Greg Howell and I proposed two great wastes: not speaking and not listening. It takes constant leadership to avoid these inevitable sources of waste.

I mainly meant in terms of price point. Anything can be made if you’re working for a couture house. But if you’re a designer for a juniors company, there is only so much intricate sewing you can add to a garment. So many designers work under the supposition that that their work should not be compromised, but the reality is that if something can’t fit cost-wise, the garment is never going to be produced. Also, if something takes too long to make, or if the possibility of error in sewing is too large for it to be practical; these are all things a designer should take into consideration, in terms of their target customer/price point.

Other than price point, there are plenty of examples. Just because it can be drawn, doesn’t mean it can be made. Poor designers forget that things need to be washed, be able to be put on by themselves, and the wearer needs to hail a cab, sit on a couch, cross their legs, etc. in a garment. It seems simple, but there are designers out there who are so involved in their “vision” that they forget the simplest things.

Not to knock all designers, of course; I happen to be one myself.

I decided to address the first waste I could see in our own operations and wrote about it as the first posting in the thread.

http://www.fashion-incubator.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=159#159

Recently, I’ve been corresponding with Gil Friend (natlogic/ find him at http://radio.weblogs.com/0109157/) and he seems genuinely interested. I am ***really trying hard*** to not get my hopes up but he’s someone who could really get the word out to the sustainable community. Btw, I wish I’d added this link to my post..oh what the heck, I can amend it but read this: it’s chapter 7 of natural capitalism

http://www.natcap.org/sitepages/art13.php?pageName=Book%20Excerpts%20and%20Downloadable%20Chapters&article_refresh=%2Fsitepages%2Fpid20.php%3FpageId%3D20

Speaking of which, i was surprise that “using the incorrect person/tool for the job” wasn’t on the list, since that is a form of waste Kathleen has mentioned over and over.

Susan, I’m interested in books or blogs or other resources you’ve been reading about green. Your summary of it is so perfectly aligned with the elements of green that interest me…

So what will be your future solution? This is the sort of thing that literally glazes my eyes over when I think of garment production. Will you move to a larger cut-sew operation?

I’m a big fan of the “green” movement (including “lean”) that insists that the costs to the environment due to all this (for example) fossil fuel being burned to get “stuff” from one place to another should be added into the equation. Of course that’s impossible at this point, but it overwhelms my sense of lean that pieces of fabric are shipped great distance to be sewn together and shipped back or to other places to get manipulated by human hands in some other way, to get sorted and inspected and then shipped somewhere else only to be finally shipped to the customer. And of course if the customer is a retail location, the end customer has to burn fuel to get there. And if it doesn’t fit, then it’s muda-in-the-back-of-the-closet… There’s got to be a better way…

I read somewhere that the number one reason people go into business for themselves (at least in normal economic times)is not for reasons of more pay or even more freedom, but for the ability to control one’s work environment, and “crazy” emotionally-charged, negative work environment is supposedly the most common reason for leaving. I’ve also heard that the cartoonist for Dilbert has so many examples of workplace craziness that are sent to him by readers that he claims to have years’ worth of material for the strip.