The Transformation Of Clothing Industry: Flexible Intelligent Manufacturing Into The Trend Of Fast Fashion

In fact, clothing brands have been developing in the process of constant self subversion and iteration. Every crisis is an opportunity for new brands to grow and stand out. From the impact of e-commerce to the start of trade war, the emergence of new crown epidemic is followed. At the moment, do you feel overwhelmed and at a loss? All of a sudden, all of a sudden, make all the clothing people at a loss. In particular, after the Spring Festival in 2020, the whole country is in a state of great popularity. The association, the government, the mayor, the county magistrate and the town head all show their magic power and rush into the live broadcast platform. Many people, in unknown circumstances, embark on the road of following the trend. However, the hot and noisy months have passed. Let's review and summarize, who won? It's the platform that makes a lot of money. It can be said that the doctor is in a hurry. Our clothing people are sick, but when did they start to get sick? Maybe it was when the Internet sprung up. And an epidemic in 2020 is just an accelerator for garment enterprises to treat "diseases" with Internet technology.

Jifa group creates a flexible intelligent manufacturing workshop integrating weaving, dyeing and sewing——

Orders for only two or three garments can be accepted

Due to the intrusion of Alibaba's "rhinoceros factory", the intelligent transformation of garment manufacturing industry has become a hot topic in the industry again. In fact, since the fashion of international brand clothing tends to be "fast fashion", it has become a unique skill for garment manufacturing factories to ensure that they can win in the fierce competition to meet the production demand of multi variety, small batch and quick response.

As an old textile enterprise with a history of 65 years, seizing every opportunity given by the times is the magic weapon of Jifa group. Since 2016, Jifa has taken its Qingdao Guihua Knitting Co., Ltd. as a pilot project to carry out intelligent transformation, which has opened the way from weaving, printing and dyeing to tailoring and sewing with information technology The supply chain model of agile manufacturing and flexible production has been established in all links of the whole industry chain. Now, the delivery time of Guihua knitting scale orders has been advanced from the normal 42 days to 14 days, and the quick return orders (orders within 2000 pieces) have been advanced to 7 days. Thanks to such a rapid response, Guihua knitting industry quickly went out of the trough after the epidemic. Since May, its business income has been continuously increasing against the trend. Domestic and foreign orders have been fully scheduled for production before the end of the year.

Intelligent manufacturing workshop opens up the whole industry chain

Weaving, printing and dyeing, tailoring and sewing are three important links in the supply chain of garment production end, which is an industrial chain in terms of industry. However, in the production workshop of Guihua knitting, flexible intelligent manufacturing has been formed through intelligent transformation, and weaving, dyeing and sewing have become one process after another.

In the weaving workshop, an orange flat robot with less than 1 square meter shuttles back and forth along the track to transport the yarn; in the dyeing and finishing workshop, several small color matching cylinders automatically color matching and color matching according to the established procedures; in the clothing workshop, the wireless radio frequency technology collects the production information and work efficiency of workers in real time; in the central control room, a set of ERP system includes all the data of weaving, dyeing and garment nodes and the whole chain, It has become an important carrier of real-time monitoring and equipment information interaction in all aspects of production and operation This is the scene that the reporter saw in the weaving, dyeing and sewing integrated flexible intelligent manufacturing workshop of Jifa group Guihua Knitting Co., Ltd.

Guihua Knitting Co., Ltd. was established in 1993, focusing on OEM knitted garments of overseas brands. Following the fashion trend of international brand clothing, since the beginning of this century, enterprises have been trying to solve the problems of small batch, multi batch and fast delivery orders with informatization as the core. Sun Weifa, general manager of the company, said, "in the past year, only 40 orders were received, and there were hundreds of thousands of orders in one order; but now there are nearly 6000 orders every year, thousands of more than one order, only hundreds of less, some even one, and customers require delivery within one or two weeks." He said, "if we follow the past manufacturing mode, these orders can't be accepted at all. Under the intelligent manufacturing mode, we can not only accept them, but also improve the operation efficiency by 30%."

The intelligent transformation of Jifa group started in 2016. Over the past few years, Jifa group has established a supply chain model of agile manufacturing and flexible production in the pilot factory Guihua knitting. It has realized the "one-stop" of weaving and dyeing seams in one factory and one industrial park, so as to meet the market demand of various varieties, small batches and quick response orders. "Every link is digital information collection, and the work of each employee is connected with a digital card, and there is no information attenuation in different industrial links." * "reduces the human error cost and inventory pressure of enterprises, and improves the enterprise's ability to resist risks and reduce costs." In sun Weifa's view, with the help of information technology, flexible intelligent manufacturing has been formed in the operation and management, so they have taken on more "demanding" customers.

Integrating flexibility into management concept

The smaller the order, the worse it is. This is the consensus of the clothing industry. According to statistics, during the 10 years from 2003 to 2013, the average order of Guihua knitting was only 6000 pieces, and a SKU (single style, single color, single specification) was only about 500 pieces. Sun Weifa believes that at present, some domestic orders are even 2 or 3 pieces, and there are only 128 pieces of single SKU of an overseas sports brand, which is completely the requirement of small batch, multi batch and fast delivery time. Enterprises to pursue efficiency, in the final analysis is to improve competitiveness, others can not accept orders you can take, this is the advantage. Sun Weifa said, "we rely on the transformation, optimization and improvement of intelligent manufacturing mode, which is also conducive to the long-term development of enterprises."

Smart change is one step ahead, and Guihua knitting's advantage is more prominent under the "big test" of the epidemic situation. "Guihua's business has been progressing steadily in recent years." Sun Weifa said that affected by the transfer of the global textile industry chain and the global epidemic situation, relying on high-quality manufacturing capacity and taking the digital express train, enterprises are speeding up to the goal of "domestic and international dual circulation". At present, the export of products has been adjusted from 90% in the past to 60% in export, and the domestic and foreign markets have gradually become balanced. "Even if it is OEM, there are many differences in standards and requirements between foreign and domestic enterprises. The only constant is the rapid response to fashion trends." From sun Weifa's point of view, it is the direction of Guihua knitting in the Internet era that the OEM demand of brand enterprises can be accurately transmitted to the production end, and the manufacturers can more accurately communicate with the market, so as to promote the enterprise from mass production to mass customization.

On April 16, Guihua knitting received an order of 3000 pieces, which was successfully delivered on the 29th. "The quantity of this batch of orders is very small, and it needs seven colors. It takes 12 hours for one color to dye and three days for seven colors. It also needs to complete the processes of weaving, printing and so on. Finally, it can be delivered in 13 days, which reflects the flexibility and agility of the enterprise's production." In Guihua knitting, the delivery time of large-scale orders has been advanced from the normal 42 days to 14 days, and the quick return orders (orders within 2000 pieces) have been advanced to 7 days.

"If we don't have the Internet, we haven't changed our thinking." Sun Weifa said that Internet thinking needs to be coordinated to implement the concept of 7-day delivery into every process. Small closed-loop forms a large closed-loop, which is integrated into flexible manufacturing. Flexible manufacturing, like a piece of flour, can be kneaded no matter how large the order is.

He said that flexibility is not only reflected in the concept of manufacturing process transformation, but also in the enterprise management concept. "70% of the workers are willing to work according to the requirements of flexible manufacturing, and they should be willing to work in a short period of time Sun Weifa said that garment manufacturing is still a labor-intensive industry. For example, the automatic feeding equipment in dyeing workshop improves the process precision and product quality. However, in some production links, it is not possible to completely eliminate labor. It is inevitable and necessary for the industrial Internet to develop to the present. However, due to different industries and different levels of entry, it is necessary to combine the current situation of enterprises to do it step by step and actively.

There is a consensus within Jifa group: the factory is the "green hill" of garment manufacturing industry. Over the past 65 years, Jifa has become a large enterprise with more than 30 companies and branches and more than 20000 employees. In 2019, the company realized the operating revenue of 11.229 billion yuan, showing the "new vitality" of an old business. Today, a series of digital capabilities are improving, which is opening up more imagination space for the development of this old textile enterprise.