This project will require students to learn about cotton sustainability using the CottonWorksTM website. Students will be assigned to a target market and a specific component of cotton sustainability from the Cotton Sustainability page of the CottonWorksTM website (e.g. Biodegradability of Cotton, Life Cycle Assessment of Cotton). They will research both the assigned target market and their specific component of cotton sustainability. They will develop an apparel line of cotton garments incorporating any necessary aspects of their component of sustainability (e.g. earth colors) and advertise these garments highlighting their component of cotton sustainability. Then students with focus on Recycled Cotton. They will perform a financial analysis of one garment in their line, including an analysis if the garment is produced completely with virgin cotton and if the garment is produced with some recycled cotton. Two different supply chains will be considered. Landed costs will be computed, markups will be calculated, and gross margin will be estimated. Students will make recommendations as to which supply chain should be selected and if the garment should be produced with virgin or recycled cotton.

Reactive dye-based printing currently offers one of the largest color gamuts of the various colorants available for digital printing and the dye is relatively stable in the print head. It provides excellent print quality and is used for a wide variety of printed home furnishings and apparel products. Reactive dyes form covalent bonds with cellulose under alkaline conditions; however, there is a significant drawback that is often ignored: a high dye utilization (fixation) percentage is hard to achieve. Although the cost of reactive dyes is relatively low when compared to other digital print colorants, particularly pigments, a significant percentage of reactive dye is wasted during the printing, fixation and wash-off process. In order to decrease costs and increase sustainability, this issue must be addressed. To decrease waste and costs associated with wasted dyestuff, the student will investigate the mechanism of low percentage fixation for reactive dye digital printing on cotton fabrics. A two year budget includes the student������������������s annual stipend or salary, tuition and health insurance.

This project will require students to learn about a specific cotton performance technology using the CottonWorksTM website. They will also research what products already have incorporated this technology. Students will be assigned to a target market, and they will have to identify an opportunity to replace the fabric regularly (commonly) used in a particular garment with fabric containing their cotton performance technology. They will develop a line concept, determine target price points, market the line, and create online advertising highlighting the performance technology. Then students will perform a financial and sourcing analysis of one garment in the line, produced with a fabric regularly used in the garment and produced instead with a fabric containing their cotton performance technology. Two different supply chains will be considered. Landed costs will be computed, markups will be calculated, and gross margin will be estimated. Computer simulation will be used to investigate the effect of lead time and forecast uncertainty on profitability. Students will make recommendations as to which supply chain should be selected and if the garment should be produced with the cotton performance technology.

Objective: Designing and optimizing the supply chain has become a priority as well as a necessity for the survival of the US textile complex. However, the focus has been primarily on forward supply chain operations, and there has been very little consideration of utilizing recovered products or recycled raw materials and the reverse supply chain As such, many of the current networks and/or products are currently not suitable for closed loop recycling. Closed loop recycling is becoming increasingly important due to consumers? heightened environmental consciousness, governmental legislation, and raw material costs owing to fluctuations in oil prices. In 2007, the United States generated 254.1 million tons of municipal solid waste. Of this total disposal, 11.9 million tons were discarded textile wastes. Only 1.9 million tons, or 15.9%, were recovered for recycling, energy generation, or composting (U.S. EPA website). Because of the large amount of textiles consumed on a yearly basis, developing closed loop recycling systems has the potential to have a significant positive environmental impact, and, if efficient, a positive impact on revenues of textile companies as well. Developing an efficient closed loop recycling system for textile materials involves both creating processes to transform the used material into a desirable output and then setting up and operating appropriate manufacturing and logistics distribution structures for the arising flows of recovered products. This project will investigate and focus on the latter. The following figure illustrates the forward and reverse supply chain for a general product where the recovered/returned product can be used in many ways within the supply chain.

Designing and optimizing the supply chain has become a priority as well as a necessity for the survival of the US textile complex. However, the focus has been primarily on forward supply chain operations, and there has been very little consideration of utilizing recovered products or recycled raw materials and the reverse supply chain As such, many of the current networks and/or products are currently not suitable for closed loop recycling. Closed loop recycling is becoming increasingly important due to consumers? heightened environmental consciousness, governmental legislation, and raw material costs owing to fluctuations in oil prices. In 2007, the United States generated 254.1 million tons of municipal solid waste. Of this total disposal, 11.9 million tons were discarded textile wastes. Only 1.9 million tons, or 15.9%, were recovered for recycling, energy generation, or composting (U.S. EPA website). Because of the large amount of textiles consumed on a yearly basis, developing closed loop recycling systems has the potential to have a significant positive environmental impact, and, if efficient, a positive impact on revenues of textile companies as well. Developing an efficient closed loop recycling system for textile materials involves both creating processes to transform the used material into a desirable output and then setting up and operating appropriate manufacturing and logistics distribution structures for the arising flows of recovered products. This project will investigate and focus on the latter. The following figure illustrates the forward and reverse supply chain for a general product where the recovered/returned product can be used in many ways within the supply chain.

Designing and optimizing the supply chain has become a priority as well as a necessity for the survival of the US textile complex. However, the focus has been primarily on forward supply chain operations, and there has been very little consideration of utilizing recovered products or recycled raw materials and the reverse supply chain As such, many of the current networks and/or products are currently not suitable for closed loop recycling. Closed loop recycling is becoming increasingly important due to consumers? heightened environmental consciousness, governmental legislation, and raw material costs owing to fluctuations in oil prices. In 2007, the United States generated 254.1 million tons of municipal solid waste. Of this total disposal, 11.9 million tons were discarded textile wastes. Only 1.9 million tons, or 15.9%, were recovered for recycling, energy generation, or composting (U.S. EPA website). Because of the large amount of textiles consumed on a yearly basis, developing closed loop recycling systems has the potential to have a significant positive environmental impact, and, if efficient, a positive impact on revenues of textile companies as well. Developing an efficient closed loop recycling system for textile materials involves both creating processes to transform the used material into a desirable output and then setting up and operating appropriate manufacturing and logistics distribution structures for the arising flows of recovered products as well as determining operational policies. Current ITT research involves determining facility locations and recycling costs, primarily for carpet. This project proposes to further develop the operational decision making portion of the closed loop textile recycling framework by developing a detailed simulation model and considering two different types of textiles products, an apparel garment and a technical textile product.

This proposal is a specific application of the general Memorandum of Understanding previously approved by officers of COT and TTSC/CITI. The areas of focus which are to be pursued are considered to represent the current and near future needs of Sri Lanka and were proposed after initial discussions between representatives of these organizations. A subsequent fact finding mission, by a group from NC State to Sri Lanka, spent time visiting various academic institutions and different sectors of the industry. In addition panel discussions were held with different groups that play a significant role in the Sri Lankan textile and apparel industry and brief notes from this visit are appended (Appendix 1). There was surprising concordance within the various groups with respect to the perceived shortcomings in certain skills within the Sri Lankan industries and there was very strong affirmation that the originally selected focus areas were indeed the most vital. The specific areas which have been identified were selected after the above described considerations of the needs of the Sri Lankan industry and the expertise that is available within the College of Textiles at NC State (COT). These are: Technical Design and Product Development Supply Chain Development & Management Industrial Engineering It is proposed that COT will provide personnel who will help the Sri Lankan industry acquire and develop strengths in each area by assisting in the creation of suitable courses and providing industry seminars. Additionally, suitably qualified staff from Sri Lanka will be hosted by COT and will be familiarized with innovative teaching methods and current research activities and furthermore will be encouraged to obtain further academic qualifications (Graduate Certificates and/or Masters Degrees).

Efficient implementation of closed-loop supply chains requires setting up appropriate logistics distribution structures for the arising flows of used and recovered products. In this research, we propose developing a logistics network design in a reverse logistics context that can be used in the textile industry. We propose developing a framework that can be utilized to design these types of reverse production systems for several different sectors (i.e., carpet. industrial textiles, and apparel). Even though these three types may undergo different processes of demanufacturing, remanufacturing and/or recycling (see Figure 1) the same basic methodology should be applicable with different inputs. The research will look at developing a mixed integer programming model that represents the key inputs of determining the number, location size of the collection sites as well as processing facilities and logistics needed to support this infrastructure. Moreover, we use our model to analyze the impact of the uncertainty of product return flows on the logistics networks in order to develop a robust solution. While product recovery may efficiently be integrated in existing logistics structures in many cases, other examples require a more comprehensive approach redesigning a company's logistics network in an integral way.

In order to make intelligent decisions relative to sourcing textile products, a decision maker needs the ability to quantify the differences in performance (financial, service, and/or otherwise) between a cost-effective but long lead-time supplier and one that is fast and responsive but not as cost-effective. More importantly, there is evidence to suggest that companies often do not use an accurate model of total cost of goods in making sourcing decisions but instead rely on production/labor cost without taking into account the true landed costs. In this research, we plan to develop a comprehensive cost model of various sourcing strategies from many different regions/distribution channels (i.e. domestic, Americas, India/Pakistan, and the Far East). In addition, we will extend our previous ITT work by employing the developed cost model with our dynamic Sourcing simulation tool and again look at the effect that inventory and demand variations have on the profitability and service of organizations employing a more accurate total cost of goods.

Textile companies are responding to globalization challenges by incorporating the principles of lean manufacturing in their operations. Crucial to the success of a lean scheduling implementation is having the right planning and scheduling systems in place. This project will develop a requirements checklist for planning and scheduling systems to be used in a lean environment. A software directory of commercially available planning and scheduling systems for textiles will also be developed that provides details on the functionality of the systems and an evaluation of whether they meet the lean requirements checklist. These systems may be stand alone or incorporated into material requirements planning (MRP) systems, enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), or supply chain management (SCM) systems. This research project will complement the project entitled ?Adapting Lean Principles for the Textile Industry? identifying the characteristics of advanced planning systems currently available as part of plant floor data collection systems, enterprise resource planning systems and supply chain management systems. This will minimize the mismatch between implementing lean manufacturing and adopting new information systems.