StitchWorld Editorial Issue November 2018

China leads the way to ‘intelligent factories’

If India is thinking to ‘catch up’ with China in the near or distant future as a manufacturing destination… I very much doubt if that is possible!

While we are still caught up in generating employment at the grass-roots, Chinese manufacturers, with the pro-active support of the Government, are focusing on ‘intelligent sewing’ and ‘smart manufacturing’ concepts that are way beyond what Indians are looking at.

We all know that the most advanced machines and equipment from practically any industry are already being made in China and more interestingly, even in those jobs that require ‘hands’, China is thinking far ahead of other countries…

I can speak from my experience in the apparel industry… today not just the garment manufacturers but also the sewing machine manufacturers too are opting for automated manufacturing concepts and even robotic systems.

Though there are 800 sewing machine factories (it was around 2300, 10 years back) in China today, the movement is towards consolidation to bring the numbers lower but with better technology and higher precision, so as to control the entire world’s sewing needs.

The process has already started with identification and support to two major companies from China, capturing the best and most established European sewing machine manufacturers… bringing them into their fold. I am almost sure that in the next five years, the Japanese will also sell out to the enterprising Chinese companies and leave the garment machine manufacturing space, entirely to China.

The next phase of eliminating ‘hands’ has also begun, majorly to address the increase in wages that impacts competitiveness, by funding the ‘smart’ movement in earnest. The movement is not just about digitising the industry, but also about cutting the unnecessary cost and creating systematic changes… in other words, building ‘intelligent factories’ of the future.

The same was evident during my team’s visit to the leading Chinese sewing technology provider Jack which had a number of innovations to show to its visitors inside its ‘first intelligent factory’ of China. The company is a trailblazer in sewing machine manufacturing and visiting the factory was an eyeopener.

Since 2016, Jack has been organising Annual Overseas Distributors’ Meet and StitchWorld has had the privilege to be a part in all the editions. The way Jack hosts its hundreds of guests who come from all across the world is really commendable and appreciable. It only goes on to reflect the thought process of the company, which is well sorted and systematic!

Though industries such as automobile and IT have already started building smart factories in order to digitalise their processes and to keep a watch on every incident in real time, it is only now that the apparel industry is sensing the need for such factories to combat the rising cost challenges and avoid miscellany of information which they face due to the traditional approach. In this issue, we have covered an article based on expert opinion from garment and steel industries to know the practicality of smart factory concept in the apparel manufacturing sector.

Stitch World Editorial July Issue 2018

Saving cost is one of the biggest agendas for every garment exporter today… Every company is looking at how to reduce its running cost and save enough so that the bottom line is healthier.

While some companies are working within the factory to squeeze out an extra penny, others are exploring new destinations that are cost-effective. All said and done…, a solution has to be found!

When the ‘cost’ bug hit the industry many years ago, we saw factories being shifted from established hubs to interiors outside the city limits. While many Delhi based companies opened factories in Manesar, the fate of most of them is a sad story today…, only a few found success like Sarita Handa; others have either rented out the premises or are operating at below optimal levels.

The biggest reasons that exporters quote when questioned about the failure, is difficulty in getting trained manpower and the travelling woes of the middle management leading to fast turnarounds.

Similarly, other hubs too saw movement to the interiors… Laguna went to Kanakapura on the outskirts of Bangalore, while GO GO International travelled to Holenarsipur, Hassan, again on the outskirts. How fruitful these moves have been, is debatable and open to interpretation.

Armed with past experiences, companies are now therefore more keen to travel to Tier-2 cities, being backed by State Government support. Here, besides the initiatives being offered, which are quite attractive, there are facilities like airports, schools, hospitals, etc, which a company needs to set up a people-oriented industry like garments.

I have been saying for long that moving to outskirts is not a very viable option because the ecosystem for conducive business is not available. Rather the smaller cities like Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar are much better options.

The number of investments that we are seeing in these cities from companies like Shahi, Matrix, Pearl, Orient Craft, Texport, Arvind, Madura Garments, Page Apparel, Kishore Exports, Shakti Wear, Meenakshi Ltd., JP Sports Apparel to name a few, is impressive. I am sure once these factories set the trend and prove successful, many more investments can be expected.

While in India, we are still struggling to save cost mostly from workers’ wages, the West is looking at high technology to get manufacturing back without the pressure of wages!

Exhibitors at Texprocess Americas this year echoed the future of apparel industry with the theme ‘Digital Apparel Microfactory’: A manufacturing set-up where various different technologies are combined together to fill customers’ orders in quantities as low as one. It can be started in even a small room and has become the strength for manufacturers based in USA. This issue of StitchWorld highlights this trendsetting concept and how the companies are embracing it.

Exploring new product categories apart from apparel has always been StitchWorld’s interest. This time, our team visited HH Interior’s factory and explored the quality and manufacturing aspects of car seat covers. A must read…

Continuing with our Poll section, read interesting views from industry experts on the topic ‘Will mass manufacturing return to the USA?’

Stitch World Editorial Issue March 2018

Industry 4.0 is very much in the news and also a hot topic of discussion in magazines and seminars, the world over. We are also following the market trends and discussing the many facets of this topic in the pages of StitchWorld. In this issue too, we bring you insights into the latest discussion on agendas covered by experts sharing the multiple benefits that Industry 4.0 offers.

It is another matter if we would be using any of these concepts in apparel manufacturing and in the context of the Third World countries, in the near future. But then, apparel is not the only industry using sewing technologies. It's being used in industries manufacturing products right from water rafts, parachutes, sails, airbags, tents to all other industries which are using technical textiles as a substitute for hard materials. Significantly, products being manufactured by these industries require high precision and speed and for which the price of the product is not so much of a constraint.

Understand that the concept 4.0 is presently at a very early stage of evolution. It will take few years for it to settle down with a definitive direction. SW is also transforming and growing with the evolution of this concept. That's what we as editors of StitchWorld do, keep a close watch on the evolving trends.

Many years ago, we caught the concept of ‘Lean’ in the apparel manufacturing industry at a very early stage and covered it intensively from all dimensions in our pages. Today, we are bringing out a book on 'Lean concept and its implementation in the apparel industry’ with case studies based on the articles published in SW from time to time.

On similar lines, you would be seeing many books and reports in the next couple of months… This is the fruit of our efforts to compile concepts, formulated and discussed over time and at length, in one comprehensive format as an easy reckoner for practitioners and students of the industry.

The current issue of SW brings to you some interesting technologies that drew attention at the recently concluded GTE. In addition, you will also get an insight into Utah Fashions Ltd., a Bangladesh based apparel exporter that has been carving a benchmark in lean with the practices it follows. Following the growing importance of fire safety, Team SW also brings out the vulnerabilities in factories which lead to fire accidents.

Stitch World Editorial Issue June 2017

At Texprocess, Frankfurt, Germany, besides meeting a lot of old friends and colleagues from the industry, all that I heard there was ‘Industry 4.0’… Every technology provider was talking about concepts like Internet of Things, additive manufacturing, manto- machine communication, machine-to-machine communication, SaaS, smart manufacturing, and artificial intelligence – each concept an integral part of the term Industry 4.0.

Many of the technologies I saw were tailor-made for western countries where labour is a scarce and expensive resource. The idea behind many of the machines was to eliminate human intervention and fully automate processes from design to production and in some cases even include retail and logistics.

So, does that mean Industry 4.0 is actually about taking production back to the West…? I have my reservations on how relevant Industry 4.0 is for the manufacturing world today. Even before automation has properly been adopted in Asia and other developing nations where production is happening, the focus of technology providers is already shifting to the next phase without fully perfecting the automation stage and making it suitable to the needs of the countries that are leading production today…

Can the technology providers afford to ignore the requirements of these manufacturing destinations, which are their biggest selling markets…? I don’t think so! In reality, the Texprocess platform is about the future, though in manufacturing countries the push is still on selling automation.

Most industry experts agree that the future is still a mystery and difficult to predict, what’s sure is that it would be very different from today and if companies do not start preparing now, they would be wiped out of business…

Our analysis of Texprocess is an attempt to decode Industry 4.0 as the debate gets louder… The same will continue in the next issue where many more technologies including IT solutions will be featured.

Even as technology providers move into the future, in a wave of retail bankruptcies, over 8,600 retail stores closure is being projected. Consumers are shifting a greater percentage of their disposable income to ‘experiences’ rather than ‘shopping’, creating an ‘adapt or die’ situation for retailers. Ed Gribbin, President, Alvanon Inc. suggests some of the ways through which retailers can sustain in a competitive environment.

Another interesting read in this issue is WFX Cloud ERP that has integrated new features into the solution such as ‘Analytics’ tool, which enables control over complete supply chain, and ‘Alert System’ that notifies the user before the deadline. Also, the second part of Kaizen Korner series addresses Lean Manufacturing, where David Permenter, Educational Director, DCC Print Vision LLC, tells how to identify waste and eliminate it.

Stitch World Editorial Issue December 2016

The more countries I visit, the more I realize that the problems faced by the industry are more or less the same… It is just the culture of the place and peoples’ happiness levels and aspirations that make the small differences in productivity and efficiency levels of the factory.

I have closely observed the industry in India, Bangladesh and now Vietnam…, and one thing is very clear, factories in all these countries need technology management interventions at all levels.

Though there are only a few Vietnamese apparel manufacturing companies in Vietnam with production being dominated by the Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean companies, the problems in terms of management are the same. My understanding after talking to some experts working in the industry is that irrespective of where the country of origin is, all require some kind of production management intervention, similar to what Indian or Bangladeshi companies require.

On the hindsight, it seems that although most of the countries from where garmenting has shifted from – like Korea, the US, Europe and even Japan – have progressed immensely as nations, but garment factory management skills have remained at the same level when they left the country… Case in point is the numerous foreign-owned factories in Vietnam, where systems of effective management are still ‘old school’. These companies have moved out of their respective countries too long back to imbibe any new system.

Technology upgradation is easy as latest machines are available to all, but how to optimize factory resources, including the machines, is another ball game. I strongly feel that to grow, factories require latest intervention in production management as much as any other input, perhaps the need is even more…!

At StitchWorld, it is our effort to provide insights into such production management systems and tools. In this issue we bring to you an article ‘Quality Engineering – An emerging concept to ease quality worries’! which discusses in detail the concept of quality engineering as opposed to quality control as the new mantra to ensure quality of product during the production process.

The various technology interventions for button wrapping from basic machines to fully automatic ones, is the focus in our technology segment. In another interesting read, an ex-NIFTian shares his journey to create a unique business model to support designers with samples and small production runs.

Stitch World Editorial Issue November 2016

Around half the population is of women in the US who earn less than US $ 15 an hour, and it has been said in an article in Apparel Online India that it is very much possible to produce fashion garments at that price… Yes, I am talking about the US! Local designers, small boutique owners, and chain stores specializing in such categories or in athleisure using technical textiles, are all either working with local manufacturers, or are exploring the potential to manufacture in the US.

Manufacturing of designer wear and athleisure wear are two very different categories, yet having common potential of manufacturing in the US. While designer wear has high margin and shorter lead time to qualify for re-shoring, athleisure has longer lead time, yet it qualifies for re-shoring based on high margin and availability of speciality raw material locally. Not to forget that the local manufacturing industry in America is presently worth US $ 13 billion.

Taking advantage, a Chinese manufacturer of casual apparel and sportswear and a big supplier to Adidas, has recently signed an MoU with the state of Arkansas to invest US $ 20 million in Little Rock and create 400 jobs paying an average of US $ 14 an hour plus benefits. This is the first time ever that a Chinese garment manufacturer has invested in the United States. The way the Government has incentivized the Chinese company clearly indicates the interest of the administration to encourage job creating enterprises. And if the statement of the Governor of Arkansas is anything to go by, then more such deals are ‘down the road’.

Made in USA and re-shoring of manufacturing has also re-kindled the automation research. Every technology player is geared up for technology laden offering. At the upcoming ‘Advancements in Manufacturing Technologies’ conference organised by SPESA, world’s leading technology solution providers will jostle for their space with new offerings. It will be interesting to see whether the offerings are aimed towards large commodity manufacturers of Asia or small and medium niche players trying their luck in re-shoring for the local designers, small boutiques, and chain stores specializing in such categories or in athleisure using technical textiles…

What’s left is the need to explore just how to use expertise to best advantage! Are there any takers…, do let me know.

Efficiency and productivity improvement remains one of the key mottos of StitchWorld and we encourage practising managers and academicians to share their experiences and logic. In this issue, Dr. Prabir Jana discusses the simple mathematical technique to improve line productivity during manpower shortage, while Jayapal Nair discusses the efficiency traps to look for.

Stitch World Editorial Issue October 2016

The GTE exhibition in Bangalore and GARTEX exhibition in New Delhi were held simultaneously and still were able to garner visitation, this probably is an indication of increasing depth of apparel manufacturing industry in India.

Over the years StitchWorld reported continuous increase in visitation from non-metro cities and small- and medium-scale domestic players at various machinery exhibitions, which is unabated.With Ministry of Textiles trying to take the industry to north-east, the states inviting industry veterans to establish their factories, enticing them with lots of benefits and even few of the established players venturing outside India, are also the signs of maturity... I am personally visiting the north-eastern states as well as Orissa and Jharkhand to talk to the politicians and officers, and I am glad to see the change in their attitude towards the industry...

I am quite happy to see the depth and breadth of printing solutions being displayed at both the exhibitions, which is probably indicating entry of Indian players assembling the digital textile printers in India. While direct-to-garment (DTG) and sublimation printing is domain of garment manufacturers, quite a large number offering direct-to-fabric (DTF) technology signifying a war with analogue fabric printing which is the domain of textile mills. I look forward to similar spirited display of the same at ITME India in December 2016.

While the seminars have become stereotyped and boring these days, the 4th TANTU seminar which I chaired was a ‘game changer’ one. The seminar for the first time brought together the manufacturers (converters) of technical textiles on a platform to explore and deliberate. I am happy to see the energised discussions amongst panel members and a clear roadmap of collaborative working between the industry and the academia are probably the ‘value’ that can be generated from seminars in future.