Figure 1
The flowchart starts from the top with a rectangle labeled “Background study of the apparel production process.” A thick downward-pointing arrow from this rectangle leads to the next rectangle labeled “Initial investigation,” which connects downward to another rectangle labeled “Preparing questionnaires and data sheet” via a thick downward arrow. A thick downward arrow from this rectangle branches into two arrows leading to two individual rectangles arranged in a horizontal series below. One leads to the rectangle labeled “Process observation” on the left, and the other to “Interview with experts” on the right. Individual thick downward arrows from these two rectangles point to another set of rectangles arranged in a horizontal series labeled “Collection of field data” and “Collection of historical data,” respectively. Two lines extend from these two rectangles to merge into a thick downward arrow leading to a rectangle labeled “Data formulation.” A line connects “Background study of the apparel production process” and “Data formulation” and a rectangle positioned on the right side of this line is labeled “Direct Examination.” The rectangle labeled “Data formulation” connects downward via a thick arrow to a “Developing the current state map” rectangle. A thick downward arrow from this rectangle leads to a rectangle labeled “Analysis of the current state map and identify the N V A activities.” A downward arrow from this rectangle leads to a rectangle labeled “Identification of strategies against N V A activities.” A line connects “Developing the current state map” and “Identification of strategies against N V A activities” and a rectangle positioned on the right side of this line is labeled “Current State Mapping.” A thick downward arrow from “Identification of strategies against N V A activities” leads to a rectangle labeled “Validation of the strategies Industry Experts.” A thick downward arrow from “Validation of the strategies Industry Experts” leads to the next rectangle labeled “Acquiring the expert preference score of challenges in linguistic scale.” A thin downward arrow from this rectangle leads to the next rectangle labeled “Converting the linguistic value into I V Q R O F-D E M A T E L.” A thin downward arrow from this rectangle leads to “Aggregation of all expert feedbacks into a single matrix,” followed by a downward arrow to “Construction of crisp direct relation matrix.” Another thin downward arrow leads to a rectangle, “Development of normalized direct relation matrix.” From here, a thin arrow leads to a rectangle labeled “Composition of total relation matrix.” A thin downward arrow from this step leads to the rectangle labeled “Formation of the ranking and casual relationship among challenges.” A line connects “Validation of the strategies Industry Experts” and “Formation of the ranking and casual relationship among challenges” and a rectangle positioned on the right side of this line is labeled “I V Q R O F-D E M A T E L.” From “Formation of the ranking and casual relationship among challenges,” a thick downward arrow leads to “Developing the Future State Map with the significant strategies.” A thick downward arrow from this rectangle points to a diamond-shaped decision node labeled “Valid?” An upward arrow labeled “No” loops back to “Developing the Future State Map with the significant strategies.” A thick downward arrow labeled “Yes” leads to the next rectangle, “Implementation of the Future State Map,” from the diamond decision box. A downward arrow connects this to the rectangle “Calculations of the performance parameters.” A line connects “Developing the Future State Map with the significant strategies” and “Calculations of the performance parameters” and a rectangle positioned on the right side of this line is labeled “Future State Mapping.” From “Calculations of the performance parameters,” a downward arrow leads to the final rectangle labeled “Comparison of the current and future state map and provide recommendations.”Research framework (Authors’ own contributions)