Can a machine ever produce your blue jeans?
A covert investigation is being conducted by clothing and technology businesses, including Siemens of Germany and Levi Strauss & Co.
“Clothing is the last trillion-dollar industry that hasn’t been automated,” said Eugen Solowjow, who heads a project at a Siemens lab in San Francisco that has worked on automating apparel manufacturing since 2018.
During the pandemic, the idea of deploying robots to bring more production home from abroad gained popularity as clogged supply chains revealed the dangers of relying on far-off industries.
If there might be a way to eliminate handwork in China and Bangladesh, more apparel production may return to Western consumer markets, including the US. But that’s a delicate subject.
If there might be a way to eliminate handwork in China and Bangladesh, more apparel production may return to Western consumer markets, including the US. But that’s a delicate subject.
Many manufacturers of clothing are reluctant to discuss the search for automation since doing so raises concerns that workers in underdeveloped nations would suffer. Jonathan Zornow, who invented a method to automate a few processes in denim manufacturing, acknowledged receiving online abuse and even a death threat.
A Levi’s representative confirmed that the brand took part in the project’s early stages but would not elaborate.
THE PROBLEM OF FLOPPY CLOTHES
Automation has a particularly difficult time with sewing. Contrary to plastic bottles or automobile bumpers, which maintain their shape when handled by a robot, cloth is floppy and available in a limitless variety of thicknesses and textures.
Robots simply lack the subtle touch that human hands are capable of. Although robots are developing, it will still be some time before they fully master the handling of fabric, according to five researchers contacted.
What if, though, enough of it could be automated to at least partially reduce the cost gap between American companies and low-cost foreign factories? The current research effort is concentrated on that.
According to Solowjow, work at Siemens began as an effort to develop software to direct robots that could handle various flexible materials, such as thin wire cables. They soon recognised one of the most lucrative targets was clothes.
Independent data provider Statista has assessed the value of the global garment sector at $1.52 trillion.
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