The purpose in this thesis is to analyse which information about the sustainable impacts in fashion supply chain is the most important for the consumer. To find out how the eco-label can be designed with information and messages about the sustainable producing process, and to make the consumer more safe and satisfied with the fashion industry’s communication about sustainability and their sustainable products. - How to define sustainability in fashion supply chain? - What information about eco-labeled clothes does the fashion consumers require? - What are the conditions for creating and designing sustainable messages on the clothing’s eco-labels? In the final definition of sustainability according to this study, the focus falls on four distinctive expressions, which are, good working conditions, profitability, comfort and human needs. To explain this further, the good working conditions and the human needs have to do with wellbeing and health for the consumer and workers. Profitability has to do with the economy for both companies and consumers, and comfort is something both consumers and workers strive for. So the finally definition of sustainability in this thesis is to strive for better health, economy and comfort for all people. The information about eco-labeled clothes that the consumers require, have actually nothing to do with sustainability. However, the consumers require information about price, quality, and comfort. Moreover, if the product would be eco-labeled, the consumer should wish to get reliable information about the working conditions and chemicals, which gives the consumer a chance to know what they are paying for. To be able to create a message the focus should be on significances that increases the consumers self-interests, which in this case would be long lasting quality, health and price. These significances are similar to the earlier presented definition of sustainability, which is to strive for better health, economy and comfort for all people. Here comfort can be a part of the long lasting quality or a part of the good working conditions in the supply chain. Therefore, a sustainable message with reliable information about price and quality should be the symbol that explains how it affects the health, economy, and comfort for both the consumers and the employees in the fashion supply chain.

The background of this project is the need of a better understanding of what sustainable development is and what tools can be used in the fashion supply chain to decrease its ecological footprint. For that purpose the researchers have endeavored to create a new learning board game for fashion industry students that could teach them the basic principles of sustainability and Higg Index. The developed Higg Index Board Game is part of the collaborative work of Swedish School of Textiles and Sustainable Apparel Coalition. The study about the teaching effect of the new game was carried out with a quasi-experimental design and comprised two workshops with the master students from the Swedish School of Textiles as participants. The first workshop was conducted to analyze the principles and environment of the Lean Game that served as a basis for the new game. After that the researchers elaborated the structure and rules for the new game with help of the game-theory and conducted a trial testing of the game to exclude possible basic errors. The Higg Index modules were integrated in the structure of the game in the form of facilities and product-choices that could affect the economy of the game. The second workshop was devoted to playing the new Higg Index Game and evaluating its sustainability teaching effect. The participants were tested with pre- and post-test questionnaires and also observed by the researchers under their discussions during the game. The tests analysis showed that the Higg Index Game teaches lean philosophy, fashion supply chain’s entity and hot spots, and to some extent sustainability and the Higg Index’ function. After playing the game the participants increased their knowledge about sustainability by 10,1%. The researchers concluded that the game can become a teaching module in the sustainability education programs for fashion and textile students and other stakeholders - academics, managers, consultants etc., but needs some further development. Thus, in this study the Higg Index Game is presented as a prototype for future improvements. / Program: Textilt management, styrning av textila värdekedjor

This thesis focuses on product design change in the fast fashion market and its impact on supplier companies. Theorizing from the relationship between product design and suppliers within an overarching framework of the supply chain and product design literatures, the research develops what impact product design changes have on supplier companies and how those changes connect to the performance of supplier companies. The multiple case study draws on interview data with 20 participants from a famous high-street fashion retailer and eight of its suppliers. This research validates that product design changes in the fast fashion market have physical and non-physical impacts across supplier company departments, and shows that these impacts connect significantly to the performance of supplier companies. This research contributes to the supply chain and product design literatures by providing an understanding of how product design changes create chain-like-effects, both internally and externally to supplier companies. This can catalyse supplier company strategy, which mitigates product design change to avoid this chain-like-effect. Practically, this thesis offers guidance for retailers and suppliers in creating solutions for the problems that they encounter during the product design change process by revealing the cause and effect relationship of product design changes and supplier companies. The results are currently limited to the fashion industry, and they are yet to be generalised to other buyer-driven commodity chains. Future research should focus on best practices for management to deal with the impact of product design change and in consideration in other industries.

The purpose of the thesis is to reveal and address macro-environmental sustainability problems in thefashion industry. A qualitative research approach was used to reach the purpose. Throughout the empirics, theexisting literature was studied, and two case studies were carried out. The one about Hennes and Mauritz isbased on secondary data by using its sustainability report, and in the other case, primary data were obtainedabout Ekovaruhuset, an ecological fashion company, through a face-to-face interview. It was found that thefashion industry has a significant environmental impact and often violates the fair labour practices throughout itssupply chain. The root causes of the unsustainable operation are the labour-intensity, water and chemicalintensity throughout the fashion supply chain, and the lack of political and legal regulations in the producingcountries. These problems can be addressed by careful sourcing, and higher control over the cotton growers,fabric mills and suppliers. In addition, using and developing eco-friendly raw materials, like organic cotton, andfabrics reduce the environmental impact. It can be concluded that there is much room for sustainabledevelopment in the fashion industry, but there are corporate social and environmental responsibility endeavoursfrom both small and big companies.

Future customers will demand personalized goods and services. Value creation must therefore have a larger focus on product development and design, supply chain management and after-sales services. The key to success in the future fashion industry, is reduction of the reliance on traditional demand forecasting. Firms should instead put a larger focus on adapting shorter lead times and agile supply chain designs. Industry 4.0 will require an evolution of how clothing is designed and produced. It requires an implementation of new technologies able to identify data for expanding a consumer driven design and product development, combined with new technologies for flexible, local on-demand production. The purpose of the study is to explore how buying firms in the buyer-driven fashion supply chain utilize digitization and digital linking technology to create benefits for the firm. The study is of qualitative character and the reasoning is abductive, as theory on supply chain configuration is applied to the fashion supply chain. The empirical data was generated through in-depth, semi-structured expert interviews through a purposive sample of seven fashion industry professionals. In order to answer the research question, the empirical data was thematically analyzed and a main overarching theme and five subthemes emerged. The themes were compared to the theoretical framework of supply chain configuration. The elementary business opportunity in a digitized supply chain, is the combination of digital and physical resources to raise performance and support business innovation. The configuration between physical units, virtual units and information processing service supply chain units is crucial to create an added value to a service or a product. The empirical data revealed clear examples of how the configuration between the units is applied to create benefits for the firm. The findings elaborate the theory of supply chain configuration and contribute to the research field of strategic management and organizational theory.

Textilindustrin är en industri som ständigt växer och utvecklas. År 1995 introducerade det japanska företaget Shima Seiki den första maskinen med de tekniska egenskaperna, som gjorde det möjligt att producera ett trikåplagg med complete garment teknik. Denna introduktion revolutionerade tillverkningstekniken för dessa plagg. Denna studie har skrivits som ett examensarbete på kandidatnivå inom Textilingenjörsprogrammets avslutande del på Högskolan i Borås. Studiens huvudsakliga syfte var att undersöka vilket produktionssätt som var mest effektivt tidsmässigt vid produktion av ett plagg i finstickad trikå, ur ett supply chain perspektiv. Två olika tillverkningsmetoder valdes ut, konventionell och complete garment. Jämförelsen baserades på tidsbedömning av tillverkningsmetodernas supply chain som undersöktes med hjälp av en värdeflödesanalys. Plagget som valdes ut var en tröja, i finstickad trikå, och utifrån detta utfördes en litteraturstudie med fokus på olika produktionsmetoder och logistik. Med utgångspunkt i litteraturstudien upprättades två varianter av varuflöden till de olika tillverkningsmetoderna. En tidsstudie utfördes grundat på de två olika varuflödena, som baserades på egna studier i kombination med intervjuer av experter inom området. Sammanställning av tidsstudien och värdeflödesanalysen visade att det fanns för- och nackdelar med de båda tillverkningsmetoderna. En nackdel som framkom var non-value-added faktorerna väntetid och planering inför produktion, som visade sig vara svåra att undvika i de båda tillverkningsmetoderna. Fördelarna var att de non-value-added faktorerna i complete garment tillverkningens supply chain kunde kortas ner. Efter analys av vilka krav som ställdes, på non-value-added faktorerna för varuflödet hos respektive tillverkningsmetod, kunde slutsatsen dras att complete garment tillverkningens varuflöde är att föredra om man ville ha en snabb påfyllnad av varor till butik utan att ha varorna på lager. / Program: Textilingenjörsutbildningen