Politicians may be tough or convincing in their speeches, but in the end they don't show the will to confront the great debate over mass automation and the inevitable displacement of humans from those jobs. Meanwhile, big names in the market don't waste time. The latest news indicates that Tianyuan Garments Company, Adidas' main producer, has just reached an agreement with SoftWear to install 21 production lines based on its Sewbot robot, with a total capacity of 800,000 T-shirts per day.
A vulnerable industry
The textile industry is one of the most vulnerable and, at the same time, one of the most questioned. Exploitation, slave labor, low wages... its problems don't cease, and everything indicates that they will seek to eradicate them at the root through full automation.
The Sewbot production lines
SoftWear Automation, based in Atlanta, reached an agreement with Tianyuan Garments Company (or "TGC", the largest clothing producer for Adidas), and its goal will be to develop 21 production lines at the plant TGC recently acquired in Arkansas. These lines will be based on the Sewbot robot, which cuts and sews different types of fabric using a combination of mechanical arms, optical recognition cameras, and rollers. Creating a robotic seamstress is not easy, because fabric stretches and folds during the manufacturing process, and humans can compensate for any problem "on the fly". Still, TGC president Tang Xinhong enthusiastically declared that once completed, the system will achieve production of 800,000 T-shirts a day, and with full automation, the "personnel cost" per shirt will be just 33 cents.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/zI7u9V5aYt4Checking the math
The information highlights that Arkansas has made great efforts to become an attractive place for Chinese investors, and even Governor Asa Hutchinson traveled to China with the intention of polishing the last details of TGC's arrival in his state. Now, it's necessary to recognize that the Chinese manufacturer's numbers don't quite add up. Tang Xinhong indeed spoke of 800,000 shirts, but he also said 'one T-shirt every 22 seconds'. The only way to achieve such volume is with ten robots per production line, and we don't have that data.
