IAF Spring Member Event, Frankfurt

The IAF has held its Spring Member Event in Frankfurt, Germany on May 13^th and 14^th. The IAF held its bi-annual Board of Directors meeting in the morning of Monday May 13^th bringing together influential apparel industry representatives from over 15 countries from Asia, Europe and the America’s.

For the afternoon the IAF had organized a mini conference on ‘supply chain 4.0.’ focusing on the actual application of new technologies in the apparel supply chain. Giuseppe Gherzi, of Gherzi consultants and his colleague Razvan Ionelle treated the audience to a very hands on presentation of very accessible technologies to enhance garment factory productivity and flexibility. It was good to hear that technological advances enable SMEs to make affordable smart investments in software and e-learning.

David Schmelzeisen of the ITA Institute of the University of Aachen then took to the stage and explained to the audience how the industry is being disrupted, giving examples of large online platforms being able to invest right across the supply chain, shoes that are not sold as products, but as services (i.e. the promise that you will improve your running performance) and an example from the car industry where an electric car is now actually being build by a University.

The next day most of the IAF visitors went on to visit the Texprocess Fair. IAF had organized a meeting for its manufacturing group on the fair in the morning. In the end, the IAF Spring Member Event again provided a strong dose of technological awareness and plenty of networking allowing IAF members to return home to share with their colleagues, clients and members new ideas, insights and contacts.