People'S Daily Overseas Edition Focuses On: Moving Towards High-End, Intelligent And Green Clothing Industry "Weaving" For The Future

On July 2, the Overseas Edition of People's Daily reported the new development achievements of the textile and clothing industry under the title of "Towards high-end, intelligent and green clothing industry", and published Chen Dapeng, Vice President of the China Textile Industry Federation and President of the China Garment Association, a signed article titled "Developing new quality productivity and writing a new chapter of the clothing industry".

The picture shows the interior of Chuangshi flagship store of Dayang Group's high-end menswear brand.

In the knitting workshop of Erdos Cashmere Garment Group No. 2 Knitting Factory, a barricade is knitting with a computerized flat knitting machine.

The picture shows the intelligent cutting workshop of Dayang Group Yangerte Factory.

The picture shows the exterior of Ordos Modern Cashmere Industrial Park.

The above pictures are all data pictures

　　 Editor's Note:

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries can also develop new quality productivity." In the past, clothing, furniture, and household appliances "the old three" were exported in large quantities and became popular overseas. Today, the "old three" is accelerating the transformation of high-end, intelligent and green, constantly radiating new vitality. Made in China is firmly moving forward with the goal of high-quality development. The changes of the "old three" times record the development footprint. From now on, this edition will launch a series of reports on the "old three" brand new stories.

Tap the screen, select the fabric and style you like, and a dress of your own design will appear in front of you. When you rotate the body of the virtual character, you can also see the drape and crease of the clothing in motion; In the production workshop, intelligent cutting, intelligent hanging, intelligent logistics and other systems perform their own duties, and the machine automatically opens bags and trims edges, greatly improving the work efficiency; In the sales scene, AI and other new technologies have been comprehensively applied in digital marketing, digital stores, and intelligent shopping guides, and clothing purchasing has had a new experience... In recent years, a large number of clothing enterprises have joined the digital economy, accelerated transformation and upgrading, and technology, fashion, and green have become the key words and new trends in the development of China's clothing industry.

Developing new quality productivity is the internal requirement and important focus of promoting high-quality development. It has become the consensus of the clothing industry to seize the historic opportunity brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation and use new technologies to transform and upgrade. How can enterprises promote their own high-end, intelligent and green development? In this regard, our newspaper conducted an interview.

Build industrial Internet platform

A customized garment, ready to wear in 3 days at most

With a simple touch screen operation, you can choose fabrics, styles, colors, processes, etc., and design and match your own clothing... On the USTYLIT clothing customization industrial Internet platform developed by Dayang Group, consumers can easily complete personalized clothing customization.

For the traditional garment production, private customization has the pain points of high production cost, long manufacturing cycle, and difficulty in mass production and promotion. In order to break through this bottleneck, we must reform the production process and constantly optimize the flexibility of the supply chain through intelligent transformation.

"Whether in terms of technical innovation, digital construction, or the formulation of development strategies, we always focus on innovation." Hu Dongmei, general manager of Dayang Group, introduced that in order to solve the pain points of customized clothing, the enterprise continued to invest, and built a special intelligent flexible customization factory, integrating intelligent manufacturing, industrial Internet Individualized customization is organically combined to realize intelligent services in the whole process, such as intelligent volume, intelligent ordering, intelligent printing, and intelligent production.

The first step in making a custom garment is to measure the size. This step can be directly measured online by consumers using the APP, or measured on the spot by the physical store's fitness technician. After the customer selects the style, surface materials, accessories, etc., the system conducts 3D modeling, and the data is directly sent to the factory.

After the factory receives the order, the intelligent typesetting can take only 2 seconds to form, and then the isometric size is mapped on the cutting machine by projection, and the machine automatically cuts, which can be completed in about one minute. The first cut version is transmitted to each process by the intelligent hanging system, and then the workers can carry out the next step of processing and production. According to the traditional practice, the design of a garment involves drawing a design draft, 2D printing, material preparation, proofing, and sample change, which requires more than a dozen departments to cooperate. The sample clothes produced are slightly deviated, and the process has to be followed again, which takes at least half a month.

In the production workshop of Dayang Group Dalian Maoda Fashion Co., Ltd., one process goes on orderly, and nearly 1000 suits come off the production line here every day. The intelligent hanging transmission system grabs the "parts" of clothing, such as cuffs, collars, front, and so on, and delivers them to workers at all posts accurately.

A suit seamer said to the reporter: "Because it is a customized garment, each piece has different processing procedures and requirements. You see, this one needs to be sewn with shoulder seams, and the other one does not." In front of his processing platform, there is a display screen, which shows the specific cutting requirements of different parts of different garments. "In the past, we had to distinguish different production requirements on paper customized orders, but now all of them are digital. Although it is customized, the efficiency is not lower than that of mass production at all. Like the sewing process I am working on, I can make about 700 pieces every day." The workshop director introduced that the efficiency has been improved by more than 30% after using the intelligent system.

Wu Jiang, the deputy general manager of Dayang Group, told the reporter that in 1979, more than 80 rural women, led by the founder Li Guilian, moved their own sewing machines and established the then Xinjin County Yangshufang Garment Factory, the predecessor of Dayang. At the beginning, garment factories mainly undertook foreign orders of "processing with supplied materials and funds". Later, the enterprise followed the market demand and gradually explored the consumer led "on-demand" production mode, changing the focus from processing with supplied materials, batch production to garment design, flexible production, personalized customization and other fields.

"We have independently developed the production management information system, integrated multiple resources such as order management, measurement data, material stocking, production processes, terminal stores, and linked more than 6000 supply chain enterprises around the world. It only takes three working days for a customized suit to complete its production from the time of placing an order to the volume. In this way, we can meet the demand for large-scale customized production." Hu Dongmei said.

Now, through digital transformation, Dayang has built 7 intelligent production plants and 40 intelligent production lines, realizing the customized production mode of multi variety, small batch, high quality and quick response, and its own brand suits have been sold all over the world. In Pulandian District, Dalian, Liaoning Province, where Dayang is located, there are more than 400 textile and clothing enterprises, and Dayang has been rated as "China's Famous Suit City" and "China's Famous Intelligent Garment Manufacturing City".

Integration of green development concept

Water and electricity saving in the factory and recyclable products

In addition to actively adapting to the digital wave, the clothing industry is also moving towards green and sustainable development.

Walking into the factory of Erdos Cashmere Garment Group located in Erdos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, we can see that a set of full-automatic computerized flat knitting machines are weaving pieces of fine cashmere yarn into pieces of cashmere sweaters according to the inputted process design drawings.

"The fully formed computerized flat knitting machine we are using is the most advanced one in the world at present. One yarn is formed and knitted at one time, which is 1/3 of the power consumption of ordinary computerized flat knitting machines." Fan Zhongyi, manager of Erdos Knitting No. 1 Factory, said that unlike ordinary equipment, the fully formed equipment can achieve integrated garment production, shorten the overall process, reduce labor and cost.

Yang Qiang, director of the knitting workshop of No. 1 Knitting Factory, said that ordinary cashmere sweaters are made by knitting and sewing the front, back and sleeves separately, while full molding production is a first-line garment, which is woven in a three-dimensional way at one time. It avoids the bottleneck process of manual sewing, and can be worn directly after weaving, making it more comfortable and fit.

From collecting and selecting cashmere, to cleaning, combing, dyeing, to spinning, knitting, clothing, and finally inspection, ironing, packaging, the cashmere yarn will be made into cashmere sweaters for sale, which will go through more than 120 processes. The concept of sustainable development also runs through every link.

For example, in cashmere washing, Ordos self-developed ultrasonic cleaning technology can remove the dust and impurities attached to cashmere more thoroughly and save 20% of water at the same time. In the dyeing process, the factory adopts micro suspension dyeing technology, plant dye dyeing technology, phosphorus free bleaching technology, etc. to make cashmere obtain bright colors, while protecting the quality characteristics of cashmere natural fibers to the maximum extent, and achieving water saving of more than 50%.

"Our current dyeing production line uses the most advanced full-automatic dyeing machine in the industry. With the online operation of the full-automatic dyeing auxiliaries distribution system, it can complete the automatic weighing, grasping and storage, dissolving and distribution of dyes and chemicals, reduce human errors, and improve the accuracy of color control." said Wang Zhiguo, director of the dyeing workshop.

Zhou Yu, manager of the Equipment Management Department, told the reporter that based on the green manufacturing concept of high efficiency, low carbon and recycling, the enterprise continued to pay attention to the control of water, electricity and other energy and chemical substances in the actual production process, so as to achieve a reasonable and gradual decline in consumption. Ordos has formulated and implemented green production standards covering the whole industry chain and the whole life cycle from cashmere goat breeding and breeding, cashmere grading and application, whole process processing and manufacturing to waste cashmere recycling, and has been recognized as the first batch of "green design", "green product" and "green factory" in China.

"We have promoted various water-saving technological transformation, including steam condensate recovery and reuse, initial rainwater collection and reuse, municipal reclaimed water introduction and pollution reduction, waste water recycling, etc. After years of efforts, the reverse osmosis membrane sewage treatment technology currently used in the park has made the sewage recycling rate reach more than 70%, saving 300000 cubic meters of water resources annually," Zhou Yu said.

Today, consumers' demand for high-quality, high-performance, green and environmentally friendly textile and clothing products is growing. On the product side, the "recycled cashmere" series of Ordos "ShanSH à N series" is to recycle the old cashmere products, and then spin them into yarn for weaving fabrics to reduce production waste.

Wang Zhen, president of Ordos Group and chairman of Ordos Resources Co., Ltd., said in an interview with this newspaper that innovation is the first step for new quality productivity. For Ordos, it is necessary to enable the transformation and upgrading of industries with science and technology, drive the high-end development of industries with brand reshaping and rejuvenation, and promote the transformation of the industrial chain to green, high and new.

"Sustainability is the core of all our work. It is our important responsibility to protect the grassland, balance the impact of industrial production on the environment, and promote the concept of sustainable development to consumers and the entire clothing industry." Wang Zhen said that he hoped to lead the industry to a green and high-quality development path through the sustainable development practice of the cashmere industry chain.

Connect the supply chain with data

The time for turning the bill is shorter, but the ability to contribute is stronger

A basic T-shirt has 3 colors and 5 sizes, which add up to 15 SKUs (inventory keeping unit, that is, the unit of inventory in and out measurement, which can be in pieces, boxes, trays, etc., and is commonly used in clothing and footwear products.) "Previously, we only had more than 1000 models, but now there are more than 20000 models on all Jeanswest platforms at the same time. How to manage these 300000 SKUs?" During the interview, Liu Weiwen, general manager of Xuri Trading (China) Co., Ltd. Huizhou Jeanswest Electronic Trading Branch, raised such a question.

When it comes to Jeanswest's clothes, Chinese people are no strangers. In 1993, Jeanswest opened its first store in the mainland on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai. Since then, it has opened stores in pedestrian streets in major cities across the country, bringing leisure clothing to thousands of households. At the peak of 2014, Jeanswest opened more than 3000 physical stores.

For a long time, Jeanswest was a "single line supply chain model". However, with the rise of e-commerce, the industry development environment has undergone tremendous changes. Inaccurate production forecast, low production collaboration efficiency, difficult factory order supervision, difficult SKU management, and low inventory management efficiency have become the pain points that have plagued the development of the traditional clothing industry.

"The traditional single line supply chain model has problems such as poor supplier oriented information, delayed decision-making, etc. It is like what style customers like. We will not know until they enter the store and have purchase behavior, and then we will feed back to the factory. This cycle is very long, and when clothing is produced, it may no longer be popular." Liu Weiwen said.

In 2009, Jeanswest opened its first online store and built its own ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, becoming the first clothing brand to realize O2O omni channel, multi warehouse and multi store delivery. Since 2018, Jeanswest has focused on online sales, transforming from clothing retail to brand management.

Back to the question at the beginning, the answer is digitalization.

Through the digital middle platform, Jeanswest can grasp the consumer information in real time, including the style that customers browse, the purchase duration, the purchase quantity, etc. Visualize these data to formulate accurate product development and brand sales strategies. At the same time, mobilize partners on the industrial chain to share data with raw material supply, logistics guarantee, franchise sales and other parties to achieve agile production and sales.

In the view of practitioners, the clothing industry has a profound background behind the development of new quality productivity. New technologies such as the Internet, cloud computing and big data have developed rapidly, and new models such as live broadcast e-commerce and community marketing have boosted the continuous release of clothing consumption potential. These new situations and changes have forced clothing enterprises to change their business ideas, constantly open up new sales channels and enter new markets.

"When referring to the clothing industry in the past, the first thing I think of is the picture of clothing production. The manufacturing industry has a strong attribute, because at the earliest, our clothing industry was dominated by export trade, focusing on large quantities and high prices, and winning with cost performance. Now, the market as a whole is in a state of oversupply, and consumers' demand for clothing is more segmented and changes faster." How to quickly Accurately meet consumer needs? Liu Weiwen believes that in addition to product innovation, business model innovation is also particularly important.

The core of this new business model is to introduce platform thinking and improve the quality and efficiency of all links through scientific and technological innovation. The front end integrates the flow data of the e-commerce platform, and the back end mobilizes the resources of all parties in the supply chain. Jeanswest has built an industrial ecology of efficient linkage between the front end and the back end. In this ecological environment, the whole link is connected from planning, design, selection, issuance, measurement, to commodity operation, quality control, logistics, warehousing, distribution, etc.

The content of Jeanswest stores opened on various e-commerce platforms is different. This is because the system generates tags based on customers' browsing history, purchase habits, etc., forming a "thousands of people and thousands of faces" display page to push the content that customers are most likely interested in to him.

"Previously, it took us 45 days to turn over the order, but now it only takes us 2 days. The time for turning over the order has become shorter, but the ability to make contributions has become stronger." Liu Weiwen said that the factory prepared noodles and accessories in advance, and the market measurement mechanism quickly found the best sellers. On this basis, we can quickly replenish the goods, so that consumers can experience the latest fashion trends in time. Now, Jeanswest is committed to promoting the optimization and upgrading of the industrial chain supply chain, accelerating the development of modern producer services, and achieving the effect of "accurate purchase, rapid production, and reduced inventory".

(Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition)