The WebTEXpert Project Brief

The textile and clothing industry is one of the pillars of the EU economy, representing 190 billion € turnover, employing more than 2.2 million people and building one of the longest and most complex industrial chains in the manufacturing industry. It is a heterogeneous sector dominated by a majority of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs). Textile SMEs are generally specialised on specific process stages or even process steps of product development and production. The concentration on core competencies requires the co-operation of a large number of highly innovative partners, all working towards the development and production of the final product. This leads to complex networks requiring new co-ordination and networking approaches, methods and tools. The Industrial Association and Groupings (IAG) members of the consortium have taken up this challenge and will support their members with web-based training and best practice demonstrators.
The research activities of WebTEXpert aim at sophisticated methods and tools for the innovation management adapted to the specific needs of SMEs in the textile and clothing sector. They will concentrate on New Product Development (NPD), New Product Introduction (NPI) and Networking for NPD/NPI with a specific focus on integration of the life-cycle phases, value added stages and innovation processes. The research will be performed in seven research groups covering all relevant textile applications and textile processes as well as European textile regions. The research groups involve 4 RTD performers, 31 SMEs and 8 out of the 11 participating IAGs with the remaining 3 IAGs primarily active in the field of transfer of project results and dissemination.
Based on the research results, courseware and training methodology will be developed to form the basis for the transfer and dissemination. The courseware together with appropriate knowledge sources will be provided as web-based services on the WebTEXpert portal. The development of the web-based services represents the core of the innovation related activity of the project.
To transfer the research results to the SME core group and beyond, the workplan foresees a “train the trainer” concept. Out of each pilot research group, a pilot group will be created. These pilot groups will train the members of SME core group. Furthermore, other IAGs will be trained to achieve an additional multiplier effect.