Date:08/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/08/08/stories/2007080852002100.htm

Back IT: Small textile units go for area-specific application

Our Bureau

Coimbatore, Aug. 7 A study on information technology applications among small and medium scale textile units predominantly focused on cost management including the salary/ financial accounting, production planning or raw material/ inventory controls.

Quality control, human relations, plant maintenance, power, humidification and air circulations are the other preferred areas where the SMEs have introduced management information system/data analysis using IT. Boiler operations, chemical processing and effluent treatment managements are among the areas that have received low priority for IT application.

The study done by the city-based South India Textile Research Association (SITRA), at the instance of the Department of Communications and Information Technology covered spinning, weaving, processing, knitting and garment units. The SME units numbering 50-60 covered under the SITRA study are from the textile centres of Coimbatore (including the powerloom weaving clusters of Palladam, Somanur), Madurai, Tirupur, Delhi and Ahmedabad (for processing industry survey).

Outlining the draft study detailsat a one-day workshop on IT application in textile industry here on Tuesday, Dr R. Prakasam, Assistant Director, SITRA, said the study focused on existing IT systems in place, the required systems applications and the expected benefits and technology needed by the textile enterprises.

He pointed out that the cost of hardware for IT application had come down significantly in the country in recent times facilitating the IT usage involving supply chain management, enterprise resource planning and automatic data collection platforms.

He said many SME textile mills are reluctant to apply IT on account of high cost of software and, therefore, developing special software for textile sectors at affordable price would be necessary.