10/19/95
Mitch Emmons (emmonmb@mail.auburn.edu)
TEXTILE APPAREL SOURCING DATA BASE ON THE INTERNET
AUBURN -- A marketing data base for the textile and apparel industry that began as a research initiative at Auburn University is now accessible via the Internet.
The National Sourcing Data Base electronically links textile and apparel manufacturers with buyers, says Lenda Jo Anderson, an associate professor in the AU Department of Consumer Affairs.
"It is a match marketing data base to link textile and apparel producers with retailers looking for product," she said. "It basically is a means for moving this industry into what's known as quick response, or just-in-time manufacturing."
Anderson said it became apparent in the late 1980s that U.S. textile and apparel manufacturers -- especially small to medium-sized firms -- needed more visibility in the market due to changing trade policies and rapidly emerging technology.
"We started working on this a decade ago by holding various trade fairs," she said, adding that the logistics involved with bringing manufacturers and buyers together at these events limited efficiency. Buyers needed readily available information on sources.
Under the research umbrella provided by the National Textile Center -- a four-university consortium of which AU is a member -- funding was obtained to complete the basic research needed to create an electronic data base for this purpose.
With some 26,000 textile and apparel manufacturers in the United States, Anderson said organizing information for the data base was a challenge. Also, because much of the textile/apparel industry was not yet linked by computer networks, a means for communication had to be developed.
"Information was not easily organized," she said. "We first had to determine how to best meet the needs of the end user -- the apparel product developer. We then had to get buyers connected."
Researchers from business schools, government research laboratories and from the textile/apparel industry combined expertise to design the data base, Anderson said. The initial result was a modem-linked system called TARESS (Textile and Apparel Regional Electronic Sourcing System) that enabled buyers to search for manufacturers of specific products using their personal computer.
As computer networks became more common throughout the industry, the data base expanded to the Internet's World Wide Web.
It now is used by most of the nation's major retailers, says Anderson.
"This is a very time-driven group of people," she said. "The major retailers like the data base because it helps them locate product and sources quickly. By making buyers' search for product easier, it's good for the industry -- because it keeps jobs from leaving the country."
The National Sourcing Data Base is part of the Demand Activated Manufacturing project. It is administered by the Clothing and Textile Technology Corp. in Raleigh, N.C. It can be accessed at: http://avalon.epm.ornl.gov:80/Dama2/
oct95:AU-database
CONTACT: Anderson, 334/844-3789.