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The Indian Apparel and Textile industry is largely fragmented with the largest player having less than 2% of the market share. Apart from contributing the highest net export earnings (16 percent), it contributes about 14 percent to the total industrial product

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

ion and 4 percent to the GDP. It is a labour-intensive industry that provides large-scale employment especially for women since it is non-hazardous, thus creating a level-playing field for them in terms of job opportunity. It is the second largest employment p

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

rovider in India after agriculture. (Annual Report, 2005-2006, Ministry of Textiles).

For an industry of this stature and size, the usage of IT by the Indian apparel industry has been woefully inadequate. North American and European apparel companies spend ab

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

out 3 to 5% of their revenues on IT. The Indian apparel industry in contrast, has typically invested less than 1%.

Historically there have been many reasons for this low usage.

1) Earlier most of the software suppliers in the Indian market have been Nort

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

h American or European companies for e.g., in the case of CAD, the earliest vendors in the Indian market were Gerber and Lectra. In 1995 CAD solutions were available for about USD 45000! Today the same solution is available at USD 15000.

2) Earlier vendors ha

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

d proprietary solutions that were not compatible with other applications. Customers who bought a CAD system had to buy it from the same vendor the next time; this was used for 'vendor lock-in’. Often this meant that the vendor had no incentive for quality supp

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ort or for innovative research leading to reduced prices.

3) The small pool of professionals trained on IT applications of the apparel industry meant there were not enough people who could be recruited from the market in case someone changed jobs.

Fortunatel

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

y for India, a lot has changed. Firstly, the Indian Software industry has come of age and India is widely regarded today as one among the hottest destinations for software engineering. Almost all software majors including IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle have engin

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

eering and R&D centers in India today.

Secondly, the Indian Auto-ancillary industry is a close parallel. This industry has emerged as a leading sourcing destination for automobile majors. Despite the mounting steel prices and the fact that steel is a major co

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

mponent of the automobile cost; the vehicle costs have remained stable. Are you wondering how? Well, this has been made possible because of IT adoption by the Indian spare-part suppliers. IT has enabled the Indian auto-ancillary industry to streamline their pr

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

ocesses and aggressively cut costs. For the Indian apparel industry to emerge as the favourite outsourcing destination for leading brands and retailers world-wide, it needs to emulate the IT strategy of the auto-ancillary industry.

Thirdly, Indian apparel com

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

panies have grown from family run to professionally organized set ups, giving more emphasis on implementing IT solutions to increase the productivity and also providing us considerable domain expertise.

Finally, institutions like NIFT, ATDC, ALT, Pearl academ

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

y etc played a pioneering role in training large number of professionals for the industry.

Many believe it is only a matter of time before an Indian company scales to become the largest software company globally catering to the apparel industry.

In this scen

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ario, it is only logical that the Indian apparel industry is able to derive benefits of the acknowledged strengths of the Indian software industry.

Indeed it can be argued that, investment in software to create a nimble enterprise that responds to external an

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

d internal customers in real time to reduce throughput times, costs and improve quality is India's defense against China's huge factories that derive benefits from economies of scale. This is especially true as India is likely to continue to excel in high valu

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

e added styles of smaller order quantities.

There are already a number of functionally rich, user friendly software applications available in India. For e.g., REACH CAD, REACH Fashion Studio, REACH Merchandising Manager, REACH Cut planner etc are offered by R

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

EACH Technologies and are being used by over 450 clients across the country.

We are already witnessing the emergence of companies like REACH that offer

OPEN solutions: Software applications that will 'talk' to applications from other vendors as well.

MODULA

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

R solutions: Software solutions that are part of a larger suite enabling the customer to choose to deploy what is required as and when required.

EXTENDED PRODUCT SOLUTIONS: Products do not deliver value on their own. Trained professionals in conjunction with

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

the product do. So the vendor who brings to the table the best delivery and commissioning capabilities will have an edge.

RENTALS: Customers will increasingly expect to have solutions 'ON DEMAND' that is they need the solution for a specific time period. They

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

are unwilling to make a capital investment but willing to pay for using the solution on as ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ basis.

Indian apparel industry will increasingly partner with the Indian software industry in its quest to become a global player in the post-quota era

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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