The New World of Clothes Making: Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Jan 12, 2015

choi

Bruce Einhorn, In China, Shirtmaker TAL Uses Data Analysis for Efficiency Boost.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... iency-as-wages-rise

Quote:

"TAL is one of several companies trying to squeeze more productivity from its Chinese workforce. The effort by factory operators in industries such as apparel, toys, and electronics is largely a response to rising labor costs. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, urban manufacturing wages rose 73 percent from 2009 to 2013, the latest year for which data is available. * * * 'The typical Chinese worker is about a quarter as efficient as a German or an American factory worker,' he [Shaun Rein, managing director of Shanghai-based China Market Research] says [my note: in part because Westerner operations are more automated; but production of shoes and shirts can not be more automated without losing competition to China’s--just ask New Balance, which is based on Boston; so Western operations have to go after high value-added products to increase efficiency, or GDP per capita]

"Borrowing from lean manufacturing, a concept popularized by Toyota Motor * * * TAL is running more—but smaller—production lines. * * * Teams are a third the size they used to be, and pay is based on the team’s output rather than the worker’s. Each team has a floating member (called a water spider 水蜘蛛, 'because they jump all over the place,' says factory manager Lee) who can perform various tasks, whether assisting a colleague who’s fallen behind or fetching labels.

Note:
(a) "Eugene Lee, a plant manager at Hong Kong’s TAL Group. He knows, because his job is to get the production line at the factory he oversees in Dongguan, China, to run with Japanese-style precision. Each team of about 30 workers is assigned targets."
(i) CEO Dr Harry LEE Nai Shee, TAL Group
香港聯業製衣有限公司 主席 (meaning chairman of the board) 李乃熺博士 ("持有英國倫敦Imperial College電機工程學士學位及美國Brown University的博士學位")
(A) Imperial College London
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_College_London
(public; As a former constituent college of the federal University of London, it became fully independent in 2007 during the commemoration of its centenary
(B) THe current CEO 執行長 is Harry's son Roger. See next posting.

(ii) TAL Group bills itself "The Innofacturer" or "Innovative & high quality garment manufacturing." See also
About Us.
www.talgroup.com/en/about_tal.html
("Currently we produce 1 out of 6 dress shirts sold in the USA. * * * With over 60 years of industry experience")
(iii) TAL Group was founded by Harry's 叔叔李雍熙 CC Lee in 1946. See next posting.

(b) "Allan CK Chan, associate head of the Institute of Textiles and Clothing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University"
香港理工大學 紡織及製衣學系 副教授 陳志駒
(c) "Metail, a British startup that’s developed a virtual fitting room. Online shoppers upload an image of themselves and key in body measurements to generate a MeModel, a digital avatar that they can use to try on clothes."

Metail
http://metail.com/

choi

迪米 [Demetri Sevastopulo, FT’s south China correspondent], 香港联业制衣：一个时代的缩影. 金融时报, Jan 2, 2014.  
www.ftchinese.com/story/001054195

Quote:

"上个世纪八十年代，当李乃熺(Harry Lee)接手香港服装集团联业制衣(TAL)时，他面临的一系列挑战之一是贿赂[: 女人]。

TAL now (in January 2014) is "一家营收高达8亿美元、拥有2.5万名员工、在亚洲各地设有11家工厂的大型集团。尽管在香港之外并不怎么出名，但该公司现在已成为全球最大服装制造商之一

"该公司之所以在香港生根发芽，并非刻意计划，而是更多地缘于机缘巧合以及毛泽东。李乃熺说，'当时控制香港纺织业的主要有两个帮派，上海帮和（广东）潮州帮……我们是上海帮 [Needless to say, textile industry in Taiwan was built up from scratch by Zhejiang/Shanghai moguls after they fled there]。' [At the time] 日本的纺织业在战争中遭到毁灭，这一点也令香港企业受益。例如，丰田(Toyoda)家族(后来因丰田汽车(Toyota)而更为知名)就在战争中失去了所有的纺织厂。

"联业制衣发展得不错，利润率为20%左右，但面对其他地区更为廉价的劳动力，英国和美国几十年前面临的命运最终也降临到香港头上。于是，他决定在中国内地设厂。'我的叔叔之所以来到香港就是因为共产党，因此他一点也不相信共产党。但到1995年……我们别无选择了 [possible his uncle was dead by then, which helped]。到处的人工成本都在上涨，因此我们基本上决定试一试。' * * *但如今，内地 * * * 也再次沦为这种压力的牺牲品，这种压力曾迫使纺织制造业从西方转向东亚，最近又转向孟加拉等人工更低廉的国家。

"尽管李乃熺现在处于准退休状态（他去年已将首席执行官一职交给他的儿子李国权(Roger)），但他仍保留着董事长一职，而且每天都来上班。

Note: "现年81岁的修女Sister M Laetitia。她在俄亥俄州的一个修道院里静修，迄今已近60年了。他从香港采购布料，然后发到这位修女那里，她为15位在Monastery of the Poor Clares修道院终日祈祷的赤足妇女缝制道服和祭服。"
(a) Laetitia is a female given name, the spelling (ie, "ae") from Latin.
(i) Laetitia (given name)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetitia_(given_name)
("popular in the south of France and is also used in Québec. It is originally a Latin name Lætitia")
(ii) Laetitia (goddess)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetitia_(goddess)
(Her name deriving from the root word laeta, meaning happy)

The "laeta" is not the root; "laetus" is. Latin English dictionary Laetus (adjective masculine): "happy"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laetus
(b) Poor Clares
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Clares
(Founded by Clare [without “s”--Claires refers to plural form of her followers] of Assisi in the year 1212 [who] at the age of eighteen [was] inspired by the preaching of Francis [from whom the incumbent pope got his title, Francis I])
(i) There is one Monastery of the Poor Clares in Cleveland, Ohio--with its own website.
(ii) Here is website of Monastery of the Poor Clares based in Kokomo, Indiana.

Who We Are. undated
www.thepoorclares.org/who-we-are/
(section headings: In the Footsteps of Our Lady [Mary], The Privilege of Poverty, Spouses of Christ, Joyful Penance: "Fasting, bare feet [photo], never eating meat, and rising to pray at midnight")