Texas Manufacturers of Sewn Products: A Typology of Strategic Posture by Risk Level

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine how strategic posture of sewn-products manufacturers influences their use of newer technologies important to company competitiveness. The objectives were to develop a typology of Texas sewn-products manufacturers according to strategic posture by risk level, and to develop group profiles by company demographics and production characteristics. Questionnaires were mailed to Texas manufacturers of sewn products resulting in 123 usable surveys. Cluster analysis was used to segment the manufacturers according to their level of risk. MANOVA and discriminant analysis were used to distinguish among the groups. Profiles of groups were developed using company demographics and production characteristics (production system, plant layout, sewing machine technology, computer usage, and employee training and compensation). The High Risk group accepted and integrated more technology than the other three groups, indicating the need for proactiveness to compete in business.

The U.S. Apparel Industry

“…Because technology-intensive manufacturing lowers cost, the production of textiles and apparel became increasingly automated and computerized (Reichard, 2000). Numerous tasks involving manual labor have been replaced with microcomputer technology and robotics (Horridge, Martin, & Craig, 1999;Kalman, 1996). If the trend toward mechanization continues, a complete human-free automation of apparel production may be on the near horizon.…”