Accelerating the development of new quality productive forces is an essential part of high-quality development. It is a strategic choice to seize the commanding heights of a new round of global technological revolution and industrial transformation, open up new fields and tracks for development, cultivate new driving forces for development, and enhance new competitive advantages.

New productive forces stimulate strong momentum for high-quality development, not only solidifying the foundation of modern industrial systems, but also accumulating potential for future development. Walking in textile clusters, industrial parks, and enterprise workshops, one can see the high-end, intelligent, fashionable, and green development of the textile industry. Starting today, Textile and Apparel Weekly has launched a column on "Improving Quality" to "New", allowing us to trace the origin of the birth of new textile productivity from the story of the development of the textile industry; Witnessing the flourishing process of new quality productivity in China's textile industry from the changes in cutting-edge fields.

The integration of data and intelligence is a new economic concept proposed by China based on the characteristics of the era of economic development, and it is an advanced form of technological innovation and development. As China's clothing industry embarks on a new journey of becoming a "fashion powerhouse", digitalization is leading elements such as brand building and collaborative innovation in the industry chain, forming the core force for the future development of enterprises. Its leading role is also guiding enterprises to gain more initiative in the market.

The rapid development of digital productivity has not only reshaped production methods, but also profoundly changed the business logic and value system of clothing enterprises.

Digitization is still in its early stages

When exploring the evolution of the clothing industry in the new era, Chen Dapeng, Vice President of the China Textile Industry Federation and President of the China Clothing Association, clearly pointed out that the overall trend of transformation, upgrading, and high-quality development in the clothing industry will not change. "The rapid development of technology has brought about tremendous changes and disruptive innovations in various fields of human society. Transformation is the change in industrial form, and the application of new technologies in various links of the industrial chain is driving and giving birth to significant changes in industrial production paradigms, organizational methods, and business models. The sustained innovation power of enterprises comes from the support of technological innovation and the modernization of the industrial chain."

This is precisely the core requirement of digitalization in the current clothing industry, which is to build a modern industrial chain of Chinese clothing, take technological innovation as the cornerstone of transformation and upgrading, and use digitalization to achieve intelligent control and lean management of the entire process from fabric to finished clothing; Using factor allocation as a guarantee, we will build a "digital management+intelligent equipment" model to achieve maximum utilization of resources, optimal allocation of manpower, and highest efficiency improvement; Taking industrial upgrading as the key, we are moving towards the path of sustainable development.

Regarding this, Professor Wen Lisheng from Donghua University has subdivided digital transformation into five stages: standard level, scenario level, domain level, platform level, and ecological level. He pointed out that the overall level of digitalization in Chinese enterprises is still low, and the same is true for clothing enterprises. More than 90% of enterprises are still in the initial stage of digitalization, that is, standard level. To achieve intelligence, especially in intelligent manufacturing factories, there is still a long way to go.

"Nowadays, the technology requirements for intelligent factories based on digitalization are very strict. It integrates digitalization and data based on product design, process planning, planning and control, manufacturing operations, production tracking and feedback, etc. to form an overall architecture of intelligent factories based on digitalization. It is indeed very difficult to achieve such digitalization transformation goals," explained Wen Lisheng.

The specialization and functional division of labor in the clothing industry, which emerged from the industrialization era and has continued to this day, has not only improved efficiency but also fragmented the overall structure of enterprises, making organizational management increasingly fragmented. This organizational approach still presents a new round of digital fragmentation after undergoing information construction.

Fearless on the journey, starting from the bottom for change

The road ahead is long, but in the journey driven by digitization, some enterprises have already taken the lead, and Changzhou Hualida Clothing Group Co., Ltd. is among them. Through comprehensive digitization in multiple fields such as research and development, production, service, and management, Hualida has embarked on a journey of deep transformation.

Nowadays, Hualida has standard working hours for each process. Hualida's IE department manager, Ji Xuefeng, said, "The standard working hours for collar fitting are now 54 seconds, and we have set it according to the '28 principle', which means that 80% of frontline employees can reach or exceed this speed. This set of standard working hours is not only the cornerstone of Hualida's digitalization, but also a guarantee of its scale and rapid response ability.".

Hualida has a wonderful "digital journey": the independently developed workstation and industrial Internet identification code record every step of fabric from cutting to delivery; The RFID chip sewn on the washing label carries the full cycle data of ready to wear from store entry to sales, achieving a transformation from "production to sales" to "sales to production". In 2023, digital transformation will increase Hualida's overall production efficiency by at least 20% and reduce costs by 10%.

The Red Bean Men's 5G Intelligent Fully Connected Factory has shown another intelligent scene. The order automatically enters each production process, and inspectors use hanging PADs to ensure product quality. Suits are efficiently transferred between sewing and ironing workshops, and workers use "needle butlers" to achieve self-service needle changing. After intelligent transformation, the inventory of the red bean suit intelligent factory has been reduced by 30%, the unit consumption cost has been reduced by 10%, and the production efficiency has been improved by 32%. Behind this, it is not only the fruitful result of the intelligent construction of red beans, but also a manifestation of their innovation to activate consumption power.

From bottom to top, integrating to create a new situation

In the process of digital transformation, clothing companies often focus first on the benefits brought by the transformation, and then on whether they can connect more consumers and establish an organizational culture centered around consumers. How to effectively utilize various types of digitalization, gather and form the overall wisdom of enterprises, has become one of the core propositions for the survival and sustainable development of enterprises.

From the bottom to the top, relying on the e-commerce service model, clothing e-commerce extends from the consumer end to the production end, and also opens a new era of online services in the whole process of the enterprise chain, becoming a model of domestic enterprises' Internet pioneer.

With the deep integration of e-commerce and clothing enterprises, intelligent manufacturing and personalized customization have become important trends. Brand clothing manufacturers have successively laid out "cloud manufacturing" platforms, leading to the rapid rise of cloud manufacturing collaborative services.

The Alibaba Rhino Intelligent Manufacturing Platform, through infrastructure such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things, connects clothing industry insights, sales forecasting and design, production and manufacturing, and provides end-to-end digital solutions. Starting from consumer demand, it creates independent digital customization services and empowers multiple domestic clothing factories.

In addition, Qingdao Kute Intelligent Co., Ltd. has also achieved C2M scale customization services; Mastery Group, relying on AI technology, can design 10000 non repetitive scarves for everyone worldwide; Baoxiniao Holdings Co., Ltd. has created a "Cloud Wing Intelligent" platform to carry out large-scale personalized customization, reducing delivery time from 15 days to 7 days and reducing material and energy consumption by more than 10%.

While digitization is reshaping the logic of the clothing industry, it is also spawning new projects, and a new model of "shared factories" is being widely promoted. Unlike traditional contract manufacturing models, shared factories collaborate with various clothing production enterprises, relying on digital analysis to coordinate the production line gaps of each enterprise, forming a "virtual joint factory" production model, truly achieving capacity and order sharing, and improving production efficiency.

It is reported that clothing production enterprises only need to place orders through mobile phones, and the platform can automatically calculate the cost of cutting after receiving it. The tasks can be quickly distributed to the processing center, and the fabric is transported to the processing center. After cutting is completed, it flows back to the factory through logistics, and settlement and payment can be completed online.

After the "1688 Taoyuan Factory" platform, the "shared factories" of clothing enterprises in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, Zhongshan, Guangdong, and Shishi, Fujian are also rapidly developing. Even under the epidemic that year, Fujian Shishi Clothing's "shared factory" had over 120000 overseas clothing orders launched for production, and the factory's operating rate increased from 60% to over 90%.

Until today, the changes, pains, and surprises brought by digitalization to the clothing industry are still just the beginning. Looking ahead, digital technology will promote the comprehensive integration of new research and development, new manufacturing, new factories, new trade, and new retail throughout the entire industry chain. New models such as online services for research and design, collaborative supply chain services for manufacturing, "shared factory" services for production, and smart store services for retail will be implemented throughout the country.

Source: Textile and Clothing Weekly