Streamlining Productivity with Apparel Automation

Many technologies, such as robotic arms, automatic pick-and-place systems, robotic process automation, and software tools, among many others, help increase apparel manufacturing productivity.

FREMONT, CA: Many industries have benefitted from Industry 3.0, such as aerospace, pharma, and automobiles, but the apparel manufacturing industry has not yet realized its full potential. If someone mentions 'automation' in the apparel industry, it is likely that most decision-makers still think it is about robots working on the shop floor, but this isn't true.

The following definition of automation in manufacturing can be summarized based on an analysis of hundreds of definitions of automation coined by different organizations and reports. Automation is the use of equipment to automate a process or system. Ultimately, manufacturing automation aims to reduce costs while increasing production capacity.

AI sets standards with automation in fabric inspection: A major shift is occurring in the traditional method of fabric inspection, which has been done manually for decades. Currently, special equipment replaces manual labor in inspecting and classifying fabrics, counting their defects, and storing the entire detailing for future use, carried out before garment production. Fabric defect detection technology has existed for years, but few companies are now foraying into AI-driven technology to inspect fabrics.

AI sets standards with automation in fabric inspection: A major shift is occurring in the traditional method of fabric inspection, which has been done manually for decades. Currently, special equipment replaces manual labor in inspecting and classifying fabrics, counting their defects, and storing the entire detailing for future use, carried out before garment production. Fabric defect detection technology has existed for years, but few companies are now foraying into AI-driven technology to inspect fabrics.

Automats, pick and place systems: The fact remains that there is still no complete automation of the sewing process of a huge number of apparel commodities, but there are some innovations that serve the same purpose through advances in the sewn industry. All of these advancements aim to reduce human intervention in factories as they should simplify complicated and arduous processes historically handled by labor.

Automation in Measurement Inspection: Daily measurements of garments in a factory take hundreds of hours, yet there is no guarantee that the measurement is accurate and that the garment will succeed at its receiver's end. Traditional measurement methods are prone to human error, which creates mind-bending situations for quality inspectors most of the time. A traditional apparel factory's measurement challenges negatively impact profitability. The manual measurement system is one of these challenges due to its high time consumption. Hand-measuring a single garment, recording the data, and entering the data into a computer program take around five minutes on average. The time will be longer if the product is simple enough to measure.