Much like any other industry, technological advances, globalization, and changing business practices are affecting apparel industry, shifting the emphasis to quick decision making through the use of tools such as real time data monitoring of manufacturing floor. Traditionally bundle cards were used in Progressive Bundle Unit (PBU) system to track movement of bundles in the line and the integration of bar-codes in bundle tags facilitated tracking of components and finished pieces in sewing line. Overhead Material Handling System (OMHS) in Unit Production System (UPS) made significant progress in integrating bar code scanner or RFID scanner to monitor progress of each hanger meaning tracking of each piece thereof. While brands like Eton, INA, and SmartMRT popularized the adoption of OMHS, global mechanization of material handling in PBU system lags behind… At the CISMA 2013, Team StitchWorld came across some lesser known, but interesting conveyor based material handling systems and several Chinese brands of OMHS for UPS, below is a review of some of them.

Overhead Material Handling Systems (OMHS)

OMHS system is used in UPS to decrease bundle handling time, thereby increasing the needle running time, giving better accountability and crease free components during sewing (especially important for sewing suits/blazers); ultimately reducing throughput time by reducing WIP. OMHS has an obvious advantage over normal conveyor belt system when it comes to optimum space utilization. It consists of single track containing carrier trolleys or hangers connected by an endless chain or cable arrangement. Overhead conveyors are used to transport parts of garments through numerous production stages above the work area, arching down at the start and end for loading or unloading. OMHS, in combination with UPS, has come up as a viable solution to garment manufacturing industry, reducing labour (9.7%), increasing production, improving quality (average 60.4%) and maximizing plant space usage with faster ROI.

Clever Max Systems (www.clevermax.com.cn)

Owned by the Nantong Ming Hing Chinese Academy of Science and Technology Development Co. Ltd., China, the Clever Max System displayed garment production lines with overhead intelligent material management and monitoring systems, comprising of advanced hardware and software technologies. The company claims that the use of Clever Max Systems ensures 20% increase in profits by considerably reducing the lead time. The system also improves staff efficiency by 15% and with the obvious reduction in manpower, soiling of clothes and delays in shipments, annual production increases by 10%. Also, by the use of this overhead system, accurate calculation of sewing workers daily and monthly wage can be clearly worked out, along with daily output statistics for performance analysis. The user interface is easy to grasp and the company provides professional training support for the same.

Euratex System (www.euratex.com)

Shanghai Euratex System Technologies Inc.is a subsidiary of Euratex Canada Inc., one of the earliest garment CAD/CAM/ERP suppliers out of North America. Euratex UPS yields minimum material handling time between workstation by moving the loaded pieces via overhead hanger. Upon completion of an individual’s operation, the hanger is automatically delivered to next operation within the system by simple activation of push button. The system automatically generates different MIS reports for payroll, cost variance, operator daily performance, potential production, production summary, random quality control and inspection. Euratex UPS allows user to network between servers, allowing office managers and major customers to track production process. Euratex provides various options in their system based on the customers need, some of the default options being Monorail Smart UPS for knitted or light product; double rail UPS for knitted cloth, suits, jeans, cotton-packet jacket, shoes, hats, etc. with hangers having in-built RFID; and Chain smart UPS, which has changeable chain height for handling of heavy apparels like suits, home textiles, jeans, etc.

Hitex UPS Systems (www.hitexups.com)

Hitex Group has specialized in textile machinery for more than 20 years with R&D lab in Sweden and hardware assembling base in Shanghai, China. The company offers different types of material handling conveyor systems like U-type hanging system and straight overhead conveyor systems. In a research conducted by the company along with Shirley Institute, it was found that in sewing operator activities, sewing takes only 20%, idle time, other allowances account for 19% ,while material handling comprise 61% of the total idle time, signifying that reduction of material handling time can provide long lasting benefits.

Tanger Garment Conveying System (www.tangerg.com)

The Tanger Garment Conveying System has been manufacturing with durability. It has the features like customized capacity, U-structure, and high and low conveying structure. It also has advanced technology, stainless steel strip equipped with the high wear-resistance and low noise nylon bearing along with varied control method, such as manual button type, footrest type, numerical control type or computer system type. It can also automatically locate garment with bar-code scanner with orientation control system to hang garment.

YYC Industrial (www.yuanyigroup.cn)

YYC is an integrated hi-tech corporation specializing in providing one-stop service to the industry of clothing, textiles, shoes, bags and other industries in China. Their core business is to provide advice and consultancy, design and implementation, training, customer service to customers on establishing a digital, intelligent, humanized solution along with customized solution in garment hanger systems.

Conveyorised Material Handling Systems

Traditionally in PBU System, bundles are moved either through side table running along machines, bins, trolleys, etc. CISMA 2013 displayed moving conveyor based bundle handling system running between rows of sewing machines which can accrue several benefits and de-clutter the shop floor. While conveyor system is not popular in apparel industry it is quite common in shoe assembly units. In conveyor system the rate of output (production) from the line is equivalent to output of the slowest operator in the line.

Suzhou Transparent Electronic Technology (www.tp-cn.cn)

TP Technologies is an emerging name in consulting, software, development and production of integrated production solutions provider. The company has been behind the making of belt conveyor system, field data collection systems, on-site warning systems, as well as quality and productivity ANDON data management systems. The company manufactures three different types of belt conveyor systems. First is Pneumatic Beat pipeline with iron push borders which operates on principle mode of production. This belt conveyor operates with mechanical power for a set cycle time, reducing wastes and initiating faster output. Second is Pneumatic Beat pipeline with aluminium push borders, having a directional rail with low noise operation and ANDON system integration. Third is Electric Beat pipeline running on electric drive; with a humanized design and belt area which can be flexibly adjusted (mobile partitions). Military grade aluminium with surface sandblasting oxidation treatment has been used by the company to avoid contamination of friction in garments.

Suzhou Biyangte Garment Equipment (www.sz-byd.com)

Suzhou Than Yang Special Clothing Equipment Co. Ltd. is a professional clothing equipment manufacturer, providing targeted production solutions according to the different needs of the apparel manufacturing industry. The company produces electric garment production line in combination with belt conveyor system.

Chijiu-Suzhou Sustainable Energy Equipment (www.chijiu.net.cn)

Suzhou Energy Saving Electric Co. Ltd. is a provider of clothing line equipment, apparel supporting ancillary products, professional production and processing equipment. This company, with strong technical and product development foundations, focuses on saving energy with research and development on smart-line equipment (smart-one piece pipeline) with the use of RFID. In this system the workplace consists of automatic assembly line with a fixed production, having a rhythmic, processing between each process object in a certain time interval (beat), be it inputs or outputs. Simultaneous instructions can exist in the system at six different stages of the operation: pre-fetch, instruction fetch, decode, accessing, reading and execution (write) stage. The main advantages of this system is that it ensures quality as it is in accordance with capabilities of operators, define clear division of labour and to cut garment production time with improved efficiency.

Dalian Jialin Machine Manufacture Co. (www.jolinpack.com)

Dalian Jialin Machine Manufacture Co. Ltd. is a professional manufacturer specializing in developing, designing, producing and installing auto conveyors (standard or non-standard).The use of these conveyors is very flexible as they can be used for pipelining as well as in assembly line. The body of the machine can be made with stainless steel, carbon steel or aluminium profile structure.

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