Mass Production

   Just like when buying products, manufacturing them is cheapest in bulk. This is certainly the case with the textile industry. If producing many items at one time, machines can do much of the work, and human labour doesn't need to be paid as high, as designs are ready made in CAD/CAM programs, so each piece doesn't need to be marked out individually, and CAM means that people cutting each piece of fabric is no longer a necessity.
   Large machines like Straight Blades can cut up to 50 pieces of fabric in one go, so much work can be done in seconds, and a Round Blade can be used for knitted fabrics. Although there may not be as many staff in these mass production environments, the workers must be highly skilled as they have to operate lareg machinery , and if they did something wrong, huge batches of products could go to waste. The staff members who don't work this machinery look at every garment for Quality Control, an essential part of this industry, as if a customer has a drastic problem with garments, batches may have to be recalled or returned to big sotres such as New Look and Primark. As these stores are nationwide, a lot of money would be lost for the company.

   There has been much debate about the ethics behind these high-volume environments in the media over the last 10 years; for example, the store Priamrk has had serious investigation into Sweatshops and cheap labour on shores away from the U.K. It can be said that it is rare to find an item of clothing from a High Street fashion store which has been manufactured in this country.
   Pressure Groups have been behind movements to get companies to trade more ethically in order for all workers to work in a safe environment and to earn a decent wage.