Stitch World Editorial Issue April 2018

Even as manufacturing technology moves into the Industry 4.0 zone, one cannot ignore the rapid intervention of technology in retail. The whole process of sourcing, manufacturing and retailing is undergoing a dynamic revolution, and technology is at the centre of this change.

Everyone is talking about e-retailing and how it has challenged the retail landscape, but a number of interactive and responsive technologies are actually enhancing the in-store experience, which is one of the most important attractions for the millennials today.

From this issue onwards, StitchWorld is introducing a new section, specially for retail technologies. It is an acknowledgment to the growing number of technologies that are aimed at the retail segment.

It is only appropriate that after working so hard to support the manufacturing industry in understanding and developing effective systems for the back-end, SW now takes a step forward without moving from its primary focus on the ‘sewn product’ industry.

The series of articles will throw light on new directions in retail and how technology is providing the solutions. The first article in the series is on the concept of ‘Magic Mirror’ which captures much more than the onlookers’ image.

I am sure my readers will find value in the series and I look forward to suggestions on technologies and topics we can talk about in this new section.

The current issue also contains a special tribute to women in the Tech Industry. Though they are fewer in number, the ‘punch’ they carry is no less than that of their male counterparts. Federica Giachetti, President Morgan Tecnica, shares her journey in a man’s world and how today, she is not looked upon as a woman, but as a successful entrepreneur.

Ludhiana is going through a dynamic change… while players are now exploring new products like lingerie, hitherto unheard of in the city and are moving beyond the knit centre title; new technologies are coming in and the openness to adapt to these technologies is on a high.

Bringing in this change with enthusiasm are a set of new generation inheritors and more affordable technology that suppliers are offering from around the world. The synergy between the willingness to change and the expanding offerings is writing a new chapter in the evolution of the Ludhiana industry.

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 February 2018

January month has always been a busier month hustling with activity and business owing to multiple technology trade fairs being held around the same time in both India and Bangladesh. What makes it even more interesting and spirited is the opportunity that it gives us to meet several old and new acquaintances and get the real pulse of the industry… undoubtedly, this time also I was successful in drawing many leads.

However, what perturbs me still is the industry’s ‘not-so-vibrant’ scenario, as they continue to struggle under the ongoing product-price war, and are even more badly hit due to bank’s tight lending, thanks to the NPAs and the GST, and the final nail in the coffin being the abolition of duty drawback.

Nevertheless, I was elated to come across few exporters who managed to put up a good show amidst such testing times… Here my special mention goes to Magnum Resources, a technology supplier, whose stall at GTE Delhi, apart from giving a feel of international styling also depicted the prosperous time it saw last year. From next year onwards, the company intends to take a bigger leap by not only having a larger stall but also a double-storey set-up. I must compliment their consistent courage and determination which has made them emerge as a winner in this sluggish position.

The twist in the tale was ‘automation’ or as I should say more emphatically ‘affordable automation’ which stole the show. Certain automats like cuff runstitch, collar runstitch machines, which have made their presence felt since last three decades, are finally finding a place on the shopfloor. We may have been still far from Industry 4.0 compared to the West, but automation has silently crawled its way to become an integral need for our industry’s successful survival in face of rising cost and labour crisis.

What continues to concern me though is the absence of newcomers in such potential events. I have kept harping on this time and again as I don’t get to see the new generation coming to these fairs, lacking the required inquisitiveness towards developments with regard to the industry. Now I don’t even chance to meet the regular generation next… Is this not sad?

All said and done, apparel may not be doing well but non-apparel products are already on their growth path, and as per my understanding and information, the major expansion is taking place in this segment. StitchWorld definitely endeavours to have more such nonapparel products such as gloves, backpacks, wallets and more on its pages for its readers… Our next issue will update you on the detailed happening in the technological front and their implementation in India and Bangladesh.

If you don’t know yet, my company Apparel Resources has recently released a book Industrial Engineering in Apparel Manufacturing and has also used GTE as a launching pad for our Apparel Resources Jobs portal… Don’t miss further information on these new ventures in our upcoming Apparel Online magazine and our website apparelresources.com.

I must admit that I have stated only a small fragment of the vast pool of thoughts which surround me, and more will be shared with you shortly…

Stitch World Editorial Issue January 2018

Even as we welcome the New Year with its vivacious colours, wishing a bright future for the industry, my sincere advice is that the quicker we forget about the happenings of last year and move on to chart a new growth path, the better and wiser it would be for all of us.

Yet, recalling the eventful year gone by and the manifold jolts it gave to the industry, I am in a way unable to drive myself out of its dominant impacts. First, the demonetisation which seeped the entire liquid fund from the market and then the imposition of GST which blocked whatever money was left and now the hammer on duty drawback...; of course, not to forget the external impediments of price squeeze by the buyers and loworder volume.

In all fairness, it seems that the entire last year was spent on matters which were not productive, but rather disruptive.

Moving ahead, we would be required to take many bold steps to stop the downward trajectory, the first among them would be to give the reigns of the industry into the hands of the younger generation… It’s high time we understand and appreciate that there are companies which do not hire employees who are more than 35 years of age, and even retire them at 52. Employees of such companies are even given the privilege of bringing in new and innovative ways of working, not training them to think in old ways.

In what can be called a massive shift in the thought process, you have to permit these young Turks the scope to make alterations which at the onset might seem difficult to accept…But on honest analysis, the realisation soon dawns that there is merit in it.

Metro cities from where we have been operating for a long time is our comfort zone; we should certainly endeavour to move to smaller cities to take advantage of the low wages and also taxation incentives offered by the State Governments. We have some successful examples in the industry itself; just look around you.

We should also seriously start catering to the domestic market as well..., operationalize our sewing lines in such a way that they can service both the domestic as well as export customers. In not so far future, you will find that the international brands operating in India have started procuring from the Indians as well as from markets closer home.

Reflecting upon examples of several international stores closing down due to their reluctance to source from India, we earnestly need to pull up our socks and stretch our flexibility level to produce what the Indian customers want. If the industry needs to survive, it needs to make large investment on warehousing and manufacturing in India.

These are just some of the short goals of a long journey where we need to create brands and a stamp of quality for our products. A vision quite similar to what has been done by Italy, France or closer home in SriLanka. The driver now is value-based branding even though quantities may not be large.

This first issue of the new year, RELIVE 2017, takes the readers through a retrospect journey of the various subjects which were in focus last year. These can be aptly summed under eight core areas – People, Technology 4.0, Production Management, Human Resource Management, Product Management, Production Technology, Information Technology and Event.

Stitch World Editorial Issue December 2017

'The industry is on a ventilator' – that's the general sentiment in the industry today… Many factors have influenced the way the industry is today, which started with demonetization that reduced the money in hand, then GST which led to money being blocked and thereafter came the final hammer, the withdrawal of duty drawback...

Not to forget the ongoing struggle of continuous squeeze on prices by the buyers, higher inflation and dwindling order quantities.

‘What to do?’ is a common question which is the starting point of any discussion that one has today, irrespective of whether one is attending a marriage or any other function (this being the auspicious time of the year when social gatherings are aplenty!). The discussion invariably drifts towards the topic of ‘survival’.

Only recently I was with a Bangladeshi delegation of 22 sweater exporters in Japan, Osaka and they also have the same issue of sustenance. Since the country is majorly doing basic products in volume, the problem of plummeting prices is impacting them even more.

I was cornered to tell them what's happening in India, and to know how the companies there are addressing the 'survival' issue. Though I shared my understanding about India to them, what I observed is that they all have a plan in place to counter the problem…that is to increase the capacity using automation and to build operational efficiencies.

I would say that this is the best strategy to mitigate slowdown by becoming the indispensable and thus the preferred suppliers. I believe that collectively the industry has enough depth, but unlike China, they need to learn to say NO.

In these difficult times, when saving every cent counts, automation is supporting the industry in its goal to save on cost. This issue carries an exploration of the journey of automation and discusses how it has become ‘important’ and ‘affordable’, from being considered ‘unviable’ and ‘expensive’.

Moving beyond the traditional mindset, the Indian Government has recently taken away the responsibility of the procurement of 48 items for the Indian Army from the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and given it to the private sector. Seen as a major opportunity for the sewn industry, inside is the complete picture of the expectations of the Indian Army from the local Indian manufacturers.

Celebrating success is important and IMA s.p.a., a pioneer in cutting solutions, recently completed its 40 years’ of establishment with a stupendous event in Bergamo, Italy. This issue carries a snapshot of the event and the launch of ‘TYPHOON 70’ cutter during the occasion.

Stitch World Editorial Issue November 2017

CISMA – the technology fair that takes place in Shanghai, China – is not what it used to be. In the last two editions, it has changed its character from being a technology fair for basic machines to matching international standards of automation and moving towards industry 4.0 and showing signs of integrating robotics..., probably reflecting the signs of maturity in the Chinese garment manufacturing industry that is now demanding automation and moving towards robotics all because of the increase in wages and infrastructure cost...

Observing the shift, I also found that while some of the technology is being developed recently, some are decade old technologies making reappearance. All this is becoming possible today due to the increasing affordability of those technologies to cater to the demand for high productive machines.

Auto Bobbin Changer (ABC) – developed in 1995, but phased out from commercial machines due to exorbitant cost, is now making a reappearance; 3mm thread by UBT – developed in 1993, but phased out from commercial machines (probably cost of labour was cheaper to trim after sewing) is making a come back due to wage increase; Real time data from sewing machine – developed in 2003 by Efka has reappeared as cost of networking and data flow is becoming negligible. The CAM (computerized cutter), which came to India in 1997 (installed by Sewa International) with Rs. one crore investment, is still costing the same, but after two decades, the CAM now has multiple and better features… making it affordable.

In this editorial, I am just giving a glimpse of ‘affordable’ technology. Watch out for the next issue, wherein I will give my readers an ‘affordable article’ as food for thought!

In this issue, we have covered technologies displayed at CISMA and have also highlighted the ten top sewing features added to the machines in the recent past. Further, two garment exporters from Tirupur have been interviewed and their manufacturing best practices are highlighted. The common thread between the two is that both have imbibed the lean solution as the core driver for their growth.

Stitch World Editorial Issue October 2017

Two diverse developments in the garment arena are fascinating me today. The first being the talk about Industry 4.0 and the speed of the industry to adopt machines to impress the garment manufacturers.

However, many have an ambiguous understanding of the concept and are already positioning their technologies as Industry 4.0, ready to impress their customers. Their limit to get admiration can extend up to just putting a sensor to mark the machine temperature,which is communicated to the user via an app and qualifies for a company as an Industry 4.0 ready technology!

It is obvious that the garment manufacturers currently are unware about this emerging innovation since they accept every bit of computer-aided technology presented to them as Industry 4.0 ready, without question. But then, every concept takes time to develop and shape up to a level when both sides of the industry become well-versed and equipped to understand the thought in its totality and use it optimally.

The second development that I am watching very carefully is the upward movement of manufacturing in the USA, which is now US $ 13.6 billion of shipments annually, and which is growing further. Though most manufacturers in the US have small units with 25-60 machines, the growth is coming through big Chinese investments that are happening in garmenting, of late.

The latest is a Chinese company setting up a robotic plant in the US to take advantage of the ‘Trump Trust’ for local manufacturing. I am sure these kinds of initiatives would put a greater emphasis on the need to expedite Industry 4.0 equipped technology.

I will be visiting CISMA this month and it will be interesting to see how Chinese technology companies are geared up to imbibe Industry 4.0 in their technological processes. Earlier this year, the 4.0 revolution was the buzzword at Texprocess, Germany.

StitchWorld has always stayed ahead, bringing you all the newer perspectives and latest technologies, without losing touch with reality, because the major chunk of manufacturing still happens in the Third World (developing) economies, which require basic machines and few automats to make complete use of lower labour wages.

Our special issue covers a comprehensive preview of the technology variants that one can look forward to witness at CISMA from various technology manufacturers from around the globe.