Textile: Invest in automation or leave the 'game'?

Improving productivity - an inevitable requirement

Speaking at the workshop “Automation, Energy Saving and Greening Production with Morgan Technica” held on March 27, Mr. Truong Van Cam - Vice President of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association - informed that the textile and garment industry has developed rapidly. If in 1999 the industry's turnover only reached 1.75 billion USD, by 2024 it had reached 43.6 billion USD, meaning that the turnover doubled every year. Currently, Vietnam has become the third largest textile and garment exporting power in the world, behind only China and Bangladesh.

Workshop “Automation, Energy Saving and Greening Production with Morgan Technica”. Photo: Hai Linh

In the coming time, the textile and garment industry has opportunities to develop but is also intertwined with great challenges. Mr. Truong Van Cam pointed out that, first of all, the industry still depends on imported raw materials, the processing rate is high, and labor productivity is not as expected.

Along with fierce competition with other textile exporting countries, the business environment is always fluctuating and very difficult to predict.

On the other hand, the world's textile markets have shifted from fast fashion to sustainable fashion, especially requiring fast delivery times, autonomy in design, cost reduction, and increased productivity.

“ To take advantage of opportunities and limit challenges, there is no other way but for textile and garment enterprises to make qualitative changes, especially innovating equipment and applying technological solutions to improve productivity, ” Mr. Truong Van Cam emphasized.

Agreeing with the leader of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, the representative of Mogan Technica Company - acknowledged that the textile and garment market is currently dominated by small orders and custom orders. " In order to increase profit margins in such a context, automating production to increase productivity is a reasonable solution ," said the representative of Mogan Technica Company.

Automation of production is also a solution to many of the problems that businesses are facing at the moment. The first important point is that businesses must fulfill their commitments under the European Green Deal.

In this agreement, according to the representative of Mogan Technica Company, there are provisions on digital product passports. It is a QR on the product label that includes information about the production process, traceability, rate of use of recycled materials, etc.

Businesses need to pay attention to this regulation because by 2026, all garment products sold in the European market must have a digital product passport. Some large Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises are aware of this regulation, but that is not enough - they need to proactively prepare now.

“ Up to now and in the future, the EU is still a large and attractive market for Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises. Moreover, green production and sustainable development are inevitable trends, so investing in production automation is still a condition that businesses need to consider, ” said a representative of Morgan Technica Company.

Invest wisely

Investing in technology and production automation is no longer an option but is gradually becoming a mandatory path for Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises.

Mr. Tran Nhu Tung, Vice President of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said that the green transformation revolution and digital transformation in production are creating double pressure, forcing businesses to implement both at the same time or be eliminated.

Automating production to increase productivity and reduce costs is the way to go for textile and garment enterprises. Illustration photo

From a labor perspective, according to Mr. Le Tien Truong - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Textile and Garment Group, the average monthly salary cost for garment workers in Vietnam is at 300 USD/person/month, much higher than Bangladesh at 95 USD/person/month, Cambodia at 190 USD/person/month, and India at 145 USD/person/month.

Wage costs are much higher than competitors, while order prices are low, with some orders even priced 50% lower than the same period in 2019, which is a big challenge for businesses.

The solution to this problem, according to the leader of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group, is to further increase productivity per capita. This will determine the income of workers.

Accordingly, businesses need to invest in and use highly automated equipment, reduce the number of workers per product, and at the same time seek niche products with higher value, thereby increasing the working value per hour of workers.

In addition to the general solution, the general requirement is to invest in technology, increase productivity, automate, and increase higher value, each business will have its own solution, its own direction. Some businesses will look for very specific products; niche, small markets, but bring great efficiency, such as specialized technical fabrics, high-quality fabrics... are different products, not common, popular fashion fabrics...

In a forest of technology with different levels, choosing the right equipment, experts say, businesses need to make smart choices. Choose the technology that suits your financial capacity, the capacity of your workforce and the type of product.

Hai Linh

Source: https://congthuong.vn/det-may-dau-tu-dong-hoa-hay-roi-bo-cuoc-choi-380271.html