Top apparel makers begin production automation

Country's top entrepreneurs in the readymade garment (RMG) sector are turning to automated production to graduate from the traditional system to increase competitiveness on the international market.
Industry-insiders said the leading entrepreneurs are investing huge money to adopt latest technology, which is helping improve management capacity, quality and delivery systems.
Due to introducing new technology in cutting, knitting, dyeing, finishing and packaging sectors, the need for workers will also be reduced and production cost cut down.
Previously the RMG workers cut fabric manually, or with the cutting machine, which consumes lot of time. But now automated system takes less time, Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, former President Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told the FE.
He said with traditional technology an assistant to an operator could run a sewing machine but due to introduction of new technology the employee can run a number of machines without helper.
For this reason, most of the entrepreneurs are showing interested in introducing latest technology.
He said in recent times most of new entrepreneurs in knitwear, including woven sector, are introducing jacked and lean machine which can very fast ensure quality products.
The opening of L/C for import of textile machinery increased by 15 per cent in July-August period of the current fiscal year (2014-15) over the same period of last fiscal year (2013-14 ), the central bank figures showed.
The value of L/Cs opened against textile machinery stood at $90 million and settlement stood at $54 million during the period.
In the corresponding previous period, the figures were $75 million and $66 million respectively, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data.    
Talking to the Financial Express, Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of BGMEA, said: "We have a plan to introduce new technology at my factory to bring efficiency at all levels".
He said in recent times most of modern industries are being set up with new automated systems and most manufacturers are casting aside their traditional methods.
Due to increased competitive power, most of the garment-manufacturing units, including cutting, knitting, dyeing and finishing, are turning to the new technologies.
Faruque Hassan, managing director of Giant Group, a leading RMG manufacturer, said their company wants to introduce enterprise resource planning (ERP), a business-management software.
He said most multinational companies and many local business houses now adopt the ERP, so do most garment manufacturers.
He said they want to hire a specialist to develop ERP aiming to ensure better management and production systems.
Mr Faruque said their company is making leading international buyers' products and fulfill their requirements by using sophisticated European and Japanese technologies in their production units.
Abdus Salam Murshedy, Managing Director of Envoy Group, said, "We don't have alternative to introducing latest technology as the international partners always want quality product."
Within a short time, the local labour force will be more skilled with introduction of modern technology as the entrepreneurs want to train them on latest technology.

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