The key to the growth of China's apparel manufacturing - intelligence

“Smart Manufacturing”The key features of“Smart Manufacturing”? There are various concepts and terms to interpret in academia and the industry. Taking the apparel industry as an example, we often buy clothes from offline stores or e-commerce platforms. A shirt with a version usually has 4-5 sizes. There are about 4 different colors, so a shirt can only have up to 20 options for customers to choose from. And manufacturers only need to schedule manufacturing plans, purchase raw materials and produce according to these preset options. In the era of intelligent manufacturing, customers will place orders directly with brand manufacturers through the Internet. Users only need to input height, weight, and some physical characteristics, and then they can get the precise net size of the human body. At the same time, customers can also make maximum personalized choices for almost all configurations such as collar, sleeve, pocket, version, placket, and embroidery according to their preferences. Orders will be sent directly to the factory through ERP, and will be produced and delivered to users in a short period of time. At the same time, customers can use Internet tools and VR technology in the digital world“try on”Clothes that have not yet been produced. Each node is visible, and customers can track production at any time after placing an order. Not only that, the entire manufacturing process will no longer be done centrally by one manufacturer, but by decentralized upstream and downstream“Manufacturing Alliance”Work together to complete. Combining cases and commonalities, we can roughly summarize some key features of intelligent manufacturing: 1. The transformation from large-scale mass production to small individual customized production (production flexibility); 2. Information transparency and rapid response (production capacity digitization, Process visualization, process internetization); 3. Transformation from centralized production to remote collaborative production (decentralization). What about the final form? Not sure yet. After all, the development of intelligent manufacturing is a long-term and gradual process. But one thing is certain: the cornerstone of intelligent manufacturing is the construction of the Industrial Internet on the basis of digitization. The bigger you do, the faster you die? Around 2000, automated sewing machines, cutting machines, dyeing and printing and other automated equipment began to be popularized in factories, and production efficiency increased rapidly. With the opening of China's foreign trade market, garment factories rely on“foreign trade order”The day was very smooth. Since 2005, the development of PC-side software, office software and hardware equipment has gradually been completed, and factories have increasingly used IT solutions in the management process. Annunciation Bird and other pioneers in the deep transformation of garment factories, the stories of these reformers continue to this day. The economic recovery after the financial crisis in 2008 and the prosperity of domestic e-commerce gave survivors new opportunities: around 2013, the fast fashion clothing supply chain represented by the wholesale market ushered in new prosperity. In the ten years from 2008 to 2018, many factories shouted“transformation”,in reality“hungry”: Some are doing OEM, making some profits on the surface and accessories; some have become the foundry of Tao brand; some have gone directly to“Piracy”the road. The Sino-US trade war, the return of clothing production to Europe, rising raw material prices, labor difficulties, heavy taxation, environmental inspections... It is really difficult to be a clothing manufacturing boss under internal and external difficulties. Consumers are changing, pursuing personalized consumption expressions, and the mobile Internet has further narrowed the distance between brand owners and consumers, resulting in clothing moving towards“Fast iteration, small batch, multiple styles”direction of development.​​“In the past, it was normal for an order of tens of thousands of pieces. Now, many original designer brands that are just starting out only make a dozen or dozens of pieces. This kind of list is not easy to take.”Factories that used to rely on scale to make profits cannot maintain a balance of payments once the order volume declines. In this context, the flexible supply chain that has returned to the small workshop and small unit production model has instead moved upstream, which has also spawned the idea behind the wholesale stalls of Guangzhou Thirteen Lines.“Quick Reverse Factory”As the representative“Hurry up”. Guangzhou Thirteen Lines is adjacent to the largest fabric accessories market in Asia——Zhongda Fabric City, surrounded by a large number of“Quick Reverse Factory”, The stalls are directly connected with these factories. From design, pattern making to production and delivery, it takes an average of 3 days to complete, not more than 10 days.