Intelligent garment manufacture

The concept of Intelligent Garment Manufacture as conceived by the author and his group is a new approach of developing and integrating new technologies to improve production efficiency, flexibility, quality and design features in the garment industry. The use of powerful measurement technologies of fabric properties, sewing faults and machinery parameters, and integrating them together so that measurement of properties can predict and subsequently dictate the optimum processing parameters prior or during manufacture, is the area of large scale research and development which now take place in academe and industry. This paper will put forward some of the philosophical principles of this subject area and describe and discuss results and deliverables already in place. A newly developed Intelligent Garment Manufacturing System; the Sewability Integrated Environment incorporating intelligent sewing machines is described. Future research directions are also highlighted.