Machines
could fuel comeback of textile industry in South, 3/24/19, AJC
ATLANTA (AP) — Machines are transforming
the way textiles are produced — and they could fuel a comeback for the Southern
textile industry.
Automation and artificial intelligence
are revolutionizing the workplace in the United States, as machines perform
tasks once done by humans, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported .
Now, automated sewing could breathe new
life into the South's garment industry, which has been decimated in recent
decades as jobs went to cheaper workers overseas.
But it will look a lot different
than before.
The idea behind one textile
manufacturing plant of the future was dreamed up in a one-story industrial
building on Atlanta's west side. Twenty-four "Sewbots" will soon be
churning out a shirt about every 30 seconds in a new factory in Arkansas.
The fully automated assembly line in
Little Rock, Arkansas, is a closely watched advance in the U.S. textile
industry, as machines produce more clothing.
Suzhou Tian Yuan Garments Co, the
Chinese owner of the new Arkansas plant, has cheap reliable power, proximity to
cotton and well-off consumers. And it opens the way for American-made robots to
compete with low-cost foreign labor, the Atlanta newspaper reported.
The Arkansas plant is expected to
open later this year and employ 400 workers. Many of the positions are for
technicians with coding and electro-mechanical knowledge.
"We want people who can work
with robots," said Palaniswamy "Raj" Rajan, chief executive of
Atlanta-based SoftWear Automation, which designed the Sewbots.
"That is where the new economy
comes in," Rajan said.
The idea behind the Sewbots sprung
from federally funded research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The
government was interested because military equipment, including uniforms, must
be U.S made, the newspaper reported.
In five years, Rajan hopes Sewbots
make 25 percent of the four billion T-shirts sold yearly in the U.S. Only about
2 percent sold in the U.S. are made here today, according to one estimate.
But Rajan's plans don't stop at
T-shirts. He believes SoftWear Automation in the next five years will master
the 70 or more steps for machine-made jeans and dress shirts. All told, he
thinks a robot-driven garment industry could add 50,000 to 100,000 U.S. jobs
over the next decade.
University of Georgia textile
professor and textile expert Greg Vessels calls Rajan's sales goals "quite
optimistic."
Even if those goals are met, the
level of employment in the textile industry would still be far less than what
it used to be, he added.
But the trend toward automation will
continue, experts say.
"Speed and automation is the
key" to staying competitive, said Marty Moran, the CEO of Buhler Yarns and
the chairman of the trade organization the National Council for Textile Organizations.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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