It Drives Forward Consumption Area-Based Production and Mass Customization
The Internet of Things (IoT) and automation are sweeping through the global manufacturing industry and boosting efficiency, while still allowing for mass production. These tech trends are driving investment in systems for facilitating mass customization and quick-delivery/small-lot production in the consumer market, as seen in the automated speed factory of Adidas. Even in the textiles fashion industry, there are suggestions of using IoT in producing spun yarn, cloth and sewn garments. This has triggered a growing interest in how IoT can also be linked to manufacturing.
Shifting to a smart factory
The most labour-intensive process in creating clothes is sewing carefully cut cloth that comes in a variety of shapes, textures and properties – some are soft, while others are more elastic; and it seems there is no choice but to rely on the experience and skills of people to sew them together.
However, in China – the world’s largest exporter of apparel – labour costs are rising and revealing a notable shortage of workers. These factors, along with the numerous unskilled workers in emerging countries, have made mass-producing consistent quality clothing a challenge for apparel manufacturers, some of which are moving toward bringing production back to near where the items are consumed as a way of reducing distribution costs and shortening lead time. Nowadays though, automating the sewing process and using IoT to boost production efficiency are being highlighted as possible solutions to these challenges.
One such company embracing the smart factory concept, IoT and the digitalization of sewing machines is the sewing machine manufacturer JUKI.
Its DDL-9000C sewing machine has a digitalized drive mechanism for controlling the feed, presser foot, needle thread tension and other elements to digitally reproduce the same stitching. Users can easily adjust the settings to suit different cloth, and the stored data of the sewn samples by those who are more adept at using the machine can even be utilized to mass produce items and ensure their consistent quality.
The machine itself can also be connected to the Internet, and the digitalized drive information shared successively with other users. Moreover, other information such as the needle movement count can be checked via the network; this helps with managing the production volume and maintaining the machines, for instance by sending information on needle replacements to each machine.
JUKI is also focusing on making its factories “smarter”, as it moves forward with networking its sewing machines. At last year’s Japan International Apparel Machinery & Textile Industry Trade Show (JIAM), the company showcased its array of automated sewing machines along with a range of parts for supply, as well as a smart production line for sewing polo shirts, featuring an automated carrier that collects finished items. Since introducing this “smarter” line, the company has been able to reduce its required labour from 13 to 4 workers and increase each employee’s production output by 2.2 fold.
JUKI’s Smart Factory, as demonstrated at the 2016 JIAM
Another sewing machine manufacturer, Brother Industries, is making its digitalized machines Wi-fi-enabled and developing its own network system. At the international trade fair for the garment-manufacturing and textile processing industry, Texprocess, the company demonstrated how its machines can show the number of machines currently operating and automatically measure their output to help manage production. Brother is working on making it possible to have interactive function.
Making the most of flat knitting
Compared to producing weaves, flat knitting has less steps overall to make the threads into a garment; so there are many advantages in using flat knitting as way of directly linking the production site with the retail stores.
These perceived merits of flat knitting have also raised the global profile of SHIMA SEIKI’s WHOLEGARMENT flat knitting machine for producing seamless knits. Sales of the machine also grew in China and Korea in fiscal 2016, and the company expects to sell around 1,200 machines in fiscal 2017 (up from 707 machines sold in 2016).
SHIMA SEIKI’s flat knitting machine has opened up a range of production possibilities. By linking the machine with a design system for creating 3D virtual samples via a network, the company can use its knit product lifecycle management (PLM) to manage orders in real time and promptly produce garments in the area for consumption. Moreover, the production schedule can be immediately updated to include custom orders.
CAD/CAM manufactures are also getting on board
Computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) companies are also actively developing systems for integrating all processes from planning to production. Shanghai Yin Science & Technology Co., Ltd., which has the Osaka-based software company, AGMS, under its umbrella is focusing on factory automation. In fact, it has a factory for men’s order-made suits in China’s Shandong province using AGMS technology; it is equipped with 1,200 workers producing 2,500 suits daily using 10 hanger-system lines, 8 automatic cutters (CAM) and 4 stretching machines. The factory also has an automated warehouse, and uses automated carriers between each process in the production lines.
3D body scanners set up at shopfront can also be used with other machines to produce custom-made suits even more quickly. Another factory in Shanghai for women’s custom-made garments produces 4,000 items daily, while a factory in Anhui province is mass producing 10,000 jackets, pants and other clothes each day.
Bringing IoT to spinning as well
Since the 1980s, the textile industry has been using a network-based monitoring system to connect factory floor equipment used in the upstream process of spinning; this system is now evolving to the next level.
Murata Machinery, which manufacturers the Vortex air jet spinning machines, automated winders and other textile machines, has developed an online remote management system called Muratec Smart Support.
Murata Machinery’s Muratec Smart Support also attracted attention at last year’s ITMA Asia.
In May the company launched Visual Manager 3 as an operation data management system for its automated winders, and V-Labo 3 for the Vortex air jet spinning machines. By using Wi-Fi to connect the machines, these systems make it possible for workers to see the production and maintenance status using tablets, and also check on the spot what kind of troubles have occurred and determine how they can be fixed.
Messages can be sent remotely to the LCD panels on the machines and display instructions to the operator, while a database on threads from around the world can be compiled to generate individual reports on the quality of manufactured threads. These machines also have functions only possible with IoT that utilizes big data.
As the textile industry continues to develop the technology used in sales, planning and also production, the emergence of systems contributing to smart factories and other forms of consumption area-based production could also see the creation of new fashion styles.