TEXTILE 4.0 The Second Edition International Conference gets an overwhelming response from Indian Textile & Garment industry, same as the First Edition.
The Textile Association of India (TAI), Mumbai Unit has the distinction of organising the international conferences on the emerging areas of Textile Trade and industry. During March 2018, TAI Mumbai Unit organised an international conference on “Textile 4.0; a first of its kind in Asia and perhaps the second in the world to bring home the concept and its relevance to global competitiveness. During Industry 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, the technological development was seen by leaps and bounds. The Industrial Revolution 4.0, in fact, began in 2007. The new industrial revolution 4.0 is characterised by a confluence of emerging technology breakthroughs, including mobile connectivity, artificial intelligence, Internet of things, next-generation robotics, 3D printing, wearable and genetic engineering, nanotechnology, advanced materials, biotechnology and others. These technologies, combined and connected, will transform manufacturing and production systems with unprecedented speed and scope, impacting business models, economic growth, employment and sustainability. Hence, Industry 4.0 stands for intelligent production and new business models. The aim is on increasing productivity, flexibility and efficiency. Industry 4.0 or I 4.0 is already being implemented in India, through joint ventures & collaborations.
After the successful event of March 2018, there have been queries from different parts of India to organise the Second Edition on the Textile 4.0. Since concepts were discussed in the earlier event, it was thought appropriate to take the Second Edition on the same theme with a view to addressing implementation of it in a different segment of textile and apparel value chain. This was the background for this Conference Textile 4.0 – Second Edition. It was organised on 7th February 2019 at Hotel, The Lalit, Andheri (E), Mumbai.
Inauguration function included Sanjay Jain, Chairman, CITI as Chief Guest, Dr M. R. Ravi, IAS, Commissioner for Textiles, Government of Karnataka as Guest of Honour and Amir Sheikh, Senior Consultant, Gherzi Consulting Engineers P. Ltd as Key Note Speaker. It was graced by T. K. Sengupta, National President, TAI, Vilas Gharat, President, TAI Mumbai Unit, V. C. Gupte, Chairman, TAI Mumbai Unit, G. V. Aras, Conference Chairman, T. K. Chandra, Conference Adviser and A. V. Mantri, Hon. Secretary, TAI Mumbai Unit.
Vilas Gharat, President, TAI Mumbai Unit, welcomed the Chief Guest Sanjay Jain, President, CITI, Guest of Honour Dr. M. R. Ravi, IAS, the Commissioner for Textiles, Government of Karnataka and the Key-Note Speaker, Amir Sheikh, Senior Consultant, Gherzi Consulting Engineers P.Ltd, Speakers, sponsors and the delegates.
V. C. Gupte, Chairman TAI and the Conference Convener briefed the retrospects of the conference held in March 2018 as a preamble to the current edition of the conference on the topic. He reiterated that the earlier version of our conference was to introduce the subject Textile: 4.0 and its relevance to the enhancement of competitiveness from the global perspectives. It also brought home to address some of the key challenges in terms of gaps, technology upgradation; use of IT-enabled tools and robotics. His retrospects set the tone of the Conference.
G. V. Aras, Chairman of the Conference briefed the coverage of the deliberations programmed in the current version. He emphasized that the topics are so chosen that the entire supply chain starting from spinning, weaving, knitting garments and processing would be deliberated upon in the context of Textile 4.0. He also reiterated that the expert speakers have been requested to collate with the Indian Textile industry with similar case studies of other developed/developing countries.
Amir Sheikh, in his Key Note Address, briefed the context of global competitiveness interalia Textile 4.0. He emphasized that the automation, use of the internet, robotics and artificial intelligence are key factors to prudently managing the manufacturing processes to achieve higher productivity and quality of the outputs. There is a necessity of synergising the machines with artificial intelligence and as such the production machines should comply with the theology of Industry 4.0 or Textile 4.0.
M. R. Ravi, Guest of Honour for the event highlighted the importance of technological advancement and its interface with the industry and policymakers to achieve the envisaged goals of achieving international norms of productivity and quality.
TAI Mumbai Unit has set has set a precedent of felicitating every year, the textile professionals for their outstanding contribution and who have achieved the landmark in their journey in the Textile Industry. Suresh Kotak, Chairman, Kotak & Co. Ltd was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Kotak contributed to Indian Cotton Textile Industry over five decades in various capacities and contributed in the area of the formulation of policies significantly.
Rahul N. Mehta, Managing Director, Creative Casualwear Pvt. Ltd. was honoured with the Industrial Excellence Award. Mehta has long distinguished career & contribution in the garment industry. His outstanding performance in terms of creativity and professional management in garment manufacturing is recognised all over the country, he is also a trainer and motivator. The awards were given by the Chief Guest and the Guest of Honour. The entire gathering greeted the awardees with a standing ovation and applauds.
Sanjay Jain, Chief Guest of the function spoke the relevance of the theme of the conference and opined that TAI Mumbai Unit and CITI could jointly organise similar events in different Textile Clusters to promote the Textile 4.0 across the nation.
Mantri proposed a vote of thanks to all the dignitaries and participants for having attended the conference. Further, he also thanked the sponsors, supporters and all those who have contributed significantly for the success of the event.
The first Technical Session-I covered the theme – ‘Textile 4.0- Implementation’. During this session, four papers were presented. Stefan Winter, Product Manager, Karl Meyer Digital Factory, GmbH presented on” KM.ON – Karle Meyer Digital Solutions”. He said the IT-enabled system developed by Karl Meyer is made up of eight KM.ON solution categories together. The first apps and solutions cover the three areas of management, maintenance and Service. The three areas are K. Management which enables the customer to look at the current production process, regardless of location and in real time. The production data is displayed on the dashboard. This helps in terms of process transparency by delivering the information and also supports decision making and planning with the valid database. Likewise, K. Maintenance supports customers in their own maintenance operation. The third category included K. Service is global and helps its customer to link with Karl Meyer. The remaining categories are being developed to support the digital factory of Karl Meyer.
Jurgan Hanel, Head of Technology Technical Textiles, A. Monforts Textilmaschonen GmbH & Co.KG presented a paper on “Textile Coating Under the influence of the Internet of Things”. He initiated his talk with an introduction to different types of coating machines viz; knife coating, Foam Coating and Roller Coating. Four modules of versatile coating machines including multifunctional, knife coating, rotary screen printing and magnetic roller coating were listed to address the Textile 4.0. Modular Coating “Montex Allround” having the features of the Internet of things, Industry 4.0 Compliant, Fully automatic features along with artificial intelligence was presented. Further, an important finishing machine having an automated control system that can facilitate compliance to Textile 4.0 was discussed in the context of Montex Allround coating machine features.
Samath Fernando, CIO, Hirdaramani Group & CEO, HONE Pvt Ltd, Sri Lanka presented a paper titled “RPA (Robotics Process Automation) and its impact on Apparel/Textile manufacturing Processes”. He discussed on use of robotics and modulation of the manufacturing processes and control of the process parameters in different stages of apparel manufacturer. He stressed on control of process parameters to achieve higher productivity and quality in the apparel manufacturer.
Vikas Sharan, Director-India Operations, Saurer Textile Solutions Pvt Ltd., spoke on “Sustainability in Spinning through Innovation, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT)”. He described the spinning system being supplied by Saurer with solutions for staple fibre processing from bale to yarn on sustainable management mechanism. He emphasized that the spinning systems address energy conservation, economics and ergonomics. Specifically, he illustrated the Carding machine – JSC 326, Zinser Speed Frame- 5A, Ring Spinning Frame -Zinser Impact -72 XL, Auto coner-ACX6 and Rotor Spinning system-Autocoro 9 having features to be Textile 4.0 compliant. The theology of his presentation was to reiterate developments of Saurer group to meet the challenges of Textile 4.0.
The Second Technical Session-II was devoted to the Implementation of Textile 4.0 in Garment Manufacturing.
Vikas Banduke, Vice President, Textile Engineering – Automation, A.T.E. Enterprises presented a paper on “How to make existing machines Compliant to Textile 4.0”. The paper attracted the attention of the gathering especially due to an appropriate solution to approach compliance to Textile 4.0. Microprocessors and Software systems which are ‘make specific’ call for replacement with the supply from the original manufacturer/supplier. M/s A.T.E. has done in-house R&D to replace with user-friendly software incorporated to make the machines meet the requirement of the Textile 4.0. Vikas Banduke presented different case studies wherein the approach has yielded positive results proving the point that the installation of new machines with high capital is not the only solution for compliance to Textile 4.0.
Felix AK Pinto, Sales Director, South Asia, South East Asia and ANZ, X-Rite Incorporated presented a paper on “Next level of Virtualisation for Textile Industry, Total Appearance Capture from X-Rite”. He initiated his talk on the journey of X-Rite in the assessment of appearance and colour on a substrate with special reference to textile fabrics. With the advent of microprocessors and IT-enabled software, the journey has been so fascinating that it is “simply seeing is believing”. As quality assurance and decision support system in colour management, he collated how these are compliant to Textile 4.0.
Ronnie Hagin, CEO, Datatex Group presented a paper titled “Industry 4.0- Textile Reality from buzz to opportunity”. He started his deliberation with the background of Datatex as software development and facilitation organisation since 1987. Industry 4.0 encompasses the robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of things and interface with various types of manufacturing machines. Mechanization of the operations was the first step, while automation with IT-enabled systems according to him has become a reality under the Industry Revolution Textile 4.0. Some of the case studies from different parts of the globe wherein his company has been part was illustrated to bring home that Industry 4.0 or Textile 4.0 is a reality, not simply a buzz word.
In the last Technical Session which covered the Risk Management two papers were presented. The first paper was pertaining to price fluctuation of cotton and its management and another paper was on the fluctuation in dollar price and its management.
Badruddin Khan, Sr. Manager-Product Management Team, Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) presented a paper on “Cotton Price Risk Management”. He discussed the concept of ‘commodity exchange’ in the context of different types of commodity markets including spot markets, forward markets and future Trading. He emphasized on future trading as a means to manage the risk of price variation within a specific time period. Transparency, security to the seller to contain with the price fluctuations, warehouse facilities, Hedging etc were illustrated with various examples based on the trading done under MCX. It was brought out that in addition to the transparent system of Textile 4.0 using IT-enabled Systems, MCX can be a better facilitator for the trading of the commodity and manage risk especially the cotton which is a major raw material base for the textile manufacturing.
Sajal Gupta, Head- Forex & Rates, Edelweiss Securities Limited made a presentation on ‘Managing Forex Risk in Extreme Volatility’. He initiated his presentation with the impact of dollar fluctuation on the overall business operations either in export or import of goods. He introduced the concept of benchmarking through strategic price for the foreign currency. In order to contain with the currency fluctuation, he presented the Edelweiss Hedge Optimiser Model to the audience. Available hedging tools for managing the forex risk especially during extreme volatility were presented. Business ethics through transparent management of forex risk, according to him is the acceptable solution even under extremely volatile market force conditions.
The conference was well received with attendance of over 350 participants. The cross-section of participation was Pan-India. The participants opined that the theme of the international conference was quite opted and time tested for moving forward to address challenges under Textile 4.0. In this pursuit, the conference organised by TAI Mumbai Unit presented the perspectives of industry 4.0 including the international opinion, Technology, Raw material base with stringent quality requirements for automated manufacturing technology and machine design and assembly with Software enabled operations to achieve the high quality, productivity and the future consumer demand.
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