GLOBALIZATION AND THE TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOPING SOFTWARE SOLUTION FOR APPAREL INDUSTRY

Purpose – The objective of the paper is to highlight the importance of Total Quality Management (TQM) in software development in the context of globalization of the apparel industry sector.

Prior Work: Analysis of existing reports for apparel industry status and trends, analysis of the existing software solutions developed dedicated to apparel sector, study of the literature specialized literature and articles that develops the subject of TQM.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Brief literature review with focus on TQM model and its successful implementations, context analysis in European Union (EU) and worldwide developed by specialized institutions with respect to apparel industry status and trends, and a research on the websites of the top 10 CAD suppliers of software products dedicate for apparel industrial segment.

Findings/Results: The paper shows that the software solutions suppliers should involve customers and local distributors in the development process to ensure their relevance and to remain successful on the market.

It is also highlighting the importance of total employee commitment in the product development process.

Practical Implications: The study helps to understand the relevance of applying the TQM model in the process of developing software products for industrial domains such as apparel industry.

Originality/Value: There are relatively few studies focusing on the development of dedicated software solutions for the apparel industry and on the particularities of the sector that are influencing the software development trends.

Thus, the value of this article comes from the interpretation of the TQM model applied to software solution development for apparel industry.