Clothing is a traditional industry. How will garment factories survive in the 5G era? Hempel International, which has a history of 28 years, has realized the perfect combination of flexible production and intelligent manufacturing with the help of Zhejiang Mobile’s 5G network. It has transformed from a traditional clothing factory that has been doing one order for three years to one that serves Internet celebrities and new retail. The new garment factory that “runs small orders quickly” is currently running at full capacity with orders.
Large orders disappeared all of a sudden, and small orders of 200 pieces each were not accepted
This year’s new crown epidemic has a negative impact on domestic clothing companies. A big test. Founded in 1992, Hempel International has been working as an OEM for international clothing companies such as Zara and HM, and its orders are relatively stable. But in March this year, just after the Spring Festival, many major customers canceled their orders, and some even didn’t ask for deposits. “The domestic and foreign markets suddenly entered an ice age, without any precautions.” Wu Qiaohui, head of intelligent manufacturing at Hempel International, told Qianbao reporters that this was the first time they had encountered this situation. The sewing machines running in the factory were suddenly all shut down. Stopped.
As the country took the lead in controlling the epidemic, scattered orders were found. Different from the previous order of tens of thousands of pieces, which took three years to complete, this time each order comes with two to three hundred pieces, and the delivery time is only 14 days. Do you want to accept such scattered orders?
In order to survive, Hempel International bit the bullet and placed these small orders. When work started previously, the team leader would hold a loudspeaker and loudly tell the sewing workers what style to make today. One style might last for several weeks. But now there are only two to three hundred small orders in total, which is not enough for a workshop to work in one hour.
How to achieve personalized customization? In June 2020, Hempel International reached a cooperation with Zhejiang Mobile to introduce flexible production and intelligent manufacturing capabilities into Hempel’s production system to fully solve the current industry dilemma. Zhejiang Mobile uses its smart capability platform and joins hands with Hebo International to build the first industrial Internet platform in the fashion manufacturing industry – Hubble Smart 5G+ Cloud Industrial Internet Platform. Based on the concept of “all factors, full industry chain, and full life cycle”, It can meet the needs of garment manufacturing in the new era of “small orders run quickly” and “front shop and back factory”.
“In the past, factories had to use optical fiber network cables, arrange WIFI, and test machines. It took at least two months to start production. Now with mobile 5G modules, it only takes one day to start production. , the machine can also move around and truly walk with its feet.” Wu Qiaohui pointed to the small pad next to an industrial sewing machine and said that this is the mobile 5G module, which is the core of the intelligence of the entire factory.
5G has also brought about huge changes in the production process of Hempel International. Now they are not only a clothing foundry, but also a whole clothing company. Supply chain service provider. “Many of the garment factories we cooperate with are in Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu, with only 50 to 100 people. We can directly transmit to the cooperative factories through 5G. Such factories can produce products on the same day, and new clothes can be delivered within 7 days at the latest. It’s in the hands of consumers.”
5G+ intelligent production, a customized management solution
In the garment manufacturing workshop on the second floor of the Hempel Factory, a set of oversized high-definition screens are placed at the entrance. Data such as shipment volume, yield rate, and order changes are constantly displayed. Beating, this is the 5G+ production site visualization system.
In addition to the display of real-time data, the system can also monitor the safety situation of the production site, such as stacking materials If there are safety issues such as open flames in the area, an alarm will appear immediately on the screen. At the same time, a video of the production process of the latest order will be scrolled on the screen to guide factory employees to adjust the production process according to specific requirements in real time.
This information is gathered into the Hubble Smart 5G+ Cloud Industrial Internet Platform through 5G+ sensors, and then the mobile 5G network with large bandwidth, wide connections, and low latency is used for data processing. And displayed through the screen, the production process management can be visualized and real-time, and management efficiency can be improved.
Beside each sewing machine, there is a small display like a pad. “All our data is uploaded through this machine. Factory management used to be done through desktop computers. Now the management team leader directly uses the pad, and the information transmission and order placement are all directly through 5G. Go ahead.” Wu Qiaohui told reporters.
“We used to be team leaders who organized us together and looked at the computer to learn craftsmanship. Now everyone has a small monitor in front of them, directly The order and process can be displayed, and changes can be made at any time according to the order.” Garment worker Liu Fen comes from Jiangxi.�� told reporters that the new system is as simple and vivid as watching TV, and the daily efficiency has also improved a lot.
The sewing machines configured on the Hubble Smart 5G+ Cloud Industrial Internet Platform are equipped with mobile 5G communication module industrial terminals, which are 5G+ smart looms.
Order changes and style changes obtained when customers place orders will be transmitted to the terminal in the form of instructions in real time. Special sewing requirements will be recorded by the workshop director. , and distributed directly to each terminal through the 5G network, so that the sewing machine no longer only sews clothes, but also produces numbers, and can realize the trinity digital intelligent management model of people, machines, and materials.
With the Hubble Smart 5G+ cloud platform, the order time has changed from the original three months to 15 days or even 3 to 7 days, and the defective rate is expected to be reduced by at least 20%, or even Higher; production efficiency can be increased by 30%, and energy costs can also be reduced by 15% through smart meters monitoring water and electricity.
In the workshop, we also saw small robots busily shuttling on designated routes. If they encounter pedestrians passing by, the robots will automatically stop. Avoid obstacles and transport fabrics to designated workstations in categories with the highest efficiency.
This super cool robot is a 5G+ intelligent logistics robot equipped with a 5G module. Factory managers can directly issue dispatching instructions through the 5G network and control its travel route and behavior. Multiple robots work synchronously and serve more than 200 workstations at the same time.
The factory has already started production while the Internet celebrity is still live broadcasting. 5G+ high-definition live broadcast makes “front shop and back factory” popular
In a corner of Hempel International Factory, an Internet celebrity is conducting a live broadcast. There are more than 10 sample clothes in her live broadcast room, all of which are “lonely clothes” that have just been printed by the designer. Taste”.
“After her live broadcast, she might sell two to three thousand pieces, and each piece of clothing might only have one or two hundred pieces. We directly distributed the orders on the spot through the 5G network to Henan, Small factories in Jiangxi, Anhui and other places, and while they are still selling goods through live broadcasts here, the factories there have already started production.” Wu Qiaohui told reporters that Internet celebrity live broadcasts have profoundly changed the traditional clothing processing factory model.
The Hubble Smart 5G+ Cloud Industrial Internet Platform System can use the high-definition camera device to directly present the panoramic view through the large bandwidth and low latency characteristics of 5G. Get the best live broadcast effect on the Internet. At the same time, order requirements during the live broadcast will also be transmitted to the backend through the system in real time, further improving the factory’s order production efficiency.
The “whole process” from receiving orders via live broadcast, to breaking down the data and transmitting it to the smart terminal sewing machine, and finally producing the finished product, can be completed within a week. Since the beginning of this year, the COVID-19 epidemic has continued to spread around the world, severely damaging the world economy. However, the number of factory orders has not declined, but has increased by 20%.
It is reported that Zhejiang Mobile also uses blockchain technology to digitize the main information of clothing and store it in the blockchain. As long as you scan the QR code, any link in the entire process including clothing fabrics, origin, production date, production standards, washing instructions, etc. can be truly traced, further enhancing the credibility of the product.
A 5G+MEC edge computing cloud platform has also been built in the factory, which can use 5G’s unique network slicing technology according to the differentiated requirements for network service quality in different production scenarios and different businesses. Flexibly configure network resources to meet the network requirements of various scenarios. All data is sent directly to the edge cloud platform without leaving the campus, realizing the construction of a lean digital factory.
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