Principles of intelligent textile and garment manufacturing systems

Despite the globalization and internalization of competition and surplus of apparel production, high labour costs and other economic pressures, apparel products are still being produced using traditional methods and machinery, the mechanics of which have not fundamentally changed since the seventeenth century, even nowadays when the materials produced are very flexible and diverse in texture and properties. In developing the industry further, the nature of interaction between machinery, fabric and operatives has to be taken into account and this poses some real problems if one has to put forward realistic solutions for future industrial development. It is therefore important to be able to take into consideration fabric/machine/human interactions during the manufacturing process in order to propose the next generation of manufacturing systems which is much needed in the current apparel industry. Reports on findings in the area of intelligent garment manufacture which is a means of introducing flexibility, quality, production efficiency and maximization of resources in the apparel industry. Primarily emphasizes the importance of fabric properties and their interaction with the whole manufacturing process, the labour force and especially with sewing. In order to achieve this, applies computational intelligence and engineering to research, develop and implement intelligent textile and apparel environments, and introduce desired flexibility into the whole area of textile and apparel processes, especially in terms of quick response (QR) and just in time (JIT).