Reece noted that what once was more of a regional approach to manufacturing – the Americas were supplied from the Americas and Europe – is no longer the case. Almost 100 percent of textile dye production has moved to Asia, which has dramatically increased lead times, he said. And with recent environmental pressures, product availability has been affected, impacting deliveries, he added. Reece went on to discuss ways to better manage longer lead times, including forecasting more accurately and simplifying the dyestuff portfolio.

 

Increased government regulation, heightened NGO activities and increased consumer environmental awareness have resulted in reduced capacities and shortages, Reece said. He later discussed actions to assure supply and quality and to control raw material costs.

 

A look at N.C. State

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi, associate dean for Industry Research & Extension and a Klopman Distinguished Chaired Professor and Director at The Nonwovens Institute at N.C. State, gave an overview of the College of Textiles and The Nonwovens Institute. While textile programs disappeared at a number of institutions, the College of Textiles has remained viable for a number of reasons, he said. Among them: a strong faculty, its focus on diverse sectors of the industry, its recognition that textiles is a lot more than just apparel manufacturing, its vertical integration and strong industry partnerships.

 

“The role educational institutions play in preparing students for the real world is continuously changing,” said Pourdeyhimi, who has been with the university since 1982. “We need to rethink the way in which we train students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We have eliminated the misalignment between training and what employers are seeking.”

 

The key to reshaping education is training students with sufficient breadth and depth so they can readily adapt from one field to another, he said. “We must emphasize necessary skills in fundamentals, communications, teamwork and multidisciplinary tasks,” he said. “The skills emphasized must be relevant to the needs of the industry. Research, graduate education and engagement should not be decoupled and should work together with faculty to achieve our vision.”

 

Pourdeyhimi added that research should not be divorced from trends within “the society we serve, for the industries we serve. We have embraced change and re-tooled when necessary.”

 

Five trends shaping the future

 

Attendees also heard from Jason Mink, founder and president of Cognition, a Charlotte, N.C. branding agency. He discussed “The Five Biggest Trends Shaping Your Future.” Because of these trends, he said, the next 30 years will bear little resemblance to the last 30. These changes are happening more quickly and are having an increasing impact on humanity – and they are irreversible, he said.

 

According to Mink, the five trends are:

 

1. Profusion – or, as he defined it, “having more.” Americans are addicted to having more, he said. “Should ‘more’ be a definition of our success?” he asked.

2. Exponentiality – Mink called this “being faster.” He asked: “How is being faster changing you and your industry? And how do we adapt to meet the needs of being faster?”

3. Irreversibility – he explained that there’s no going back on many changes, citing China’s market economy for example.

4. Mortality Threshold – that’s where a given life cycle begins to decline, Mink said. He added that change happens when the three previous trends reach a certain point. “People, industries and entire societies are somewhere on the road to reaching their mortality threshold,” he said. “Is the mortality threshold an unavoidable, foregone conclusion? Or can you shift, extend or reset it?”

5. Progress Transition – we are in the midst of the fourth major shift in humanity’s history, he said, and each progress transition is predicated on the primary vehicle used to drive progress: communication. Communication has transitioned over history from oral to written to printed and, now, to digital. “Name any advancement in any industry in the past 20 years that has not been made possible by technology?” he asked.

 

Mink went on to cover the consequences these five trends have created. Among them: less loyalty; more options to choose from and competition vying for the business; less time to connect with customers and convey value; more need to interact more frequently; less control over people and the buying process; and more desensitization to traditional advertising.

 

In conclusion, he said these five biggest trends are converging and amplifying one another. “If you’re not embracing the massive role the digital progress transition is playing in changing your industry and your life, with exponential, irreversible force, then it’s just a matter of time until the mortality threshold catches up,” Mink said.

 

Other speakers included Dr. Scott Ralls, president of the North Carolina Community College System, who discussed technical education for today’s companies and tomorrow’s economy; and N.C. State baseball Coach Elliot Avent, the school's all-time wins' leader at the helm, who offered words of inspiration.