SEMANTIC-BASED MANAGEMENT OF TEXTILE’S SUPPLY CHAINS AND APPLICATIONS OF IT SYSTEMS TO REDUCE CARBON FOOTPRINT
In the textile industry, flexibility and responsiveness to the dictates of the market is a survival issue in line with global competition. As the industry is greatly affected by changes in season and fashion statements, it is of prime importance for it to produce or create the correct merchandise at the right time and venue.
The supply chain of the textile industry is mostly composed of enterprises that are either small or medium in scope with varied information systems. Designing and creating a collection consumes a large amount of time and miscommunications between channels can often predict the success or failure of a season.
It is heavily recommended that a semantic and communication procedure or protocol be made accessible and available to interface and interconnect each and every information system of the textile’s supply chain. It can be acquired by applying meta-protocols that can fit the definite and precise needs of the textile supply chain.
One of these is the Extensible Markup Language or the XML. It is a language for the semantic network or infrastructure while SOAP is for communication. The project, MODA-ML, is supported by the European Commission. Its primary aim was to “create a framework composed by a set of document components and a transport protocol to contribute to the creation of a vertical standard for the electronic data exchange in the textile-clothing sector”.
The chief outcome of MODA-ML are the definition or description of a group of public modular XML document types to sustain the information-interchange requirements of the Textile supply chain; and the designation of an architecture for a message switching system which will perform the delivery of documents or data among the members or users of the supply chain.
The document types of XML are constructed in a methodical and component-based method on a vocabulary of XML business units to make use of human readability feature and content structuring. It is a huge success in the area of data exchange where a worldwide, uncomplicated, comprehensible and adaptable syntax for tree and linear structures are required.
Once it is included in the Vocabulary, documents can now be routinely transformed into different languages. An internal syntax has been designed for the purpose of allowing humans to read and understand the Vocabulary, where both the semantic data and the syntax are communicated at the same time.
Carbon footprint [I] describes the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, measured in units of carbon dioxide, produced by human or entity activities. It is essential to determine the products’ carbon footprints to be able to look for ways and means to minimize emissions.
The input-output techniques, according to The Green Design Institute, is a mathematical process that employs data on economics and environment as inputs to conclude the full emission of carbon of a manufacturing area as the output.
An ecological footprint assessment is founded on utilization. It evaluates and assesses resources and materials used, population’s dependence, nature’s productivity levels or ratings, and waste. Area unit, global hectares are calculated.
The Hybrid Life-Cycle Methodology evaluates each product. The procedure needs inert sources of rooted carbon to evaluate the release of micro-systems and necessitates the availability of detailed and exhaustive data to compute carbon footprint in each stages of the supply chain.
The Life-Cycle Assessment method routinely evaluates the energy that is utilized in the supply chain of a product, from raw material to waste disposal. This involves interaction of the following: accumulating a record of materials and energy resources that are utilized in all phases of the supply chain; assessing the possible impact or effect on the environment; and, analysis and execution of opportunities for reducing carbon emissions.
Advantages of reduced carbon emissions are numerous. These are reduced operating costs, increased customer satisfaction, free from carbon related regulations on taxes penalties and tariffs, and a good business reputation.
[i] Repository.up.ac.za
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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