CORENET | Customer-oriented and eco-friendly networks for healthy fashionable goods

Adopting the CoReNet framework, based on methods and tools for cost-efficient collaborative networking, the European textile, clothing and footwear industries will be able to provide small series of customised fashionable goods for these groups by keeping products digital for as long as possible, thus delaying production so as to be able to produce goods on demand. This has the effect of boosting efficiency and reducing waste, thus positively impacting the environment. The most important elements of the project are: • A reference model, which enables sustainable and collaborative supply networks to address, orient and coordinate organisational, technological and knowledge management issues. • Web virtualisation systems which enable the production of healthy clothes and shoes to take place within design environments which are both collaborative and productive. • Coordination of the supply networks for process configuration, forecast and planning for stock replenishment, real-time control and tracking and tracing, including the use of sustainability benchmarks. • Innovations in production processes related to customisation via the adoption of rapid manufacturing technologies for optimised digital printing and laser engraving. The consortium is strengthened by a large commitment from SMEs in the European textile, clothing and footwear industries, as it includes important actors in the value chain, from technology providers, component suppliers and manufacturers. Within CoReNet, all partners in the production process will be able to work together to add value, with the consumer in the driving seat. CoReNet’s methods and tools will allow design changes to be made rapidly and production processes to be adapted seamlessly so as to enable rapid yet durable customisation. CoReNet’s results will be tested in industrial plants, demonstrating the full potential of this approach, which is based on sustained collaborative networking.