Textilhögskolan i Borås startade projektet Knit On Demand i syftet att undersöka och utvärdera complete garment teknologin. Idén bygger på konceptet masskundanpassning inom området stickning. Huvudaktörerna i Knit On Demand projektet är Textilhögskolan i Borås, återförsäljaren SOM Concept i Stockholm samt Ivanhoe, tillverkare av stickade kläder. Målet med detta arbete är att identifiera och beskriva alla processteg, från den tidpunkt då kunden kliver in i butiken i Stockholm tills det färdiga plagget leverats. Vårt arbete går även ut på att hitta och beskriva förbättringsmöjligheter samt tillhörande kostnads kalkyleringar. För att frambringa relevant data utför och presenterar vi en simulering av hela processen. Metoden som har använts i arbetet bygger på observerade fallstudier från både SOM Concept och Ivanhoe. Den metod vi använder oss av är baserad på kvantitativ data och kvalitativa intervjuer med personer involverade i projektet. Hela processen beskrivs med hjälp av ett nutida och framtida flödesschema. I det nutida flödesschemat är den totala värdehöjande tiden för ett producerat plagg 129 minuter. Förslaget i ett framtida flödesschema visar att processen kan förbättras, bli mer effektiv och påvisar även hur stora förändringarna skulle bli med en snabbare garnleverantör. För att förbättringarna för Knit On Demand ska gå att genomföras måste ordervolymen ökas från 1 plagg till minst 5 plagg per vecka. Förbättringsförslagen är; nya och snabbare garnleverantörer, ny layout plan för Knit On Demand processen hos Ivanhoe, snabbare produktionstid, installation av ett datasystem som hanterar lagerhållning, bättre kommunikation mellan SOM Concept och Ivanhoe samt förbättrad ställtid. / <p>Knit On Demand started as a project at the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås with the aim of evaluating complete-garment-technology. It is a mass customization concept within knitting technology. The key players are SOM Concept store in Stockholm and Ivanhoe, a producer of knitted garments in Gällstad.The aim with this thesis is to identify and describe all processes in the concept from the moment when the client enters the store until the Knit On Demand garment is manufactured and delivered to the customer. The purpose is also to find and describe improvement opportunities as well as making an estimated cost calculation for them. To gather relevant data, a simulation of the whole process is performed. The method used is an action research case study of the Knit On Demand project based on quantitative data and qualitative interviews with key persons involved.The process is described with a Value Stream Map of the current state and the future “ideal” state. The current state shows that total value-added lead time for producing one garment is 129 minutes. The future or “ideal” state shows how the processes can be improved and be more efficient, it also shows the importance of improving supplier delivery times.To be able to improve the current Knit On Demand set-up, the order volume must increase from 1 to a minimum of 5 or more orders per week. The improvement suggestions are; new and better suppliers of yarn, new layout and improved down time, plan for the production, improved production time, inventory computer system, better communication between SOM Concept and Ivanhoe.</p><p>Program: Textilingenjörsutbildningen</p>

This thesis considers the cultural significance of Web-based exchange practices among the participants in contemporary western mainstream culture. The thesis argues that analysis of these practices shows how this culture is consumption oriented, event-driven and media obsessed. Initially, this argument is developed from a critical, hermeneutic, relativist and interpretive assessment that draws upon the works of authors such as Baudrillard and De Bord and other critiques of contemporary 'digital culture'. The empirical part of the thesis then examines the array of popular search terms used on the World Wide Web over a period of 16 months from September 2001 to February 2003. Taxanomic classification of these search terms reveals the limited range of virtual and physical artefacts that are sought by the users of Web search engines. While nineteen hundred individual artefacts occur in the array of search terms, these can classified into a relatively small group of higher order categories. Critical analysis of these higher order categories reveals six cultural traits that predominant in the apparently wide array of search terms; freeness, participation, do-it-yourself/customisation, anonymity/privacy, perversion and information richness. The these argues that these traits are part of a cultural complex that directly reflects the underlying motivations of contemporary western mainstream culture. The daily practices of Web-based search and exchange thus reproduce and reinforce this cultural complex. The empirical work of the thesis validates the critical assessment of western mainstream culture developed in the initial chapters of the thesis.

<p>Background: As Porter’s diamond (1990) suggested, the business environment highly influences firms’ strategies. Today, most of the companies have to decide their strategy depending from a worldwide business environment. Yet, strategy researches and the growing importance of marketing for business success also show that customer dimension must be taken into consideration. On some markets and in certain industries, the offer is much higher than the demand and then, companies need to attract customers. On the national level, companies multiply customer surveys in order to reach their expectations. On the global level, this is more complicated. Adaptation seeks to customise product offerings to be more tailored to a particular culture’s needs and tastes, and thus, can gather a greater market share than would be allowed by offering only a standardised product. In this thesis, we decide to look deeper at industry circumstances, corporation’s customisation strategies and competitive advantages of customisation in order to know whether companies can use customisation to be more profitable. We also want to investigate how the development situation of the industry and the function of customer orientation influence the company’s strategies; and how companies use their customer adaptation strategies to adapt their products and marketing to local markets. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of our work is to develop companies’ awareness on the effects of customisation and of adapting their products to customer behaviours by developing customers’ point of view and by comparing it to companies’ strategies. </p><p>Results: According to the research results, Nestlé has adopted the customised strategies to adapt to French and Chinese dairy markets. Based on the Sheth’s model, we refined a new model by completing Sheth’s one with two dimensions - customer focus dimension and market type dimension. We characterised the customer orientation strategy and the standardisationstrategy, which are the two principal choices the companies need to do regarding the product design. Moreover, to add a new element in those well-known strategies, we introduced a nuance into the corporate strategies depending on the aiming market situation.</p>

Background: As Porter’s diamond (1990) suggested, the business environment highly influences firms’ strategies. Today, most of the companies have to decide their strategy depending from a worldwide business environment. Yet, strategy researches and the growing importance of marketing for business success also show that customer dimension must be taken into consideration. On some markets and in certain industries, the offer is much higher than the demand and then, companies need to attract customers. On the national level, companies multiply customer surveys in order to reach their expectations. On the global level, this is more complicated. Adaptation seeks to customise product offerings to be more tailored to a particular culture’s needs and tastes, and thus, can gather a greater market share than would be allowed by offering only a standardised product. In this thesis, we decide to look deeper at industry circumstances, corporation’s customisation strategies and competitive advantages of customisation in order to know whether companies can use customisation to be more profitable. We also want to investigate how the development situation of the industry and the function of customer orientation influence the company’s strategies; and how companies use their customer adaptation strategies to adapt their products and marketing to local markets. Purpose: The purpose of our work is to develop companies’ awareness on the effects of customisation and of adapting their products to customer behaviours by developing customers’ point of view and by comparing it to companies’ strategies. Results: According to the research results, Nestlé has adopted the customised strategies to adapt to French and Chinese dairy markets. Based on the Sheth’s model, we refined a new model by completing Sheth’s one with two dimensions - customer focus dimension and market type dimension. We characterised the customer orientation strategy and the standardisationstrategy, which are the two principal choices the companies need to do regarding the product design. Moreover, to add a new element in those well-known strategies, we introduced a nuance into the corporate strategies depending on the aiming market situation.

Background - Consumer individualisation is a growing challenge in the fashion industry, yet it is also an area of great potential as well as a way to dampen over-consumption. The potential lays in how fashion brands can find ways to steer consumption towards a circular economy and utilise their platform to create meaningful connections with its consumers. Today the fashion industry is looking at options to the traditional take-make-dispose model where non-renewable resources are used at an ever-increasing rate. The Swedish fashion retailer Monki together with Re:textile decided to investigate if servitization could turn the above mentioned linear model into a more sustainable, circular model. They set out to develop an in-store concept where customers could customise their garments instantaneously and this formed the basis of a project brief and a Business Model Canvas which both served as the foundation and starting point of the presented research.   Purpose - The purpose of the research is to develop and test a product extension service business model that utilises a direct to garment printer to mass customise jeans in-store. The said purpose is divided into three perspectives: the design-, service provider - and customer perspective , covering four cornerstones of the Business Model Canvas. The different perspectives with their separate, but related, research questions will be unified again in the conclusion.   Methodology - To fulfill the purpose, the thesis research is relying on abductive reasoning through systematic combining, while implementing a mixed methods approach. Systematic combining works well in extensive and diversified research where the researchers shift from one type of research activity to another in a quest to match empirical observations with theory, thus, the ultimate objective of systematic combining is matching theory with reality until both come close enough to form a functional outcome. Throughout the study, both qualitative and quantitative studies are conducted through action research, a customer case study as well as experimental research in order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis.   Findings and Discussion - The conclusions and recommendations that are presented in the form of an updated Business Model Canvas all derive from the research conducted incorporating the three perspectives that have guided the thesis through all of its stages namely the design, service provider and customer perspective. A product service extension business model is proposed as a solution to the project brief that serves as a foundation for the research. The results of the research all point to the conclusion that it is indeed possible to implement the product service extension successfully. Tests relating to the customer as well as the service provider perspective have proven themselves implementable due to low overall printing costs and fast print time enhancing the customer shopping experience. Together with an indication of product satisfaction as well as creating a strong customer-product connection through the co-design experience it contributes to a circular economy. Furthermore, the overall consistent printing costs, as well as the insignificant time differences in the experiments total time, support the implementation of a PSS in a retail setting.   Research Limitations - This research is confined to, and based on, the Monki and Re:textilebrief as well as a Business Model Canvas so therefore, no other ideas than the ones stated in the brief have been explored. The research´s inferences are limited to the given conditions as well as a laboratory setting. Further, the experimental research study will only test pocket shaped artwork on 100 percent cotton denim jeans using a Brother GTX 4 printer as a chosen direct to garment printer. The scope of the customer case study can be described as surveying as well as observing 40 of the visitors of the 2018 Fashion days and Exit at the Swedish School of Textiles while they test the proposed PSS in a mock-up retail store setting without an actual sales transaction.   Further Research - The next logical step would be to run the tests in a real-life retail store as opposed to the laboratory setting. After the proposed product service extension is implemented at scale POS data could be gathered in order to establish the customers’ true willingness to participate in the customisation experience in-store. Additionally, a longitudinal continuation of the study would give answers to some of the indications arising from the case study, such as whether the mass customisation could truly serve as a brand strengthening activity or lead to an extended garment lifecycle in reality.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore suitable end-of-life strategies for fashion retailers of custom-made products after they have been returned by the customer, by analysing and evaluating these strategies, and how to implement and conclude the viability of these. Method: The study follows an abductive explorative case study method. The exploratory design is structured as follows; a literature review is carried out, followed by interviews for collecting empirical data, which is analysed with the help of a conceptual framework. Thereafter, secondary data is collected to create an overview of the real-world context in the form of end-of-life strategies implemented by fashion retailers. Finally, the case was tested within a new proposed framework. Findings: The findings demonstrate the importance of the core values of the companies and inherent to that, the product characteristics and design in the decision-making of a suitable end-of-life strategy. For that reason, a second phase of data collection based on secondary data was implemented and juxtaposed the first finding from the interviews. The main insight this paper shows is that resell “as it is”, which is a common end-of-life strategy for regular fashion retailers, is a conflicting strategy for retailers of custom-made clothing. Introducing an adapted version of the Sustainable Value Analysis Tool as a conceptual framework gave a better insight in how to approach and analyse suitable end-of-life strategies and shows the relation between these parameters. Originality: It is difficult according to the findings of this study to conclude a generalisable, one-size-fits-all end-of-life strategy for returned custom-made products. However, the introduction of an adapted version of the Sustainable Value Analysis Tool can serve a purpose for all fashion retailers in this transformation process and which is not limited to fashion retailers of mass customised clothing.

Background: The development of social media brings traditional marketing into a newera - social media marketing - which offers new platforms through which brands cancarry out marketing activities and connect with their customers. Thus, social mediamarketing has become important for brands and marketers to reach their customers andsocial media marketing activities (SMMAs) include entertainment, trendiness,customisation, interaction, and word of mouth (WOM). Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain the impact of social media marketingactivities (SMMAs) on customer satisfaction.  Methodology: A quantitative method and deductive research approach were adopted inthis research as a means of gathering data. Through a cross-sectional research design, anonline self-completion questionnaire was created and conducted with consideration ofethical and societal issues; as a result, 165 valid responses were collected. The collecteddata from the respondents were analysed through frequency analysis, descriptiveanalysis, explore analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis as well as multipleregression analysis. Findings: The results of this research revealed that both H3 and H4 were accepted,meaning that customisation and interaction have a significant positive impact oncustomer satisfaction. Conversely, H1, H2, and H3, i.e., entertainment, trendiness, andword of mouth (WOM), were rejected. Conclusion: This study concluded that customisation on social media (H3) positivelyinfluences customer satisfaction which can be understood as customised content isaimed in a way to suit the customers’ own preferences. Furthermore, interaction onsocial media (H4) was revealed to have a significant and positive impact on customersatisfaction. As firms and businesses interact with their customers on social media, theyallow for communication between a brand and the customer. Whereas, entertainment(H1), trendiness (H2) and WOM (H5) on social media do not significantly impactcustomer satisfaction.

Complete garment knitting technology is a method of producing knitted products, generally fashion garments, ready-made directly in the knitting machine without additional operations such as cutting and sewing. This makes it possible to manufacture a knitted fashion garment with fewer processes then with conventional production methods. In the fashion business customer demand is always changing due to fashion trends, so to be able to manufacture and deliver products rapidly is important. Mass customisation is a customer co-design process of products and services that tries to meets the needs of an individual customer’s demand for certain product features. In the fashion business this means that the customer can order a garment with a customised style, colour, size, and other personal preferences. The principal objective of this dissertation was to examine if and how complete garment technology can be applied to the customisation of knitted fashion products. It was pursued through several independent studies in knitting technology, mass customisation, and fashion logistics against a theoretical frame of reference in these areas. The papers in this thesis present various examples of how knitted fashion garments can be customised and integrated into fashion retailing concepts. The starting point of the research was the Knit-on-Demand research project conducted at the Swedish School of Textiles in collaboration with a knitting manufacturing and retailing company. The aim was to develop a shop concept built on the complete garment technology where a garment could be customised, produced, and delivered as quickly as possible. This initial idea failed due to the expense of investing in complete garment knitting technology, and so other avenues of research had to be found. The Knit-on-Demand project continued, using a business model similar to the complete garment concept but with the retail store and the production unit situated in different locations. The overall research question addressed in this thesis is: How can complete garment knitting technology be applied in a retail concept for customised garments? This question is then divided in two problems: What are the fashion logistics effects of combining complete garment technology and mass customisation? How does the co-design process function in the customisation of knitted fashion garments?The following is a qualitative study based on five research articles applying different research methodologies: case studies, simulations, and interviews. The empirical context is the area of mass customisation of fashion products and knitting technology, more specifically called complete garment knitting production technology. No prior studies describing mass customisation of complete garment knitting technology in combination with fashion logistics were found in the literature. The main contribution of this study is the demonstration that complete garment knitting technology can be applied in the customisation of fashion products. It also illustrates the importance of the co-design process between the company and the customer through which a knitted garment can be customised, produced, and delivered to the customer in three to five hours. The process of co-design and manufacture of a customised complete fashion product is examined, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with customisation of knitted garments are identified and described.

Digital games incorporate systems that allow players to customise and develop their controllable in-game representative (avatar) over the course of a game. Avatar customisation systems represent a point at which the goals and values of players interface with the intentions of the game developer forming a dynamic and complex relationship between system and user. With the proliferation of customisable avatars through digital games and the ongoing monetisation of customisation options through digital content delivery platforms it is important to understand the relationship between player and avatar in order to provide a better user experience and to develop an understanding of the cultural impact of the avatar. Previous research on avatar customisation has focused on the users of virtual worlds and massively multiplayer games, leaving single-player avatar experiences. These past studies have also typically focused on one particular aspect of avatar customisation and those that have looked at all factors involved in avatar customisation have done so with a very small sample. This research has aimed to address this gap in the literature by focusing primarily on avatar customisation features in single-player games, aiming to investigate the relationship between player and customisation systems from the perspective of the players of digital games. To fulfill the research aims and objectives, the qualitative approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis was adopted. Thirty participants were recruited using snowball and purposive sampling (the criteria being that participants had played games featuring customisable avatars) and accounts of their experiences were gathered through semi-structured interviews. Through this research, strategies of avatar customisation were explored in order to demonstrate how people use such systems. The shortcomings in game mechanics and user interfaces were highlighted so that future games can improve the avatar customisation experience.

The background to this thesis is the dynamics and institutions of the fashion world. They have developed out of reasons of convenience and on the whole they work, but there are possibilities of improvement. Time from style and colour-direction to market is up to 18 months, from design to market 12 months and from forecast to market six months. With such long lead-times, there will be a few inherited problems such as matching supply and demand and offering sizes to people with non-standard body shapes. Some of the problems are related to mass and volumes, it is simply not possible to produce garments that fit everybody’s needs and to keep them in stock. The result of the long lead-times and need for mass and volume is low forecast performance, a forecast error of ±40% six months prior to the season is not unusual, which in turn leads to a sell-through percentage of about 60 percent. To adress some the problems of the fashion world a research initiative called Knit on Demand has been developed. It is a research project at the Swedish School of Textiles, in collaboration with the knitwear manufaturer Ivanhoe AB and the fashion retailer SOMconcept AB. The purpose of the project was to “…develop and test a new production and logistic solution for agility in customer relations.” To fulfill the purpose of the project, a supply chain for customised knitwear was set up and then tested. Customers customised and bought their garments at SOMconcept in Stockholm; the order was then transferred to Ivanhoe who produced the garment and then delivered it to the customer within a couple of weeks. The supply chain has been analysed on supply chain performance, customer behaviour, design and technology. In addition to the Knit on Demand supply chain, SOMconcept’s other products have been analysed and a simulation of Shima Seikis Ordermade system has been performed.The methods in the thesis are mostly qualitative with elements of quantitativeness. An action research methodology was applied to develop the project and then a number of case studies and simulations.The results show that most of the customers that are purchasing mass customised garments are niche customers that would have problems finding garments that fit them in the conventional fashion outlet. Important to the customers are service in the store and the experience of customising their garments. Since a mass customisation concept works on niche markets it would benefit from the Long Tail economy that gives better access to niche customers. / <p><b>Sponsorship</b>:</p><p>KK-stiftelsen</p>