Ai & China's Textile Industry: Speed and Efficiency

"When it comes to economics, president-elect [Donald] Trump has promised to revive American manufacturing, get tough on trade with China, cut taxes and invest in infrastructure." ~ Judy Woodruff

"The vast majority of Americans are employed in service sector industries, and many of those sectors are highly internationalized. The most high-value added sectors, notably the tech sector, is massively globalized. And, for them, it would be a disaster if America's trade policy was to go down a spiraling route towards protectionism." ~ Judy Woodruff

"China's idea of fair trade is government subsidies of its textile and apparel exports to the United States, currency manipulation, and forgiveness of loans by its government banks." ~ Virginia Foxx

China's dominance of global textile manufacture is no longer just a story about low-cost labor and massive scale. Adoption of artificial intelligence over the last few years has been a key game changer, transforming conventional factories into smart production hubs or smart factories. This transformation has helped China to sustain its dominance on speed, efficiency, quality, and innovation despite growing global competition and labour costs.

Automation using AI is at the nucleus of this transformation. Highly advanced systems are utilized for the recognition of patterns, rapid design generation, and robot cutting and stitching, allowing Chinese manufacturers to largely cut short production cycles that once took weeks, one can now accomplish in a few cases, hours with minimal human touch!

AI powers real-time quality monitoring, too. Machine learning sensors and high-speed cameras identify defects during production thus decreasing waste and delivering higher consistency. Even AI predictive maintenance can forecast equipment failures before they occur, reducing factory downtime cost and improving factory shipments to companies such as Amazon.

With the use of data analytics in retail outlets in real time China is in the lead position for the fast fashion sector where speed of product to shelf counts. Moreover, AI is a friend to the sustainability movement, maximizing energy usage, reducing overproduction, reducing wastage, and being more precise with textile chemicals such as colour dyes that can be issues that international buyers and government watchdogs are paying more attention to.

In a nutshell, China's use of AI has been a game changer for the textile industry. It has turned speed into a strategic advantage, allowing Chinese producers to think faster, act smarter, and dominate the world not just in terms of numbers, but in terms of AI manufacturing technology as well.