As early as more than ten years ago, Chinese women’s pants were looking at Henan. More than half of the various pants in Chinese women’s wardrobes are “made in Zhengzhou”. As one of the traditional advantageous industries and important livelihood industries in Henan Province, clothing manufacturing has a certain status in the country.
But at the same time, there are not many well-known brands and leading companies in Henan’s garment industry. The total output value is significantly different from that of coastal provinces. Problems such as weak independent innovation capabilities, insufficient digital transformation, and labor shortages are still prominent. In a situation where market competition is becoming increasingly fierce and the industrial structure is fragmented, how should apparel companies make efforts to break through the tight encirclement and become bigger and stronger?
[Status] Look at Zhengzhou for Chinese women’s trousers
On February 14, Huaibin Lingang International Clothing City Sunshine (Henan) Clothing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Sunshine Clothing” ), the smart hanging machine slowly rotates, transporting pieces of semi-finished clothing to the next process. The workers on the assembly line are busy in an orderly manner.
Juanzi lives in Gucheng Township, Huaibin County. She applied for Sunshine Clothing in September last year and has now become the leader of a group in the trousers workshop. “I used to work in a Shanghai garment factory. Now it’s close to my home, making it easy to take care of the elderly and children. The most important thing is that the salary is not lower than working outside.” Juanzi said with a smile. The Huaibin Lingang International Garment City project is a key project in Henan Province in 2020, with an annual output value of more than 10 billion yuan and an annual tax revenue of more than 300 million yuan. In the future, more clothing manufacturing companies will settle here.
In an interview with reporters, Zhang Xun, executive vice president of the Henan Garment Industry Association, said that as “Chinese Women’s Pants Look at Zhengzhou” has become popular across the country, the Zhengzhou women’s pants industry cluster has emerged as “Meng Shuya”. “Yalida”, “Yiyang” and many other “China’s well-known trademarks”.
Zhang Xun told reporters that there are nearly 2,000 women’s pants companies in Zhengzhou, accounting for 50% of the country’s sales. The sales volume of Zhengzhou women’s pants ranks first in the country on all platforms (including e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, Taobao, Vipshop, and Douyin). As of 2022, there are about 600 enterprises above designated size in the textile and garment industry in Henan Province, accounting for about 10% of the province’s textile and garment enterprises, with an annual output of 3.5 billion pieces of various types of clothing and an annual output value of 400 billion yuan. The total volume ranks sixth in the country and in central China. Ranked first among the six provinces.
[Current situation] A new landmark for high-quality development of county economy
At present, garment industry clusters with different characteristics have been formed in various places in Henan, and Nanyang, Shangqiu, Zhoukou, Zhengzhou and Anyang have been cultivated. , Xinxiang, Xinyang, Pingdingshan and other textile and garment industry clusters; forming Zhengzhou women’s trousers, Anyang, Suiyang infant knitted children’s clothing, Xinxiang, Xiangcheng, Changyuan professional clothing, Guangshan, Taiqian down jackets, Zhenping sweaters, Rangdong Traditional characteristic clothing industry clusters such as trousers, as well as transferred agglomeration brand clothing processing industry clusters in Zhoukou, Shangqiu, Xinyang, Qixian and Xiping.
Henan’s garment industry has become a new landmark for the high-quality development of the county economy. Take Baizhuang Town, Beiguan District, Anyang City as an example. The local area mainly produces knitted underwear and infant clothing. In 2020, the city’s textile and clothing industry achieved an operating income of 18.4 billion yuan, with an annual export value of US$50 million. Children’s clothing production accounted for 30% of the national market share, and infant and children’s clothing production between 0 and 3 years old accounted for 70% of the national market share.
Zhang Xun said that Henan Province has now formed a relatively complete textile industry chain system including spinning, chemical fiber, weaving, dyeing and finishing, clothing, home textiles, textile machinery manufacturing and other industries. , becoming a major textile and clothing manufacturing province in the country and an important textile and clothing industry transfer undertaking site in central China.
However, Henan’s garment industry currently lacks large-scale and big leaders, and there are not many companies with an output value of over 100 million. Although the total volume ranks sixth in the country, the GDP of the garment industry in the top five provinces has exceeded 1 trillion yuan, and the GDP of Henan’s garment industry is still 400 billion yuan, leaving a considerable gap. How to break through the production capacity bottleneck, intelligent clothing manufacturing is the only way. Zhang Xun told reporters that clarifying the definition and connotation of automation, networking, informatization and intelligence is of extremely important significance to the promotion and application of intelligent manufacturing technology in the textile and apparel industry.
[Transformation] Industrial transformation ushered in historical opportunities
Zhang Xun told reporters that the garment industry in my country’s coastal areas is already in the late stages of maturity and is facing the challenge of increasingly older and older skilled workers. The number of employees is getting smaller and the cost of factors is getting higher and higher, resulting in lower and lower competitiveness.
Therefore, the transfer of the garment industry to the central and western regions, especially to labor-rich provinces like Henan, has become a general trend. This is also a major historical opportunity for Henan’s garment industry.
The “Textile Industry “14th Five-Year Plan” Development Outline” clearly states that the development of the textile industry will assist the industrialization and urbanization construction in the central and western regions, and continue to improve the industrial system, service facilities and comprehensive investment based on resource conditions. environment, continue to guide leading textile companies to expand investment in the central and western regions, and encourage return to hometowns to start businesses and expand the scale of the textile manufacturing industry.
The “Henan Province’s “14th Five-Year Plan” Investment Attraction and Industrial Transfer Plan” also proposes that traditional agricultural areas such as Zhoukou, Shangqiu, Zhumadian, and Luohe will actively undertake the transfer of projects from Zhejiang and Guangdong by relying on their advantages in consumer markets and labor resources. Labor-intensive enterprises such as food, shoemaking, textile and clothing in Shanghai and other places will accelerate the introduction of processing trade, R&D, design and supporting industries.
Industry insiders pointed out that Henan’s garment industry has lower production costs and opportunity costs, obvious advantages in location transportation and logistics systems, broad market prospects and policy dividends, all of which make it possible.South China has strong competitiveness in undertaking the transfer of the garment industry.
[Transformation] “Digital +” represents a new economic form
As the market picks up and confidence boosts in 2023, “The decisive battle begins at the beginning, and the sprint begins at the beginning.” When it comes down to the production line, it can be summed up in one word: “busy”. The reporter visited a number of garment companies and noticed that with the surge in construction after the Spring Festival, garment factories, large and small, are facing a surge in orders and a serious shortage of manpower.
Wang Long’s small garment processing factory has only twenty or thirty workers and mainly accepts processing orders from some large factories. The order volume in February was twice that of usual, and lack of manpower became a big problem. “I can’t help it. This is a small factory. I can’t have automated production lines like big factories. I still rely heavily on labor.”
Guangshan County Yuheng Clothing Co., Ltd. already has An automated production line. Currently, it has 14 intelligent hanging production lines with an annual output of 550,000 pieces of various down garments. The IT team independently developed the clothing MES execution system and ERP management system, and successfully applied for 8 software copyright certificates and 8 utility model patents. The production efficiency is more than 25% higher than that of traditional clothing manufacturing, and employee wages are increased by more than 30%.
Today, the digital economy has become a new driving force to promote the upgrading and development of real industries. The “Three-Year Action Plan for Digital Transformation of the Textile Industry (2022-2024)” clearly states that we must fully grasp the trends and opportunities for the integrated development of new generation information technology and manufacturing, accelerate the digital transformation and development process of the textile industry, and promote the development of my country’s textile industry. Achieve high-quality development in the middle and high end of the global value chain.
Zhang Xun said that Henan should increase the promotion of the “integration of two informatizations” (industrialization and informatization) of clothing production enterprises, use informatization to manage enterprises, and use intelligent equipment to manufacture products. If Henan’s garment industry wants to build a trillion-dollar industry and build a world factory, it can only strengthen the independent supply of key core technologies such as basic parts and advanced process technologies, constantly make up for the industry’s shortcomings, and build new advantages in the industrial system, such as accelerating the development of intelligent manufacturing. Efforts will be made to improve the innovation capabilities, supply capabilities, support capabilities and application levels of the manufacturing industry.
However, regarding digital intelligence, the attitudes of garment factories are polarized. Some leading companies are vigorously promoting it, but most small and medium-sized enterprises are taking a wait-and-see attitude. A senior person in the industry told reporters that whether it is on the brand side or the manufacturing side, weak awareness of digital transformation and insufficient transformation capabilities are common phenomena.
There are many reasons. Smart systems cost millions, clothing factories are unwilling to use them, the clothing design process is complex, technology cannot solve it for the time being, and there are also problems such as cognitive bias.
To this end, Qiu Daoyin, deputy director of the Henan Provincial Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, said that intelligent manufacturing should run through the entire process of product R&D, design, production, management and service, and even form a business philosophy and management system. Relying on comprehensive advantages such as a complete industrial chain, by establishing an intelligent production system, we will accelerate the transformation and upgrading from low-end to mid-end, and accelerate the transformation from mass production to small batch, multi-batch and personalized production. In this regard, smart manufacturing for apparel companies has a long way to go.
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