Textile and Apparel: Data Driven Recreating New Value of Industry
Qingdao's textile and garment industry is undergoing an industrial transformation that extends from manufacturing to technical design and brand marketing.
Labor and land costs continue to rise, and many cost-sensitive orders “run” to Southeast Asia; the “sword of Damocles” of environmental protection hangs high, and market players adjust accordingly; the rise of trade protectionism and the impact of the global epidemic have led to A new round of market volatility... However, every ancient industry that has undergone changes does not lack evolutionary experience. When digitalization is becoming a watershed between the "tradition" and "emerging" of the industry, the textile and apparel industry has also ushered in another rebirth from the ashes.
In the past two years, there have been two types of people in Qingdao's textile and garment industry traveling from north to south—engineers and designers.
Textile and garment factories are becoming the battlefield of engineers' "digital transformation". Workers are not seen in the huge printing and dyeing workshop, replaced by various conveying pipelines and automated equipment. There are no tailors in the garment cutting workshop, and laser scanning is used for one-click molding.
In the eyes of more and more designers, the advantages of unobstructed outer circulation allow new fabrics and fashionable colors to gather here. Qingdao is a city that can inspire creative inspiration.
Qingdao's textile and apparel industry is undergoing an industrial transformation that extends from manufacturing to technical design and brand marketing. Due to data-driven updates and iterations, the industrial chain and supply chain is becoming stronger and stronger. The "legged" industry takes root here, and intends to play a more active role and create new value in Qingdao's journey to deeply integrate into the new development pattern.
The "digital revolution" in the workshop
Mechanization and automation have brought industry into the era of machine production. As a result, manual production has become “traditional” and machine production has been called “new development”. With the gradual maturity of digital and information technology, manufacturing workshops that simply use mechanization have been labeled as "traditional", and digital factories and smart factories that use emerging technologies have become today's emerging industries.
keenly capturing every change in trend can be said to be one of the characteristics of the textile and apparel industry. This time is no exception. A "digital workshop revolution" is emerging in Qingdao.
If it is said that when Coolte Intelligence proposed the concept of large-scale personalized customization in 2003, many companies in the industry still believed that intelligent manufacturing is not enough to quench the thirst of the near future. Then there are too many unexpected events brought about by an epidemic, and it will be more and more. More companies are eager to try. One of the most direct reasons is the difficulty of recruiting. In fact, this is not a year or two of difficulties, but one year is sad for one year. Therefore, business operators have to think about whether they can replace people with machines to reduce the labor gap.
In the past three years, whether it is the leading enterprise in the textile and apparel industry or the backbone, intelligent transformation and digital transformation have become a consensus. A group of large and medium-sized textile and garment enterprises in Qingdao, such as Jifa, Kute, Xueda, and Haoer, have basically completed the intelligent transformation and upgrading of their factories, and achieved integrated flexible manufacturing of weaving, dyeing and sewing, C2M personalized customization, and collaboration driven by innovation and innovation. Design and other classic cases of intelligent manufacturing that are well-known in the country.
Nowadays, in the intelligent manufacturing of Qingdao's textile and garment industry, there may be some people who “are afraid to do it”, some people “cannot do it”, but almost no one “is unwilling to do it”. A textile company owner sighed: "I never thought that engineers would become the ‘sweet rice cake’ in the textile factory. We wanted to renovate the factory, and the smart device manufacturer’s business was so good that there was no time to take orders."
Manufacturing plant "grows" design ecology
The digitization of the manufacturing site of textile and garment enterprises compiles the operation of printing, dyeing and sewing and consumer preferences into data, which flows on the production line. The accumulation of big data forms new factors of production, which makes the value of each link on the "smile curve" change accordingly, and narrows the distance between design supply and consumer demand.
As a representative of technologically innovative enterprises in Qingdao's textile and garment industry, Jifa Group is making every effort to move up the value chain. In the view of Chairman Yang Weidong, digital and intelligent transformation have solved the "hardware" problem that affects technological innovation. This year, Jifa Group will build an open technology innovation platform-Jifa Innovation Center around the research and development and design of needle woven fabrics. Yang Weidong said, “On this platform, external designers and internal technical personnel can participate in the R&D and design of fabrics, that is, open R&D data and tools to the entire industry, which will form a new type of appreciation, enjoyment, and reward for innovation. group Culture."
As the representative of Qingdao textile and apparel industry Internet + platform enterprises, the industrial Internet ecological development promoted by Coolte Intelligence is ushering in an accelerated period of implementation. On May 17, Coolte’s children's clothing brand "Magic Factory" was officially launched. According to the plan, the company will establish a smart production line for casual wear such as sweaters to enter the sweater market. Chairman Zhang Yunlan believes that the empowerment of the C2M industry Internet ecological platform is two-way, not only providing rapid response services for consumers' individual needs, but also becoming a creative realization platform for independent designers. Zhang Yunlan said: "From R&D to ready-to-wear, Coolte has a very mature system. At present, we have built a designer entrepreneurship platform and believe that more and more designers can realize their dreams in the future."
Openness is the great advantage of Qingdao's development, and it also contains the greatest potential for the development of Qingdao's textile and garment enterprises. "Improving the design capabilities of enterprises through the acquisition of overseas design studios, and improving the R&D capabilities of enterprises' cutting-edge fabrics through international cooperation are the development paths explored by the powerful Qingdao textile and garment enterprises in recent years." Guo, Secretary-General of the Municipal Textile and Apparel Industry Association According to Ruijiang, in order to adapt to the new development pattern of "double cycle", technological innovation and design empowerment have become the "advanced choice" for more and more large and medium-sized textile and garment enterprises.
Docking "New Retail"
It's time to re-understand Qingdao's textile and garment industry.
"Foreign trade-oriented Qingdao enterprises were greatly affected by the international financial crisis in 2008. From 2010 to 2012, under the support of policy guidance and a sound industrial foundation, their performance bottomed out. Since then, With major changes in the macroeconomic situation at home and abroad, the entire industry is in a period of in-depth adjustment and transformation, and finding new ways is a common topic for enterprises.” Guo Ruijiang introduced that vertical integration strategy is the first choice of large enterprises, but Qingdao has more than 3,000 companies. The opportunity for small textile and apparel companies to take advantage of digital transformation depends on the marketing side.
In Qili Building, Shinan District, Qili Group, together with the Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology and the Municipal Textile and Apparel Industry Association, jointly initiated the establishment of a live broadcast incubation base for clothing e-commerce in Qingdao. Relying on Qili's efficient supply chain capabilities and connecting the needs of more association member companies, the "net celebrity" anchors can provide one-stop product selection, live broadcast, fast return to order supply, warehousing, logistics and other services here.
Textile and Apparel: Data Driv
