Textile production

4.3.6. The process of innovation
The driving force behind all important textile innovations in past decades has had the following components:
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Technology push: New material developments spearheaded by advances made in polymer science, fibre technology/web-forming technologies and novel finishing techniques.
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Market pull. Consumer and market demands. In recent decades, for example, there has been a surge in the demand of added value functions in fibres such as hydrophobicity, oil repellence, UV protection, flame retardance, antistatic behaviour, flame resistance, electro-conductivity and thermally adaptive materials.
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Environmental considerations: Renewable resource-based raw materials for fibre production have become more important – for example, PLA (polyactide) polymers (corn-based) produced by Cargill Dow’s INGEO; lyocell (wood fibre) from Lenzing; PTT (poly(trimethylene terephthalate)) (corn-based) produced by DuPont’s SORONA.
Historically, all innovations have a well-defined life cycle with an initial slow period of practical implementation and low commercial returns, followed by a long period of profit and a last stage of stagnation and decay. The s-curve, or diffusion curve, represents the growth or profitability against time.¹⁰ In the early stage of a particular innovation, growth is relatively slow as the new product establishes itself. At some point, customer demand increases and the product’s growth increases more rapidly to match it. An emerging technology that currently yields lower growth will eventually overtake current technology and can then lead to even greater growth. It is important to note that the great majority of innovations never get off the bottom of the curve and never produce normal returns. New incremental innovations to refine a product and extend its markets can keep the growth rate increasing with time. Towards the end of its life cycle, growth slows and may even begin to decline. In the later stages, no amount of new investment in that product will yield a normal rate of growth.
Companies that know how to use innovation to generate this kind of sustained growth are, on average, twice as successful as their competitors. According to Howard Rush, CENTRIM, University of Brighton, UK, companies can be divided into four categories, depending their ability to innovate:
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Passive: These are weak companies, in a difficult situation, who do not know where or how to improve and that are unaware of their capacity for technological needs.
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Reactive: These are companies that recognize the challenge and react to technological and market threats; they require a strategic framework for technological change and they have no external networks. Most companies are in this category.
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Strategic: These companies have not made global changes, but they are very capable, with clear ideas and strategies for continuing change. They have strengths and the ability to adapt to new technologies. They do well, but they have problems when there is crisis, they do not have the capacity to redefine their markets.
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Creative: These are companies with a real creative focus; they are competitive, they have big external networks and they know how to take risks. These companies are the main source of innovation.
Francis¹¹ observes that innovation is essentially a human task and cannot be automated. According to him, it requires passion, attention, team work, openness, commitment and the willingness to see an idea through to a commercial product. His model of innovation capacity contains the important elements of: (1) direction, (2) capability, (3) culture, (4) learning, (5) structure and process and (6) decision-making.
‘A skilled, educated workforce is the most critical element of innovation success – and the hardest asset to acquire’, says Emily Stover DeRocco, President of the Manufacturing Institute in the USA. She notes that ‘in companies and countries alike, a high number of researchers and advanced degrees – particularly in science and engineering – are the greatest predictor of success. Innovation requires capable and skilled people at every level – from the factory floor to the top floor’. Programmes of organizational innovation are tightly linked to organizational goals and objectives, to business plans and to market-competitive positioning. Davila et al.¹² note that companies cannot grow through cost reduction and re-engineering alone. Innovation is the key element in providing significant and sustained top-line growth.