Managing Effective Communication in Knitwear Design
Claudia Margot Eckert · The Design Journal · 1999
Communication of design information between different members of a design team is in many industries. In knitwear design it leads to inefficiency in the design process a huge problem in terms of initial sample to final product ratio and product quality. Designers who design the visual and tactile appearance of the product often fail to communicate effectively with knitwear technicians, who do much of the detail design in interpreting the design specifications to program knitting machines. These problems arise from the difficulty designers experience in expressing designs completely, accurately and consistently, which can be attributed to inherent difficulties in communicating knitwear design. The problems are exacerbated by the differences between designers and technicians, who have different cognitive styles and very little overlapping expertise. The communication problem is not recognized in the industry and is thus not counteracted. The paper suggests possible managerial measures to counteract the communication problems, and argues that communication would be improved by an intelligent design support system enabling designers to generate complete and consistent specifications.