I was at Texprocess Americas, a technology fair for the US and Latin America, last month
not just to see what new and different the technology manufacturers had to offer, but
also get the pulse of the market from the technology suppliers. As expected, the market is
growing, but slowly.
However, I was surprised at the interesting choice of words doing the round – ‘re-shoring, near-shoring, in-shoring’ and it all meant that the small beginning made by the ‘Made in US’ theme in 2010 is now rising to a crescendo, with everyone talking about it, promoting it and trying to make and deliver products facilitating the concept.
Few factors which would impact positively the trend of re-shoring and near-shoring is the consumers opinion, which is in favour of buying anything which is manufactured in America… but a factor that could negatively impact its popularity is the scattered supply chain and very little automation in the industry. Both the Government and the retail industry is making effort to support the trend and consequently generate employment… and I am sure that in times to come both these bottlenecks will get addressed.
I even met a couple of innovators targeting the US market. One of them showed me how his effort and innovation will lead to a total automated plant for sewing basic garments, while the other was working on a business model that lowers costs and removes markdowns of inventories through implementation of dyeing, printing, cutting and sewing operations in a small footprint, under one roof. Both expected to have the technologies ready by the year 2016… which is not too far away.
Evolution of technology never seizes to amaze me, among them is bonding and welding, which is increasingly being used for stitch-free application in high performance gears, tents, filters, signs, banners, geo material, awnings, inflatable products and apparel too. Realising that the traditional way of sewing is giving way to bonding and welding with growing consumer awareness and demand for stitch-free garments/products for better comfort, quality and performance, StitchWorld introduced the concept of bonding and welding way back in 2008. The journey of discovery continues and in December 2013, we did a detailed analysis of a stitch-free shirt that is now on the retail shelf.
As the awareness increases, we have been asked to take up the challenge to guide the industry on bonding and welding for value and functionality and diverse product categories. So, StitchWorld has decided to take up the topic on a regular basis to discuss and review various welding and bonding technologies and its applications. The idea is to keep the industry informed of different technology choices and the intricacies of this stitchless joining technology.
I am starting another interesting series, but that I will let you know in July… In the meanwhile this issue has the first introductory article under the heading bonding and welding. Some benchmarked companies are presented, one from Ludhiana and the other from Bangladesh… indeed the place does not matter it is the determination of the
management to do things differently
However, I was surprised at the interesting choice of words doing the round – ‘re-shoring, near-shoring, in-shoring’ and it all meant that the small beginning made by the ‘Made in US’ theme in 2010 is now rising to a crescendo, with everyone talking about it, promoting it and trying to make and deliver products facilitating the concept.
Few factors which would impact positively the trend of re-shoring and near-shoring is the consumers opinion, which is in favour of buying anything which is manufactured in America… but a factor that could negatively impact its popularity is the scattered supply chain and very little automation in the industry. Both the Government and the retail industry is making effort to support the trend and consequently generate employment… and I am sure that in times to come both these bottlenecks will get addressed.
I even met a couple of innovators targeting the US market. One of them showed me how his effort and innovation will lead to a total automated plant for sewing basic garments, while the other was working on a business model that lowers costs and removes markdowns of inventories through implementation of dyeing, printing, cutting and sewing operations in a small footprint, under one roof. Both expected to have the technologies ready by the year 2016… which is not too far away.
Evolution of technology never seizes to amaze me, among them is bonding and welding, which is increasingly being used for stitch-free application in high performance gears, tents, filters, signs, banners, geo material, awnings, inflatable products and apparel too. Realising that the traditional way of sewing is giving way to bonding and welding with growing consumer awareness and demand for stitch-free garments/products for better comfort, quality and performance, StitchWorld introduced the concept of bonding and welding way back in 2008. The journey of discovery continues and in December 2013, we did a detailed analysis of a stitch-free shirt that is now on the retail shelf.
As the awareness increases, we have been asked to take up the challenge to guide the industry on bonding and welding for value and functionality and diverse product categories. So, StitchWorld has decided to take up the topic on a regular basis to discuss and review various welding and bonding technologies and its applications. The idea is to keep the industry informed of different technology choices and the intricacies of this stitchless joining technology.
I am starting another interesting series, but that I will let you know in July… In the meanwhile this issue has the first introductory article under the heading bonding and welding. Some benchmarked companies are presented, one from Ludhiana and the other from Bangladesh… indeed the place does not matter it is the determination of the
management to do things differently
