From a young age, Hubert Tsang, Chief Information Officer at Pacific Textiles Holdings Limited, was constantly exposed to all the traditional sciences, which resulted in him regularly winning school science fairs in subjects such as biology and chemistry. It wasn’t until high school, when he started taking courses in computer science, that he realized that computers could be used for more than gaming. From the outset, he was hooked because conducting “experiments” on computers was instantaneous compared to the traditional sciences.
Little did he know that his fascination with computers would lead him to an exciting and in-demand career in the IT industry and eventually land him the chief information officer role for Pacific Textile Holdings Limited, one of the leading manufacturers of customised knitted fabrics globally. He never lost his childlike wonder as he remains fascinated, not only with computers but with other aspects of technology.
“Am I happy in the role?” he asks himself rhetorically and answers with a resounding yes. “I would say there's no other industry where we're constantly learning as much as IT because things are continuously changing. There are many other industries where change is nowhere near as constant and that's one of the reasons, I love this industry so much.”
He says the role gives him the ability to do something new every couple of years as the industry continues to reinvent and innovate itself.
Threads of innovation
Tsang is not a stranger to spearheading innovations and reinventions for Pacific Textile Holdings Limited. Since joining the company, his main responsibility was to push as far as they could in terms of digitalisation.
Source: Image courtesy of Pacific Textiles Holdings Limited
One of the first things he spearheaded was the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, a software system aiding enterprises in the automation and management of core business processes.
“Pacific Textiles went through this transition where they completely didn't understand the technology and they just said, ‘You just need to build an ERP system’. Of course, I did that for them and then branched off to do machine data collection and data analytics.”
The company has been utilising process mining to improve its processes and operations. It also initiated digital literacy education among employees to help them understand and interpret data.
Tsang says their recent focus is optimising their response time to fast fashion customers as fickle consumers and influencers make certain products unexpected hits.
“In the age of analytics, our customers are doing real-time sales analysis. This means that instead of pre-ordering all their garments before the season starts, they are resupplying several times in the middle of the season, adopting just-in-time replenishment (JIT).” These last minute orders from customers put the company under immense pressure to deliver quickly so that retailers don’t miss out on sales. If the fashion brand makes a mistake in planning, that mistake can easily ripple through the supply chain with upstream businesses ending up with progressively more and more inventory, which is known as the bullwhip effect. JIT was popularized by automobile manufacturers as one of the main solutions to this problem.
Combining cost-efficiency and sustainability, Pacific Textiles has been open to using traditional technologies such as heat recovery in innovative ways. “We capture waste heat so that we can use it to power our air conditioning,” Tsang explains. Pacific Textile’s production plant is equipped with advanced production facilities, including a scalable water treatment facility and cogeneration power plant, which are keys to production efficiency and flexibility.
In the production of fabrics, Tsang says that they were one of the industry pioneers in using computerised colour matching. A software package analyses the spectral data of the colour sample and produces a potential recipe. “This recipe is based on a traditional statistical model. We look at this and we're like ‘The performance of these dyes is not perfectly linear.’” To increase the accuracy of their recipes, Tsang has partnered with universities.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on their radar, with Tsang admitting that it has now become the big initiative across all industries. Pacific Textiles plans to utilise AI for its quality inspection. He says that every single meter of fabric they use is inspected by human eyes, which is a huge amount of work.
“What is the point when the human is fatigued and they're no longer effective? So basically, we need AI plus a human to achieve efficiency and quality.”
Aside from that, he says that the company is still trying to utilise AI in its colour recipes. “We're not there yet but we are going to keep trying until we get there.”
Seamless success
The textiles industry is one that thrived even during the pandemic as competition remained tight. Tsang noticed that since the pandemic, customers have shifted from “buying things to buying experiences”.
“We are in better shape because we are known for our consistency, quality and our ability to produce high volumes. Customers love the experience they have with us because we work with them hand in hand to innovate and produce,” the Pacific Textiles executive notes.
The company has partnered with apparel brand names and garment manufacturers to design customised fabrics through a streamlined procurement process. A broad range of garments can be created from fabrics such as men's, women's, and children's wear, sportswear, swimwear, and innerwear.
With an annual production capacity that results in the production of well over 1 billion garments, Pacific Textiles takes pride in developing more than 3,000 new fabric designs and specifications each month. “Our customers don’t order from a catalogue. Every fabric sold is customized to their exact specifications.” It has also been trusted by internationally renowned fashion and sporting brands.
A mission to dye for
From a kid, passionate about computers, life took him to his calling and a mission to serve others through his role at Pacific Textiles.
Hubert Tsang
“One of the things that has always driven me is I want to find out how everything works. Once I understand how something works, I can either decide to replicate it, I could decide to optimise it, or I can find another alternative way to do the same thing."
Hubert Tsang
He says that his curiosity keeps leading him to innovate and reinvent, constantly taking Pacific Textiles on a journey of draping success.
“My interest in science is what got me here. Science is the methodical search for answers. By applying scientific principles to technology, you’ll easily understand the relationships between different technologies. Many of these concepts are quite clever and should drive your curiosity. The more you learn and apply these concepts, the more passionate you will become about technology.”
* Editor's notes: This article is part of the Cxociety Coffee Table Book project (The Project) which chronicles the journey and experiences of senior business, operations, finance and technology leaders in Asia in recent years. The Project illustrates the tenacity, ingenuity and resiliency of the human spirit in the face of seemingly endless challenges.
With nearly 50 stories chronicled in The Project, it is a must-read compendium of learnings and experiences from seasoned professionals in the region.
