APPAREL

MERCHANDISING
ASSIGNMENT-II
SUBMITTED BY:
ARPITA PATHY (BFT/19/565)
PRERNA CHOUDHARY (BFT/19/335)
SUSHREE PRIYABRAT (BFT/19/1286)
The Future of
Robotic Textile
Manufacturing

• As we enter this 4th industrial revolution of

automation through robotics, it’s expected that
“artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and
cognitive computing will directly impact approximately
47% of U.S. jobs.”

• However, the current frontier for robotic textile

manufacturing is limited in scope to relatively simple
pieces made in high quantities. “We’d never do a bridal
dress,” says SoftWear Automation CEO, Palaniswamy
Rajan.

• In another approach to increase supply chain

efficiency, last year Amazon won a patent for an on-
demand apparel manufacturing system that would
stitch your clothing after the order was placed.
• The retail supply chain could be “crushed” by
new technology that would allow consumers to
buy personalized apparel, locally made.

• While there has been much scepticism over

3D-printing and robotics in the logistics market,
now that applications for the technologies are
being found, the future is becoming easier to
predict. And it involves shorter, cheaper supply
chains for fashion logistics.

• Nike, famously, has already been using 3D

printing for customized sports shoes. But
perhaps most critically for the fast fashion
industry, ‘Sewbots’ – something of a mixture of
AI, robotics and 3D printing – could be a true
game-changer.
• He added: “It will crush the retail supply chain.
You can have zero inventory and a batch size of
one. You can’t do that overseas. We enable
seamless commerce from manufacturing to retail.”
• And the technology will root out the vast
majority of returns, the rate of which is between
25% and 50%, and account for one of the more
challenging and expensive parts of the e-
commerce business.
• Returns costs, can be as high as 50%-60% in the
fashion sector.
• At the moment, the technology currently
focuses on easy pickings, such as t-shirts. But on-
demand manufacturing in apparel, with
potentially limitless styles, made locally, could
significantly alter the way fast fashion – and even
slow fashion – moves.
 How Automated
Sewbots Work?

• With at least three patents and several patents pending, SoftWear’s

system uses a highly calibrated machine vision to watch and analyze fabric.
• It detects distortions and robotically adjusts the fabric. It starts with the
programming.
• Then comes the patented machine vision system. It has higher accuracy
than the human eye, “tracking exact needle placement to within half a
millimetre of accuracy.”
• Using this high calibre machine vision and real-time analysis, the robotics
then continually manipulate and adjust the fabric to be properly arranged.
The Pick & Place machine mimics how a seamstress would move and
handle fabric.
• The fabric is moved using two methods. The first is a four-axis robotic arm
that can lift and place the fabric using a vacuum gripper. The second is a
360-degree conveyor system which is a table of embedded spherical
rollers.
• With each roller or Budger Ball moving independently at high speeds, the
rollers can relocate the fabric or smooth the fabric as needed.
• Yet the sewing itself is also done a little differently. The direct sewing
process means that rather than the fabric moving through a stationary
sewing machine, the Sewbots move the needle rather than the fabric.
Li & Fung introduces
‘sewbots’ in supply
chains
• HONG KONG – Global apparel supply chain management and
logistics business, Li & Fung, has partnered with a US company
whose robotics technology can make a t-shirt every 22
seconds – twice as fast as manual sewing.
• The company’s digital t-shirt Sewbot is fully autonomous and
requires a single operator, producing one complete t-shirt
every 22 seconds.
• Many believe that digitizing the production portion of the
supply chain presents a major opportunity for manufacturers
and suppliers.
• It is also believed that this could be at the expense of jobs
that were traditionally done manually.
• The benefits will not only reach suppliers but all the
stakeholders along the supply chain.”
• “Consumers’ demand to get things faster, quicker and more
unique than ever before is only increasing. Together with Li &
Fung, our revolutionary Sewbots will enable the speed needed
for on demand, made-to-measure manufacturing, at scale.”
Sewbots employed
to push ‘Supply
Chains of the
Future’

• HONG KONG – Supply chain solutions

company, Li & Fung, has announced a new
partnership with US digitized technologies
specialist, Soft Wear Automation, in an effort to
accelerate its ambition of creating entirely
digital manufacturing supply chains.
• Harnessing Soft Wear’s autonomous
Sewbots – which are capable of producing a t-
shirt in 22 seconds – the move could prove Li &
Fung’s most instrumental as it strives to create
the ‘Supply Chain of the Future’.
PERKS OF
INTRODUCIN
G SEWBOTS
• REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN FOREVER.​
• On-Demand, Zero Inventory​
• T-shirts you sell are made only when your customer places an order.
• Lightning Fast Delivery Times​
• Enjoy lead times of a few days compared to the months of your current T-shirt supply chain.
• Same Low Cost​
• Make T-shirts locally, on-demand at competitive prices compared to imported T-shirts from low wage
countries.
 BRANDS

• As a brand, it will turn T-shirt designs into physical

products only if sold.
• Generates more revenue from existing assets without
significant investment in product development.
• Saves money and avoid leftover stock—the products you
sell are made only when your customer places an order.
 RETAILER

• As a retailer, you need T-shirts made in large

volumes. With a local supply chain, T-shirt
products travel less—Made on Demand moves
your production closer to your customers.
Harness virtual stock and only produce what you
actually sell resulting in no stock risk, no risk of
stagnant inventory, and no loss of margin to clear
unsold inventory.
 ONLINE MERCHANTS

• Test demand for new T-shirt product designs. They

have an online store and sell T-shirts on ecommerce
platforms. Made-and-Print-on-demand T-shirt
production enables you to cater for trends driven by
social media, such as significant cultural or sporting
moments, events, holidays, or even memes. Delight
customers with T-shirts made and shipped same day as
the order was placed while you reduce your order-to-
cash cycle.
 FEATURES OF SEWBOTS

• Precise machine vision: . Like an

autonomous driving car, cameras and
sensors steer the Sewbot while recognizing
textile distortion and adjusting the material
in real time as it travels through the sew
head, just like a seamstress.
• Automated sewing: Highly accurate
automated sewing enables full control of
material position and allows for optimal
sewing speed, regardless of sewing machine
brand.
• Superior quality: We integrated automated
sewing with our state-of-the-art vision
technology to perform variable types of
stitching, cutting, seaming, and labeling to
perfectly fabricate your T-shirt.
 PRODUCTION
GAINS FROM MANUFACTURING
WITH ROBOTICS

• The automated sewing robots reduced the need

for sewing laborers.
• In addition to lowering costs, the robots will also
increase production. For e.g., A human sewing
line produces 669 t-shirts in eight hours,
compared to the robots at 1,142 t-shirts.
• Using robotics makes the cost of producing a t-
shirt in the U.S. comparable to one that is
produced overseas.
• The robot, working under the guidance of a single
human handler, can make as many shirts per hour
as about 17 humans .
SEWBOTS TRANSFORMING THE SEWN PRODUCTS
INDUSTRY
• Soft Wear Automation offers a family of
SEWBOTS each with a distinct set of skills for
optimal production of various product types.
• Within the textile supply chain, fabrics are cut
and turned into finished products during the
sewn products stage.
• During this stage, materials are transformed
into various products such as high-fashion
apparel, home goods, military dress uniforms,
life-saving medical supplies and airbags, and
more.
• As technology has evolved, the steps in this
cut-and-sew process have become increasingly
automated. Designers now use computer-aided
design software to visualize new products that
are then cut by computer-controlled
technologies capable of making precision cuts
to fabrics ranging from lightweight silks, to
heavy denims, to technical air-bag fabrics.
IMPACT OF SEWING ROBOTS ON
THE TEXTILE MANUFACTURING
INDUSTRY
• Between 2000 and 2010, the U.S. lost 5.6 million manufacturing
jobs.
• However, only 13% of those job losses were a result of moving
facilities offshore. Instead, 85% of the job losses were due to the
“productivity growth” of robotics and machinery.
• It’s predicted that by 2025, the global average of manufacturing
tasks being done by robots will grow from 10% to 25% across all
industries.
• Rather than highlighting how robots are replacing manufacturing
jobs, SoftWear instead spins the conversation to how
manufacturers can “sew local” so as to “geographically shortening
the distance between manufacturing and consumers.”
• With the average garment worker in the U.S. nearing retirement,
disrupting the industry with robotics could be a long term
solution. However, globally, this type of technology would have a
major impact on the Asian manufacturing industry that employs
low wage workers.
• Estimates by the International Labour Organization report that
robots will replace 64% of textile, clothing, and footwear workers
in Indonesia, 86% in Vietnam, and 88% in Cambodia.
CONCLUSION
Solving Problems: On-Demand, Made-To-Measure

• SoftWear Automation envisions an industry that makes clothing based on demand and made-to-measure.

• “Our plans are to go beyond T-shirts to dress shirts, to shorts, into jeans — essentially high-volume basics. If
you are buying high-volume apparel, we want to try and manufacture most of that in the United States
because we want to bring mass personalization with our on demand, made-to-measure initiative.”

• On-demand manufacturing reduces the need for warehouses to maintain high levels of inventory for
products that a consumer may, or may not, want.
• Made-to-measure business models address issues with standardized sizing by allowing consumers to
purchase clothing that fits and works with their body type.
• Solving fit issues also helps to reduce the likelihood of apparel item returns and increases profitability for
retailers.
REFERENCES
https://www.deviceplus.com/trending/sewbot-in-the-clothing-
manufacturing-industry/#How
https://softwearautomation.com/business-of-fashion-the-
sewbots-are-coming/
https://www.tevonews.com/textile-machinery-news/1478-
sewbots-employed-to-push-supply-chains-of-the-future#
https://www.textileworld.com/textile-world/2019/07/sewbots-
transforming-the-sewn-products-industry/