Textile Industry

The textile industry encompasses a sequence of production processes that transform raw materials into finished textiles and clothing products. Production in these sectors is shaped by two fundamental characteristics. First, cloth is relatively malleable and fragile, so commodity manufacturing in these industries has resisted automation and remained labor-intensive. Second, because the industry's production processes are divisible and able to be separated or vertically disintegrated into sequential stages, firms are able to locate each stage of production at the most advantageous site. As a result, the sector has developed a globalized organizational structure. Figure 1 provides a simplified view of the textiles production sequence.

The raw materials used to make textiles include natural fibers, human-made fibers, and combinations of the two. Natural fibers include cotton, wool, silk, ...