CALS Technologies Applied to the Fiber/Textile/Apparel Industry

Published

June 1, 1994

Author(s)

Howard T. Moncarz, Yung-Tsun Lee

Abstract

The fiber/textile/apparel (FTA) industry is one of America''s largest manufacturing industries, and its success is critical to the economic well-being of the country. In terms of technology, the industry is very sophisticated, and in fact, each of its three sectors is the most productive in the world. However, the industry has been challenged by an onslaught of imported products. The most serious economic threat of foreign competition is to the apparel sector, which is the least capital intensive of the fiber/textile/apparel triad. The supporting technologies of the Continuous Acquisition of Life Cycle Support (CALS) initiative promise to be major contributors in addressing the main technological challenges to the FTA industry-reducing the cycle time from raw materials to finished goods through improved information integration, and enabling advanced apparel design engineering through comprehensive and standardized apparel product data models. The FTA industry is well on its way to embracing CALS supporting technologies, in particular, electronic commerce using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and life cycle integration using the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP). A number of substantial R&D programs to benefit the FTA industry are helping to make that penetration of CALS technologies possible. This article discusses those efforts and the FTA industry''s movement towards embracing the CALS supporting technologies.

Citation

CALS/Enterprise Integration Journal

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

fiber/textile/apparel, FTA, life cycle integration, manufacturing industries, technology

Citation

Moncarz, H. and Lee, Y. (1994), CALS Technologies Applied to the Fiber/Textile/Apparel Industry, CALS/Enterprise Integration Journal, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=821389 (Accessed October 15, 2025)