Knit on Demand – Simulation of an Agile Production and Shop Model for Fashion Products

In fashion business customer demand is changing due to fashion trends and new designs. Time from customer demand to customer demand fulfillment is essential for company’s ability to compete in the fashion retailing business. During the last 20 years there has been a dramatic technical development in the production of flat knitted garments. This has made it possible to rationalize design and production in a way that it’s possible to make a knitted garment ready made directly in the knitting machine, with a minimum of after coming processes. Objective of this paper is to present a design, production and shop model for the “Knit on Demand” concept and show of how this new production technology could be implemented in a fast fashion logistics system. A business model with the knitting machines and production equipment located in the store is presented. The customer takes part in the design process and garments are customized to fulfill actual demand. Aim is to present a lead time simulation of designand production processes involved in the shop concept. Result is a model with starting point in customer demand and final point in demand fulfillment. Simulation shows that the customer could have an own designed garment in 2-5 hours. Simulation of the developed shop model is done in the software tool AutoMod. Methodology for this paper is based on a research project of the Knit on demand concept idea at the University College of Borås, literature research and discussions with suppliers of knitting production equipment.