Textile and Apparel Science

Product Development Process for E-Textile Garments: A Design Guideline for Apparel Manufacturers

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Abstract

Garments with embedded electronic capabilities have the potential to meet a user’s functional needs in an efficient, dynamic manner compared to traditional body-worn technologies. While integrating electronics into textiles seems promising to apparel manufacturers and designers, a gap exists in the provision of designers with a common understanding of embedded technology. Therefore, it is often not pursued by apparel manufacturers due to a lack of understanding the influencing design variables that lie outside their scope of experience. Although general design guidelines for the development of e-textile garments is described in previous literature, manufacturing variables involved in spatially distributed e-textiles are often not considered, especially in a cut, make, and trim (CMT) factory setting. This paper addresses the gap in the product development process of e-textile garment manufacturing variables and provides a five-step design framework emphasizing design challenges that arise during e-textile garment development in a CMT factory setting.

Keywords: Manufacturing, Garment-integrated technologies, Product development, Smart clothing, E-textiles

How to Cite:

Islam Molla, M., Compton, C. & Dunne, L. E., (2020) “Product Development Process for E-Textile Garments: A Design Guideline for Apparel Manufacturers”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 77(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.12246