The Belharra company and the ESTIA engineering school are partners within the framework of the BALI Chair which is a teaching and research program to support fashion and textile companies on technological and usage disruptions. come. The Chair's areas of reflection:
1. Circular mode: Design products/services that will fit into open or closed circularity loops.
2. Transparent mode: To provide the consumer with information concerning the origin of their product in compliance with regulations.
3. Agile mode: To produce as accurately as possible, as close as possible to consumption areas, on demand with a notion of mass customization. Petit Bateau, ERAM Group, DECATHLON, GEBETEX, CETIA, the ESMOD school and the Nouvelle Aquitaine region are also partners of the BALI Chair.
In a fashion and textile industry where ecological, geopolitical and economic challenges are increasingly worrying, it is essential to carefully consider the choice of the most appropriate manufacturers and the most relevant resources for the production of clothing, footwear or accessories. The Supply Chain is becoming a strategic area not only to manage supplies as accurately as possible in terms of quantity, deadlines and above all to guarantee optimal quality in warehouse receipt but also to align the supply chain with the principles of sustainable fashion (sustainable). / circular/ regenerative/ respectful). The challenge is to supply distribution channels as closely as possible to commercial needs and to better control cost prices and product compliance with regulations and the Brand's commitments for more sustainable fashion.
We believe that the digitalization of the Supply Chain, particularly through the Digital Product Passport [Legardeur and Ospital 2024], makes it possible to build a database that can be taken advantage of and exploited to, with greater flexibility and responsiveness, design or adapt in real time the supply chain according to different economic, sustainability or deadline criteria. This skill is now held by the team of sourcers/buyers/fashion buyers/responsible for sourcing textiles and materials who are called upon to choose manufacturers/sectors based on production criteria, style, technical development, quality, logistics but also increasingly to a CSR dimension which includes the assessment of environmental, social impacts and geopolitical risks.
With this research & innovation project, we want to design a solution probably based on an AI engine exploiting Supply Chain data. The challenge would be to propose, on the basis of qualitative and quantitative criteria for a given Style, a Supply Chain sector detailing all the actors and Quality milestones for a supply in quantity, quality and deadline according to an expected sales forecast .
The doctoral student's work would be based on surveys within a panel of Brands equipped or not with a Supply Chain solution to evaluate the performance of their supply, understand their decision-making and risk management criteria. The work will focus on the modeling of decision trees and a learning algorithm for a solution to help choose the supply chain. At the same time, the work will focus on an analysis of historical data from customers equipped with the e-SCM solution to prototype a learning algorithm for a decision support solution. The solution must propose, following arbitrations on criteria to be defined, different supply scenarios. Thus, by varying the economic, environmental, social or regulatory criteria, the tool will offer a selection of suppliers of raw materials, suppliers of finished products, industrial processes, transport operators through different Supply Chain scenarios. Once the choice has been validated, the solution will make it possible to manage and monitor the indicators throughout the supply operations to provide the means to react as quickly as possible and optimize the Supply Chain as close as possible to the Brand's objectives.
For example, from the design of a particular style, based on historical supply traceability data, the decision support tool will propose a supply chain based on the materials chosen, the design, the planned quantities, the expected delivery schedule, the targeted cost price and the objectives in terms of LCA or ethical criteria. The solution will allow the analysis and scoring of the different segments of the Supply Chain based on operational KPIs to enrich the model and refine the scenario proposals for future production in compliance with the company's ecodesign strategy.
A first CIFRE thesis within Belharra [Ospital 2023] made it possible to define a data collection process throughout the Supply Chain flow and to model a repository to generate a Digital Product Passport specific to each manufacturing order [Ospital , et al. 2022]. It allows the brand to communicate to the consumer via a mobile application, to demonstrate its CSR commitments and to demonstrate compliance with regulations. This second CIFRE thesis will equip upstream sourcing in order to choose production sectors that correspond to the needs and strategy of fashion companies which are today subject to paradoxical injunctions in a crisis context. It will also be based on the principle of action research linked to the ecosystem of the company Belharra SAS and the BALI chair.
