare this to the water scarcity which is rampant across the country where more than 600 million people face ‘acute’ water shortages — and your throat might just start to dry up. Data also suggests that 21 Indian cities are expected to run out of groundwater by 2020.
While a lot has been said about the futility of fast fashion and some retailers across the world have decided to put the brakes on it, is it enough? Perhaps that is why one entrepreneur from Delhi is working towards eradicating the issue of water wastage in the fashion industry.
Decoding the complex issue of inventory in the textile industry, Nitin Kapoor introduced JIT, a new technology that allows for the production of only what the market demands, and nothing more. The goal is to control the utilisation of natural resources and ensure no dumping of waste fabric. “The textile industry today is the second most polluted in the world. It has become necessary that the industry must lead the way with more modern technology for cleaner processes that save energy and water,” believes Kapoor, the co-founder of Indian Beautiful Art.
The initial challenges Kapoor faced — like not being able to create the high demand garment again either due to individual prints or fabrics being out of stock — resulted in piling of unsold inventory and outdated designs. This led him to come up with the idea of this technology. “It is to convert these problems into opportunities that the management has launched the Just In Time system for Garment Manufacturing (JITGM),” he explains.
The problem of water wastage is being solved in two interesting steps. “Instead of getting prints of the photo shoot, images of the clothes are tested using technology. This effectively cuts the cost of photo-shoot production and creates a single prototype for various patterns of the same garment,” Kapoor adds. What is even more fascinating is the use of technology to decide the colours and designs, which are changed directly in the images, saving time, resources, and labour. “The clothing is only manufactured once the customer has placed their order. Right from printing to dispatching the product,” he explains.
Taking technology to the next level, JITGM (which is also a copyrighted process with the Government of India), is expected to reduce the waste of resources, especially water. “Here, the customer will place the order via augmented reality (AR) images, which will offer customers multiple ranges of fabrics/colours/prints/embroideries, and then the garment would be produced within 48 hours,” he sums up.larger opportunity for the quartet internationally,”