Article Review

As demand of high-end apparel in China grows, Chinese garment industry looked for help from Philippine garment manufacturing firms. Even though Chinese garment industry set up a complete system, they need production and design sourcing for domestic high-end apparel market because of lack of sophistication. Lawrence H. de los Santos, president of the Confederation of Garment Exporters of the Philippines said that the Philippines has positioned itself for higher value products and has been known as for reliability, quality and speed of delivery. He also said that the wage of Philippines is relatively high for now, but wage rates in China, Vietnam and India are rising very fast, so they will be more soon. The China National Garment Association (CNGA) emphasized that the Chinese firms need patience until they make profits (Hermosa).

The main purpose of this article seems to be to analyze the flow of China sourcing in terms of the system and also another growing country in sourcing, Philippine. China is currently the leader country in sourcing, so majority of U.S apparel companies are already manufacturing in China. Nevertheless, China could not occupy their own domestic market because Chinese apparel industry is weak in design development. Thus, China seeks sourcing from Philippine to meet demand of high-end apparel.

The specific audience of this article should be high-end apparel companies which are currently manufacturing in China and those who seek a right sourcing country. Finding a right sourcing partner is important as the authors say in the textbook, "sourcing is determining the most cost efficient vendor of materials, production, and/or finished goods at the specified quality and service level with delivery within an identified time frame" (Kunz and Garner 28). Now, Chinese garment industry has the ability to churn out, whereas it lacks production and design for high-end market. However, the article insists that Philippine garment industry has availability of manufacturing high-end apparel (Hermosa). In addition, Philippine has the advantage in terms of wage because the wage rates in China go up very quickly. Another article also argues that Chinese garment manufactures plan to relocate Philippine due to skilled manpower, fast turnaround delivery, flexibility and design capacities (Cahile-Magkilat). Therefore, this article gives an idea that there will be a good sourcing option other than China and Philippine might be the right sourcing partner in the future especially for high-end apparel companies.

Work Cited

Cahile-Magkilat, Bernie."Chinese Garment Manufactures Plan to Relocate Here due to Labor Advantage." Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation 18 Jan. 2011 <http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/299207/chinese-garment-manufacturers-plan-relocate-here-due-labor-advantage>.

Garner,