Eugen Solowjow, who oversees a project at a Siemens lab in San Francisco that has been working on automating textile manufacturing since 2018, said that clothing is the final trillion-dollar industry that hasn’t been mechanized. Can a machine ever produce your blue jeans? A covert investigation is being conducted by clothing and technology businesses like Germany’s Siemens AG and Levi Strauss & Co. 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.
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 by Reuters.
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. In order to assist traditional manufacturers in figuring out how to apply the new technology, Siemens collaborated with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute in Pittsburgh, which was founded in 2017 and is supported by the Department of Defense. They discovered a San Francisco start-up with an innovative solution to the floppy fabric issue. Sewbo Inc., a startup, stiffens the fabric with chemicals so that it may be handled more like a car bumper during production, as opposed to teaching robots how to handle cloth. After completion, the stiffening agent is removed from the completed garment by washing. Eventually, a number of clothing firms joined this research initiative, including Levi’s and Bluewater Defense LLC, a small military uniform manufacturer based in the United States. The Pittsburgh Robotics Institute provided them with funding totaling $1.5 million so they could test the technique.
Other initiatives to automate sewing factories exist. A Georgia-based business called Software Automation Inc. has created a machine that can sew T-shirts, for example, by pulling the fabric over a surface with appropriate equipment. Eric Spackey, CEO of uniform manufacturer Bluewater Defense, participated in the research project with Siemens, but he has reservations about the Sewbo method. According to Spackey, “putting (stiffening) material into the garment—it basically adds another procedure,” which raises costs. However, he adds that it might make sense for producers who already wash clothes as part of their routine operations, like jeans manufacturers.
After studying the Sewbo machines, Sanjeev Bahl, who founded the Saitex small jeans factory in downtown Los Angeles two years ago, is getting ready to set up his first trial machine. Bringing robots into clothes manufacturers is the first step. In September, as he led the way through his plant, he pointed out employees stooped over antiquated equipment and declared that many of these activities were suitable for the new method. He asserted, “If it succeeds, I don’t see any reason why we can’t resume large-scale (jeans) manufacture here in the United States.”
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