APPAREL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT-2

TOPIC – ROLE OF QUALITY IN INDUSTRY 4.0

SUBMITTED TO – MR. SUMIT KUMAR

ASST. PROFESSOR

NIFT BHUBANESWAR

SUBMITTED BY – NIKITA

MAYA N M

SIVANI JAYANTH

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 CONTENTS

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 QUALITY MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE AND ZERO
DEFECT MANUFACTURING

ZERO DEFECTS – THE THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION

Zero defects theory ensures that there is no waste existing in a project. Waste refers
to all unproductive processes, tools, employees and so on. Anything that is
unproductive and does not add value to a project should be eliminated, called the
process of elimination of waste. Eliminating waste creates a process of improvement
and correspondingly lowers costs. Common with the zero defects theory is the
concept of “doing it right the first time” to avoid costly and time-consuming fixes later
in the project management process.

Zero defects theory is based on four elements for implementation in real projects.

1. Quality is a state of assurance to requirements. Therefore, zero defects in a

project means fulfilling requirements at that point in time.
2. Right the first time. Quality should be integrated into the process from the
beginning, rather than solving problems at a later stage.
3. Quality is measured in financial terms. One needs to judge waste, production
and revenue in terms of budgetary impact.
4. Performance should be judged by the accepted standards, as close to
perfection as possible.

ZERO DEFECTS – PROS AND CONS

The clear advantage of achieving a zero defect level is waste and cost reduction
when building products to customer specifications. Zero defects means higher
customer satisfaction, improved quality and improved customer loyalty, which
invariably leads to better sales and profits.

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Nonetheless, a zero defects goal could lead to a scenario where a team is striving
for a perfect process that cannot realistically be met. The time and resources
dedicated to reaching zero defects may negatively impact performance and put a
strain on employee morale and satisfaction. There can also be negative implications
when you consider the full supply chain with other manufacturers that might have a
different definition of zero defects.

In the end, the quest for zero defects is an admirable objective in itself, and most
companies find that the pros outweigh the cons. By striving for stringent but
accepted standards of defects, companies can build better processes and create an
environment of continuous service improvement. 1

1
https://www.simplilearn.com/concept-of-zero-defects-quality-management-article
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 THE PILLARS OF INDUSTRY 4.0

There are nine main pillars of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also referred to as
Industry 4.0. These pillars outline the new technology, apparel manufacturers are
using to improve all areas of apparel production processes.

Fig 1 - Nine pillars of Industry 4.0

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 THE INTERNET OF THINGS

The Internet of Things refers to the networking and connectivity of smart devices.
Apparel manufacturers are attaching sensors to machines and other physical assets
on the plant floor to collect data which influences decisions real time and leads to
increased quality, efficiency and productivity.

Automated monitoring of factory operations

The parameters of factory department environment like temperature and humidity

directly affects the quality of fabric. These can be measured by suitable sensors
placed in the department covering all areas and shares these parameter readings to
cloud data via internet. The collected data can then be visualized and becomes
actions like controlling air conditioning of plant, de humidifiers.

IoT can deliver significant automation into the shop floor and reduce time-to-market.
Robotics and process automation across every stage of production, including
warehousing, can reduce labour intensity, control processing time and errors, and
improve worker conditions. Robotic arms can accurately guide pieces of clothing
through a sewing machine. Automation can bring down costs and speed up the
process. And self-driving vehicles, and sorting and picking devices can transport
items to the right shelves, while significantly reducing manual effort and increasing
production speed.2

Weaving and embroidery machines efficiency

Today’s latest machines, be it Jacquards and Dobby come with PLC (programmable
logic controller) systems and can share data to various IoT devices for what designs
are being run with technical details like picks, thread counts, weft and warp details in
turn availability of these data on mobile and tablets pieces to factory managers and

2
https://www.suuchi.com/the-growing-role-of-iot-in-apparel-manufacturing/
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product managers. This increases the quality of the weaves eliminating error
percentages.

Real-time feedback

The ecosystem of connected devices via internet on the manufacturing shop floor
can enable apparel organizations to receive real-time feedback and alerts for defects
or damaged goods. Such timely feedback can help save money and eliminate waste.
Errors caught early can be fixed faster and with less impact on the rest of the
delivery. Real-time monitoring and data collection from the production process can
facilitate quicker, more proactive, and clearer communication. With such insight, IoT
enables everyone in the manufacturing unit to be always updated. They learn about
changes in real-time. This helps in the replenishment of stock and optimizing
business planning.

Spinning

Spinning involves eleven different intermediate processes such as - Bale Inventory

Warehouse, Blow Room, Carding Department, Pre-Draw frame, Lap Winder,
Comber, Draw frame, Roving Frame, Ring Spinning/Speed Frame/OE spinning,
Winding, and TFO. Across all these processes, it is important to collect the data in
real-time, monitor the production and quality, ensure appropriate scheduling, and
have an interface with the ERP system.

This can be done using automation to ensure real-time visibility of the manufacturing
process. The IoT integration helps this unit in highlighting the weak points in the
production process and thereby reduce the machine stop time/down time. With
reduced paperwork and automated data collection, the ‘decision support’ is optimal
and the unit has optimized scheduling and logistics.

In the overall automation within the spinning unit, sliver breaks and mending time
analysis, specific energy analysis, linking of actual energy utilization with production
for good and reject quantity as well as per kg production, doff analysis, breakdown
analysis, and OEE along with productivity/efficiency of workforce, are possible with
IoT increasing the quality of the product after spinning.
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Weaving

Weaving unit monitors and synchronizes all the manufacturing and logistics activities
within the weaving mill - right from yarn purchasing and inventory up to the shipment
of the finished fabric. It has various sub-units including Sectional Warping, Sizing,
Weavers Beam Stock, Weaving Loom, loom shed of variety looms of different make,
configurations, versions, customizations, and Cloth Bean Stock. Through IoT-
enabled automation, the unit is able to gather real-time data, do production
monitoring, analytics, bench-marking and scheduling, manage yarn inventory
management, and also do the ticket printing. Through optimized production
schedule, real-time visibility of the manufacturing process, and automatic data
collection, the unit has been able to increase its efficiency by as high as 10% as
compared to manual processes.

The overall efficiency and quality enhancement is because of the unique features in
the IoT solution such as weft and warp break analysis, OEE, water, air, electricity
and energy consumption analysis, loom and style analytics, and breakdown analysis.

Processing

The processing unit is probably the most complex unit with processes such as
Batching, Desizing, Dyeing, Sanforization, Singeing, Stenter, and Mercerization. But
the automated system here is doing a perfect job of automatic monitoring (and
analytics on the top of same) of the number of beams produced, recipe
management, individual production vs target, machine monitoring, and stoppages,
and overseeing the overall machine health. The plant-level daily MIS reports
including production efficiency, actual production, conversion and invisible loss,
specific energy consumption per kg of yarn (or fabric) and waste percentage are
helping the stakeholders in optimizing the performance of the unit.

The highlight of the IoT solution is batch/equipment bench-marking, batch-wise

energy, utility and chemical consumption analytics, report of batch set parameters vs
actual set parameters, and batch-wise stoppage analytics.

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MES for Textiles

MES (Manufacturing Execution System) is the flexible tool that enables managers to
achieve operational excellence and rapidly respond to changing conditions. Through
IoT integration, the system is able to do real-time production and quality monitoring,
production management and production scheduling on all machines even including
air jet texturizing machines. The yarn monitoring sensors ensure a 100% quality
assurance without having to do the time-consuming and inaccurate laboratory tests.

Superior yarn quality is assured and obtained without the need of any quality
sampling.

The IoT solution maps different energy consumption (such as electricity, gas,
compressed air, water, steam etc.) for further analysis and optimization. The
integration with the MES systems provides a perfect insight into energy consumption
and production and has helped the unit in 3% to 7% energy savings through real-
time energy consumption monitoring.

Applications in real world

 Cognex

Cognex machine vision and industrial ID solutions help companies improve product
quality, eliminate production errors, lower manufacturing costs, and exceed
consumer expectations for high-quality products at an affordable price.

What the system does is learn the weaving pattern, yarn properties, colours and
tolerable imperfections from the images provided. And after a training period of few
weeks the software is able to detect defects like wrong fabric pattern, printing quality,
certain weaving defects saving humans from the manual task of inspecting hundreds
of yards of material manually. With this, manufacturers can improve production
efficiency by increasing speed, minimizing defects and reduce cost. 3

3
https://www.onlineclothingstudy.com/2018/11/industry-40-in-apparel-industry.html?m=1
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 Fig 2 - Cognex vision system for detecting fabric defects

Fig 3 - Cognex ViDi distinguishes unacceptable defects on fabric while tolerating naturally occurring
vibrations

 Fanuc

Robotics maker Fanuc is serious about reducing downtime in industrial facilities.

Using sensors within its robotics in tandem with cloud-based analytics, the company
can predict when failure of a component such as a robotic system or process
equipment is imminent. While predictive maintenance is a familiar concept, Fanuc
has embraced it more aggressively than most. Predictive Analytics enable
Production & Maintenance Management to improve quality and service levels, while
cutting production and maintenance costs.

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Challenges

Automating entire textile life cycle from production to storage to marketing by IoT
Solutions can be developed and deployed. However, the challenges for adopting IoT
are,

 Connection overhead and huge bandwidth consumption of multiple weaving

machines connected over Ethernet
 Administration and management of voluminous structured and unstructured data
 Compatibility of ERP and Operations, Administration & Management System with
IoT Service Management Platform
 With huge amounts of data transferred online every second, the biggest challenge
to IoT platforms is security and data protection.

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 AUGMENTED REALITY

Augmented reality (AR) displays digital content in the real word through a device,
such as a mobile phone or special eyeglasses. There are a number of different uses
for this technology in the apparel production industry.

Just in time garments manufacturing (JITGM)

This innovation is based on the Augmented Reality concept. Consumers can use this
technology to analyse the different elements such as fabric, colour, prints, style, via
AR images. The application will provide different variants of the finished products.
The final order will be placed based on their approval and selection. The companies
can print, cut, sew and dispatch the garment within 48 hours and make the delivery
to the consumers. This is expected to the next most prominent change in the textile
industry. This will reduce the wastage of the resources and also provide a unique
product to the consumers that have improved quality as the specifications are
already mentioned. Just in time technology would be a feasible option for all
stakeholders.4

New product development (NPD)

Sample makers prefer more visualized input compared to previous written form of
the technical files. With abundant data from multiple user-friendly screens will
support customized apparel product development and manufacturing. Moreover, it is
contended that there is a requirement of establishing a system to guide sample
machinists to minimize errors in production lines.

These findings effectively influenced an AR-based tool. The AR tool was visualized
using several images to explain its operationalization. This AR-based tool will
develop as a wearable technology and it will contain all the product design and
technical details in digital format. Product designer configures relevant information
according to each new style. Each operation stores in a data base and the designer
4
https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/tech-tailor-how-ar-vr-will-impact-the-fashion-
industry/1755579/
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and product developer can copy similar operations from previous product
development cycles.

AR-enabled tool to be used by the NPD team and the sample manufacturing team to
reduce prototyping errors. With support from this kind of application, the designer will
be able to transfer product design and construction details to the sample
manufacturing team effectively. The product errors caused due to miscommunication
and misinterpretation of design inputs, prototyping failures can be eliminated
improving the quality of the apparel thus produced. The AR tool will be a digital tech-
pack which provides all the necessary details to the manufacturing team effectively.
Therefore, it will minimize the design to manufacturing errors and promise high-
quality products.5

Figures illustrating the working of the AR tool

Fig 4 - QR scanned will identify the techpack details and machine and machine settings

Fig 5 - QR scanned will identify pattern pieces and indicate the wrong steps

5
https://www.ijrte.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/v8i4/D7510118419_An%20Augmented%20Reality-
based%20simulation%20guide%20for%20apparel%20assembly.pdf
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 Fig 6 - QR scanned will identify quality defects relevant to stitching and indicate the wrong steps

Fig 7 - Design sketch and the style code will be displayed at any stage of the sewing cycle providing
an overall picture of the product design and necessary accessories used in the product.

Challenges

 Lack of proven business models

 Lack of augmented reality app design and development standards
 Security and privacy issues
 The possibility of physical harm
 Poor quality of content and use cases
 Social issues of augmented reality, public acceptance and retention
 Ethical and legal issues of augmented reality

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 ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Apparel manufacturers are looking to expand the use of additive manufacturing in

their processes. However, technologies like 3D printing are already playing an
important role in three key areas namely,

 Design
 Prototyping
 Low-Volume Production

3D Design

3D design reduces time-to-market, ideal for fast-fashion or capsule collections. Fast-

prototyping permits to visualize what a product is going to actually look like on the
market, or have accurate samples/ renderings to support the assortment when
selling to buyers. Regarding sourcing, 3D design increases vendor’s accountability to
6
deliver accurate and increased quality samples and final production.

3D Printing

implementing 3D printing into

manufacturing chain can benefit
the industry within several
sectors.
• By enabling to print the exact size
of the object that is needed

6
https://fashionretail.blog/2018/05/28/3d-printing-in-fashion/
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for the nal product, it completely
eliminates any waste
whatsoever that would occur in
situations when pieces are cut
from a fabric lay. erefore this not
only can decrease the cost
of manufacture, but also is
benecial to the environment by
producing exactly what is needed
and unnecessary misuse of
materials is eliminated.
• It shortens the steps that need to
be taken during production.
With 3D printing, the fabric laying,
cutting, assembling and
sewing are integrated into one step,
where just by creating a
design le to be printed.
• e product made is of higher
quality than the product made
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when sewing, because 3D garment
printing eliminated from
occasional human error in traditional
garment manufacture.
implementing 3D printing into
manufacturing chain can benefit
the industry within several
sectors.
• By enabling to print the exact size
of the object that is needed
for the nal product, it completely
eliminates any waste
whatsoever that would occur in
situations when pieces are cut
from a fabric lay. erefore this not
only can decrease the cost
of manufacture, but also is
benecial to the environment by
producing exactly what is needed
and unnecessary misuse of
17 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
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materials is eliminated.
• It shortens the steps that need to
be taken during production.
With 3D printing, the fabric laying,
cutting, assembling and
sewing are integrated into one step,
where just by creating a
design le to be printed.
• e product made is of higher
quality than the product made
when sewing, because 3D garment
printing eliminated from
occasional human error in traditional
garment manufacture.
implementing 3D printing into
manufacturing chain can benefit
the industry within several
sectors.
• By enabling to print the exact size
of the object that is needed
18 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
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for the nal product, it completely
eliminates any waste
whatsoever that would occur in
situations when pieces are cut
from a fabric lay. erefore this not
only can decrease the cost
of manufacture, but also is
benecial to the environment by
producing exactly what is needed
and unnecessary misuse of
materials is eliminated.
• It shortens the steps that need to
be taken during production.
With 3D printing, the fabric laying,
cutting, assembling and
sewing are integrated into one step,
where just by creating a
design le to be printed.
• e product made is of higher
quality than the product made
19 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
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when sewing, because 3D garment
printing eliminated from
occasional human error in traditional
garment manufacture.
that implementing 3D printing into
manufacturing chain can benefit
the industry within several
sectors.
• By enabling to print the exact size
of the object that is needed
for the nal product, it completely
eliminates any waste
whatsoever that would occur in
situations when pieces are cut
from a fabric lay. erefore this not
only can decrease the cost
of manufacture, but also is
benecial to the environment by
producing exactly what is needed
and unnecessary misuse of
20 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
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materials is eliminated.
• It shortens the steps that need to
be taken during production.
With 3D printing, the fabric laying,
cutting, assembling and
sewing are integrated into one step,
where just by creating a
design le to be printed.
• e product made is of higher
quality than the product made
when sewing, because 3D garment
printing eliminated from
occasional human error in traditional
garment manufacture.
that implementing 3D printing into
manufacturing chain can benefit
the industry within several
sectors.
• By enabling to print the exact size
of the object that is needed
21 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
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for the nal product, it completely
eliminates any waste
whatsoever that would occur in
situations when pieces are cut
from a fabric lay. erefore this not
only can decrease the cost
of manufacture, but also is
benecial to the environment by
producing exactly what is needed
and unnecessary misuse of
materials is eliminated.
• It shortens the steps that need to
be taken during production.
With 3D printing, the fabric laying,
cutting, assembling and
sewing are integrated into one step,
where just by creating a
design le to be printed.
• e product made is of higher
quality than the product made
22 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
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when sewing, because 3D garment
printing eliminated from
occasional human error in traditional
garment manufacture.
that implementing 3D printing into
manufacturing chain can benefit
the industry within several
sectors.
• By enabling to print the exact size
of the object that is needed
for the nal product, it completely
eliminates any waste
whatsoever that would occur in
situations when pieces are cut
from a fabric lay. erefore this not
only can decrease the cost
of manufacture, but also is
benecial to the environment by
producing exactly what is needed
and unnecessary misuse of
23 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION
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materials is eliminated.
• It shortens the steps that need to
be taken during production.
With 3D printing, the fabric laying,
cutting, assembling and
sewing are integrated into one step,
where just by creating a
design le to be printed.
• e product made is of higher
quality than the product made
when sewing, because 3D garment
printing eliminated from
occasional human error in traditional
garment manufacture.
Implementing 3D printing into apparel manufacturing chain can benefit the apparel
industry within several sectors. By enabling to print the exact same size of the object
that is required for the final product, it completely eliminates any waste whatsoever
that would occur in situations when pieces are cut from a fabric lay. This not only
decreases the cost of manufacturing but is also beneficial to the environment by
producing exactly what is needed and unnecessary misuse of the materials is
eliminated.

It shortens the steps required to be taken during production. With 3D printing, the
fabric laying, cutting, assembling and sewing are integrated into one step where a
design file is created that is to be printed.
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The product made is of higher quality than the product made when sewing, because
3D garment printing eliminates occasional human error in traditional garment
manufacture. 7

Fig 8 - The fineness of 3D printed garments

Challenges

 High investment costs passed on to the final product

 High time during production of 3D elements
 Rigidity of materials used for 3D garments
 Environmental problems

7
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312309878_3D_Printing_for_Garments_Production_An_Ex
ploratory_Study
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 AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM

Industrial Automation is today a key pillar of every manufacturing organization

strategy. Usage of automated systems and latest generation software to execute
routine tasks and minimizing human involvement is proving to be extremely cost
effective solution to the challenges of modern manufacturing. It helps in increasing
quality, reliability and production rate and reducing overall cost of production.
Autonomous robots manufactures in an easier, faster and smarter way. They
operate based on a complex logic algorithm, meaning they don’t require any present
path to carry out their duties.

These robots catalyze the manufacturing process. The amount of time that can be
gained and latency that can be cut down is equal to the amount of time taken to
program controlled robots. Unlike the conveyor belt, it is portable and its duty can be
varied.

Benefits of automation

 Increases Productivity: Automation of manufacturing & process helps in

improving the production rate with cost effective production.
 Optimize costs: Use of industrial automation minimizes human errors.
 Improves the product quality: With the reduction of human errors, uniformity &
product quality can be improved.
 Reduces the routine checks: Industrial automation enables the process
variables to be maintained at desired values with the help of closed-loop
control techniques.
 Increased safety: Automated machines or robots can work in hazardous
working conditions and reduce manual error.

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Application in apparel manufacturing8

Apparel manufacturing is still a labour-intensive process in these developing

countries, although there have been several automation available commercially.
Availability of cheap labour and the high initial investment are the causes for which
the garment industries are not adopting the technology. However, the global demand
for high-quality clothing and stiff competition is now mandating many manufacturers
to adopt the automation technology. There are several areas of automation in
garment production, which also includes yarn and fabric production processes.
Automation of processes involved in garment production, includes fabric inspection,
CAD and CAM, fabric spreading and cutting, sewing, pressing, material handling,
and the role of radio-frequency identification (RFID) in automation.

Automatic fabric inspection

Fabric inspection is performed by the skilled workers on a lighted surface who

perform a subjective evaluation of the fabrics. As it is a manual process, many times
the faults are not detected accurately. Furthermore, the inspection is also affected by
the psychological factors, tiredness, and physical well-being of the inspector. Hence,
the inefficiency and inaccuracy of the inspection can be passed into the fabric, which
can result in the production of defective garments. The use of automation tools and
equipment can help in increasing the efficiency of the inspection process.

Online automated inspection systems can detect the faults during the fabric
production as well as during the fabric inspection process. Various techniques such
as statistical approach, spectral approach, and model-based approach can be taken
for automatic fabric inspection. In all these approaches fabric image is manipulated
by a software or modeling tool to extract the information relating to the severity of
fabric faults. The faults detected are automatically marked in the fabric and some
points are allocated depending on the fault dimension and severity. If the fabric lot
exceeds a certain threshold, they are rejected.

I-TEX: automatic fabric inspection system:

8
https://fashion2apparel.blogspot.com/2018/03/automation-apparel-manufacturing.html
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I-TEX is an automatic fabric inspection system based on image understanding
algorithms that imitate the human visual system. A typical system can detect defects
as small as 0.5 mm on fabric widths up to 330 cm and at speeds that reach 100
m/min. The system also has the ability to detect diverse spinning, weaving, dyeing,
finishing, and coating defects on any unicolor fabric.

This family of automatic inspection systems adapts to a variety of applications and

can be positioned in-line as part of a production process, or stand-alone. I-TEX 100
and I-TEX 100 Wide are used for greige and technical fabric inspection. These
models can be configured for extra-high resolution and extra-wide fabrics. Models I-
TEX 200 and I-TEX 200 Denim are used for dyed and finished fabric final inspection.

FABRIC SPREADING AND CUTTING

Fabric spreading can be accomplished by automatic machines on the spreading

table. Some machines can work for fabric used in a wide range of applications such
as work wear, automotive, container bag, industrial applications, high-performance
applications (e.g., Nomex, Kevlar, and carbon), nonwovens, and felts including the
apparel fabrics. The fabric parameters such as length, width, and ply counts can be
entered into the liquid crystal display touch screen of the machine. The fabric is
automatically spread by the machine for the number of plies and stops when the
number of plies has been completed. In addition, the machine has the provision to
slow down when it approaches both the ends and take care of the alignment of the
fabric grain line with the help of sensors.

Automation in spreading of fabric reduces defects caused by repetitive manual work

and increase quality by:

 Free of noticeable defects in the fabric

 Tension free and flat
 Selvedge’s are aligned at least on one edge
 Free of static electricity
 Accurately spliced with minimal waste
 Precise length, mode and number of plies

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Similarly automatic cutting machines are available to cut multiple plies of a range of
fabric types ranging from lightweight apparel fabric to high-performance industrial
fabrics. The marker is fed to a computer using a USB and the cutting head
automatically moves to cut the pattern pieces as per the marker. Cutting can be
performed by the use of laser, knife, or water-jet. Some of the other features include
auto-detection of blade sharpness and indication when the blade is blunt, automatic
drilling, and notching. Laser cutters can provide certain degree of advantages than
the other cutters in terms of accuracy, no fraying of fabrics, precise and smooth
cutting edges, and no change of blades.

The automatic cutting increase quality over manual cutting by:

 increased efficiency and accuracy

 ease of cutting single and multiple plies
 perfect cutting in the first time

Automation in sewing

For automation of sewing process, industrial robots are recently being developed
that can handle the fabric during sewing operation. The concept of automatic sewing
robots was derived from a motorized hand-held medical sewing machine used to
close the edge of wounds by spherical seams.

Sewbots:

There have been some experimental trials to stitch the whole garment by the use of
robots. One such example is Zornow’s robot “Sewbo,” which can handle the fabric
components during automatic sewing. The fabric need to be stiffened by the
application of a water-soluble and nontoxic polymer (polyvinyl alcohol), which makes
the handling operation easier. This polymer has been successfully applied to the
yarn as a sizing material. The polymer can be removed from the yarn and fabric by
the application of hot water. The fabric also retains its original softness after
washing.

The robot can be programmed to grip and position the fabric to the sewing machine
repeatedly for a specific size and specific operation. When the size or the style of the
garment changes, the robot need to be reprogrammed. The robot is now successful
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to completely finish all the operations for a T-shirt. This technology can be extended
to other garment styles by the program and design modification. However, multiple
robots may be needed to perform all the operations relating to a particular garment
style.

The use of sewbots such as “Sewbo” will help to achieve high-quality garments at
reduced cost . This will also help in solving the labour-related issues, reducing the
lead time, reducing defects, and reducing the supply chain, which is a major concern
for many global retailers. These robots can work with a wide range of fabrics except
the fabric applied with hydrophobic finish or other specialty finish or leather material
as it is hard to apply the stiffening polymer. In these cases operations such as
attaching the cuffs and collars can be performed automatically.

Although reasonable progress has been made in the sewing machine settings and
stitching quality to change with the fabric quality, there are areas of complexity such
as needle–fabric interaction while sewing. As the relationship between the physical
and mechanical properties on fabric behavior is nonlinear, the interaction between
the fabric and needle is nonlinear. Relating to the nonlinear interaction, the behavior
of individual materials is different, which makes the automation process difficult.
Furthermore, during the sewing operation, the pulling or slipping of fabric cannot be
precisely controlled by the automatic equipment, leading to seam pucker. To resolve
this problem the control algorithms should be robust enough to work successfully
where no transfer function exists.

Fig 10 – “Sewbo” manufacturing t-shirt

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3D sewing technology:

The use of robotic 3D sewing technology can explore new dimensions in sewing as it
can produce high-tech garments with high quality. Furthermore, the 3D sewing
technology can help in cost reduction and fast response to customer demand. One
of the 3D sewing technologies was developed by Philipp Moll GmbH & Co., which
can make 3D seams automatically. The cut components of a garment are placed in a
3D mould and an industrial robot guides a special sewing machine along the spatial
seam course. The adjustable mould can adapt to different shapes and sizes of the
garment. The 3D sewing technology can be used to manufacture apparels (trousers,
jackets, shirts) and car seat covers, airbag fabrics, and many other 3D shapes. This
3D technology can help in achieving better quality of sewn products at higher
efficiency.

The characteristic features of 3D sewing technology:

 The cut components are placed in the 3D mould in their spatial shape free
from creases and tension.
 The cut components are not handled manually during 3D sewing operation.
 The industrial robot guides the sewing machine along the spatial seam path,
and the sewing is free from manual interference.
 All the steps involved in sewing such as fabric positioning, transportation,
sewing, and offloading are performed by the robot integrated with the special
sewing machine. As multiple operations are handled by the robot, the
efficiency of the process increases.
 The 3D sewing technology can be extended to several fabric types, flexible,
accurate, and free from skilled worker and their psychological well-being.
 The 3D sewing technology helps to reduce the labour cost, increases
productivity, quality, and independent of labour costs and manufacturing
location.

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 Fig 11 – 3D sewing mechanism

Connected sewing m/c:

Some of these machines connect directly to your computer, allowing you to design
and upload your own personalized graphics and fonts so you can personalize your
embroidery designs. These machines vary in their built-in features and capabilities.
This technology helps us to achieve designs of high quality.

Fig 12 – Sewing m/c connected to pc

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Automation in pressing

There have been a wide range of developments in automating the pressing

operation. In garment manufacturing, pressing is a taxing task and it is performed in
relatively inhospitable environment. The problem of labour shortage and human error
during pressing are eliminated by automation.

Although there have been several technical advancements in the pressing

technology, the number of automation tools is limited. A number of advanced
technologies such as pressing robot, jacket finisher (front), shirt finisher, and shirt
press have been commercially available.

Steam finisher:

This equipment is known as a form press or a ‘dolly’ press. It has a compressed air
system, frame for a steam distribution system and a pressing form made of a canvas
bag in the suitable silhouette of the garment to be pressed.

Fig 13 – Steam finisher

Tunnel finisher:

Tunnel finishers are used for finishing knitted goods. They can be used for manmade
fibre garments and their blends also. This garment finishing process involves no
pressure application and reduced handling of garments in steam tunnel. In this
finishing process, the garments are put on hangers and fed through a cabinet using
a motorized rail. The garments pass through sections with superheated steam and it
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is dried by blowing air. In some cases garments are loaded onto frames and passed
through the tunnel on a conveyor.

Fig 14 – Tunnel finisher

Computer-aided design and computer-aided: manufacturing

Greater flexibility in pattern designing, grading and marking, reduction in waste %,

and increase in quality of cutting room and reduction in sample making time are
some of the benefits of application of CAD/CAM system in garment manufacturing.

3d body scanning:

The measurement of body dimensions is a manual and time-consuming process. For

the production of traditional mass customized garment, different body dimensions
are measured and recorded in a paper. These measurements are used by the
designer or tailor to produce the customized garment. These practices although
inaccurate, inconsistent, and tedious, are still followed in many countries for the
production of customized garments. However, for the production of mass customized
garment in a retail store, the advanced tools such as 3D body scanning should be
used to automatically extract the measurement of the body dimensions. The 3D body
scanning devices can capture the three coordinates (X, Y, and Z) for the whole
human body. Then appropriate software can convert these data into accurate body
dimensions .This eliminates errors in measurement caused by manual measuring
processes and increase quality.

3D body scanning is a noncontact technique that captures body dimensions over

360 degrees by the use of white light or laser light. The data collected are accurate
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and represent the three-dimensional shape of the real body, which can be used in
the formation of the body shapes and contours to create a 3D virtual model. These
scanned data can be used to create patterns for different types of garments. For
creating patterns, an automatic system need to be developed that can locate the
referencing points or landmarks needed for generating body measurements from the
scanned data by using a model-based feature recognition algorithm. The scanned
data from the 3D scanner have a format of three-dimension point cloud, which
indicates many points on the body surface.
These scanned data can also be used for developing the virtual fit model, which are
similar to virtual clothing samples. These virtual clothing samples can be presented
to the buyers, retailers, or even to the consumers. The virtual fit models eliminate the
cost and time involved in the creation of physical samples, and the style is approved
in the first attempt. The virtual fit models can help the customers to visualize the
mass-customized product before making the purchase. The right type of fabrics can
be selected as per the customer’s choice and then the virtual fit and appearance of
the clothing can be evaluated before making the purchase decision. The virtual fit
model is used by many online retail businesses such as eBay.

Use of radio-frequency identification

RFID is an identification system that uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track
the movement of objects. The use of RFID system can assist the automation
process during garment manufacturing by helping to trace the products during the
whole manufacturing process. The identification technique helps to accurately
identify and monitor the progress of the semifinished and finished garments from
remote places in a real-time environment. The collected information can be used to
increase in inventory turnover, improve quality, and automate the manual processes.
RFID technology is easily installed and works in the production environment to
increase the production efficiency.

For example in cutting, the cut bundles can be attached with an RFID tag, which can
be used for the identification of the components, style, color, and other relevant
information. Furthermore, the information on the processes that has been completed
and the processes that is pending can be obtained from the tags. The use of RFID
technology can help in the intelligent garment manufacturing and automation. As the

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RFID tags contain the information on the processes to be performed, once a process
is complete, the readers can update the information and transport the components
for the next operation. The use of RFID tags can help to generate reports, monitor
the progress of each operator and each production style.

RFID technology has many applications in textile and garment manufacturing such
as inventory management, product tracking, production monitoring and control, retail
management, and brand segregation. RFID technologies may improve the potential
benefits of SCM through reduction of inventory losses, increase of the efficiency and
speed of processes, and improvement of information accuracy. The basic of success
lies in understanding the technology and other features to minimize the potential
problems.

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 BIG DATA ANALYTICS

Data analytics, once an IT application is now penetrating into manufacturing and

supply chain industry. Power of data analytics and pattern recognition can be
harnessed in the manufacturing industry to reduce downtime and wastages.

Predictive Maintenance o Predictive maintenance comprises a variety of data

analytics and statistical techniques to uncover hidden patterns and capture
relationships among devices. It mainly aims to predict possible device or equipment
failures and to define a maintenance strategy accordingly, in order to decrease
failure rate and increase device utilization (Lee, Kao, & Yang, 2014). o Cyber-
physical systems equipped with sensors, actuators, and processors are
intelligent electronic systems with internet connectivity. They comprise extracting
optimized decisions to preserve the capability and the functionality of the system
by controlling problems of devices from large data-streams in real-time. They can
make self-optimizing decisions by anticipating errors and quality problems that can
occur.

Big data drives better quality through 'predictive analytics'

In apparel industry, data can be collected at different levels of manufacturing

process. Predictive maintenance can be carried out based on the data collected.
This is cost-efficient and safer than the conventional routine maintenance method.

Predictive quality analytics is the process of extracting useful insights from test data
from various sources by applying statistical algorithms and machine learning to
determine patterns and predict future outcomes and trends.

This data-driven practice is used to predict bottlenecks, failures, error categories,

and productivity drags across testing projects. It helps in determining the future
course of action to improve test outcomes, and finally, software quality. This have
the capability to project data and make proactive decisions.

Predictive quality analytics has statistical algorithms at its core. Some common
functions it uses include:

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  Regression algorithms
 Time series analysis
 Machine learning

Fabric inspection system

A quality control person can detect no more than 60-70% of the present defects, and
cannot deal with a fabric wider than 2 meters. It is observed that the inspection
speed of a fabric woven with an efficiency of even 97% is 30 m/min, and only about
60% of the defects are detected.

DATALOG – Fabric inspection system is a web based system equipped with state of
art micro controller based fabric inspection terminal (fit) with touch screen display /
user specific keyboard that replaces the conventional way of manual recording. A
data of predefined defect and point is installed to this software.

 Inspector with ease can enter fabric defects & points on the fabric inspection
terminal (fit) by gently pressing the pre-defined defect & points.
 The system automatically measures & records fabric length at which the
defect & point has occurred using the shaft encoder connected to fit.
 A computer connected in it-network collects information recorded by inspector
on fit through wireless technology.
 Web based software processes these data from the fit.
 Process includes capturing, sorting, storing, retrieving, calculating and
displaying various user friendly reports & screens.
 This software is also designed with an unique artificial intelligent logic to
generate automatic cutting plan to achieve maximum possible realization from
inspected fabric based grading specifications defined by mills.
 Automatic cutting plan is displayed in graph and text.
 Software comes with inbuilt reports for monitoring productivity, realization and
defect analysis.
 Customised reports can be generated.
 Users can access these information through web browser based on their
access levels from remote locations..
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  System can automatically use different grading standard for different buyer .

CYBER SECURITY AND CYBER PHYSICAL SYSTEMS

The concept of Industry 4.0 has encouraged automation across many industries. It
has globally influenced corporations to develop new technologies that incorporate
features such as artificial intelligence, autonomous robotics, and system integration.
Even though it is an inherent part of the Industry 4.0 model, the complexity of cyber
security has led to its being overlooked by many industrial sectors.

The development of cyber-physical systems - the integration of computing,

networking, and physical processes - is empowering development of infrastructure.
The most common cyber-physical systems are industrial control systems, where
software and hardware combine. These systems are built with both information and
operational technology in mind. However, it is often only information technology that
is associated with cyber security. This is a concern as there are a number of cyber
threats to operational technology, and this is, therefore, a focus throughout this
report.

In the first instance, as apparel manufacturing is centred on process control,

understanding the difference between operational technology and information
technology is crucial for effective cyber security. As with any technology, industrial
control systems can be susceptible to attack through malicious or non-malicious
activity. In apparel manufacturing, regulatory compliance and clear governance
objectives are crucial to minimising risk. When updating old technology, differences
in systems can lead to opportunities for intrusion, as can technology incompatibility.
Risk analysis should, therefore, be high on the agenda, to identify any areas of
vulnerability prior to opportunities for internal or external attack being generated.

If an attack happens, an effective recovery strategy should also be present in the

apparel manufacturing facility, which has been tried and tested by a multifunctional
team who understand the structured countermeasures needed. Developing
awareness of cyber security across a business is also highly valuable, for personnel
at all levels.

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Securing website and also other software applications is very imperative. This would
mean making sure that it will not be prone to hackings. Neither will it be a victim or
target for cyber-attacks. However, to do this, need to implement cyber security
measures. Not only that. the cyber security measures implemented should be
reliable and can genuinely secure your software. Hence, you need to make sure that
it has passed through quality assurance processes and ended up passing. Finally, a
strict QA compliance is vital in cyber security.

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 CHALLENGES FACED BY INDUSTRY 4.0
 Initial investment cost

Cyber physical systems, robotics, virtual reality, 3D product design, wireless sensor
networks, big data infrastructures and their integrations are very costly.

 Privacy and security

Even though there are many studies in the literature that investigate the privacy and
security of digital data, it is still an important issue for many organizations.

 Technical Challenges

The proposed technologies in the scope of Industry 4.0 are relatively new
technologies; therefore the shortage of experienced workers in these technologies is
a serious constraint.

 Lack of a global standard

The lack of a global standard developed for Industry 4.0 causes an important
difficulty.

 Social difficulties

With Industry 4.0, the number of required low-skilled labour force will shift towards
more high-skilled complex jobs which require a more intense focus on emerging
technologies. This brings an important social problem, unemployment. 9

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 CONCLUSION
Today, apparel industries are on the verge of a new industrial revolution named as
4th industrial revolution, and enterprises that successfully adopt this new revolution
can survive in the competitive global market.

Within the scope of this study, the influence of 4 th industrial revolution on quality of
apparels produced in the clothing and apparel sector is analysed. In addition, the
benefits and challenges of Industry 4.0 have been analyzed.

The possibilities of Industry 4.0 are limitless. As more and more manufacturing
machines and components become integrated with sensors and automation
features, the closer Industry 4.0 is implemented in the world of fashion and footwear.
The systems that support Industry 4.0 are getting smarter, better, cheaper and faster
with each passing day, and are poised to elevate better quality apparel
manufacturing and production to a higher level of efficiency, productivity and
competitiveness than ever before.

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