Chinese startup Sewingtech develops robots to automate garment production.
Sewingtech is focusing on the labor shortage in the textile and apparel industry with the aim of improving efficiency. Using these robots, even an ordinary sewing worker with no expertise can operate two machines at the same time so production efficiency will be at least doubled.
Robots are already employed in the labor-intensive sector to make garments, but their use has been limited to simple operations such as laser cutting machines and electric sewing machines.Fabrics can easily stretch or crease. In addition, finishing products -- such as button sewing and positioning of buttonholes -- requires a fair amount of skill.Automated sewing robots can improve production, from fabric treatment to sewing. Some 1,70,000 apparel makers employ 8.26 million workers in China, of which sewing workers make up 60 per cent of the production workforce.
China's textile and apparel industry is in rapid decline as many production orders have been shifted to southeast Asia. In addition, China’s sewing factories are still dependent on skilled workers. But training and mentoring them is not easy, and workers' rising salaries are squeezing company profits.China’s strength lies in its light industry supply chains, with automation becoming increasingly important if the country is to remain competitive in the global garment industry.
