Analysis of Project Management Practices Within the Textile and Clothing Industry

Abstract

The common challenges faced by companies/industries are often related to the ‘iron triangle’ categories, namely: deadlines, budget, scope and quality. The Project Management knowledge area proposes a systematic approach to overcome these difficulties, with the purpose of acquiring new knowledge and skills, as well as by implementing methodologies, tools, processes and techniques. The textile and clothing industry, or fashion industry, is not immune to the same type of challenges. The products of the fashion chain are collections, which are developed according to market specifications, trends and market profiles. These specifications evolve very rapidly and, therefore, have their main objective in the development of new and/or innovative products. To deliver a new collection, the whole process of elaborating these products is executed based on a per project approach. Each collection is unique, having a well-defined beginning and end. The development of a fashion collection should consider the processes that, at the industrial level, will originate the final product, thus requiring a methodology that integrates the development of the project from the initial phase – conception of the product idea – until the final stage – start of production / launch to the market. By trying to identify project management approaches in the Portuguese textile and clothing industry, this study allowed us to conclude that, despite of these organizations considering as being developing or involved in projects, the approaches followed are not formal, structured and systematic. Furthermore, there is still no complete application of any of the known project management methodologies