Moving a step ahead in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Automation , the USA based ace sportswear company – Adidas brought a revolutionary automated machine – SEWBOT which will manufacture 800,000 shirts per day.This latest use of robots is definitely one of the biggest breakthroughs to ever happen in the history of automated global garment manufacturing. This move can make the brand’s shirts cheaper, but may also kill hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.
The company’s Sewbots use a combination of patented high-speed computer vision and lightweight robotics to steer fabric to and through the needle with greater speed and accuracy than a human. Using Sewbot work lines customers are expected to be able to increase productivity while decreasing their overall defect rate.
The manufacturing company for Adidas – Tianyuan Garments Company from China will install 21 production lines which will make one T-shirt in every 22 seconds once it will be fully operational. From fabric cutting and sewing to finished product, it will take roughly four minutes and by using cameras to map the fabric and robots to steer it through the sewing needles, the system will handle soft fabrics and make T-shirts for Adidas.
Tianyuan Garments Company of Suzhou signed an agreement with SoftWear Automation of Atlanta to develop a fully automated T-shirt production line at Tianyuan’s newly acquired plant in Little Rock, Arkansas, on July 19.The system is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of next year.Company claims that with complete automation, the personnel cost for each T-shirt is roughly 33 cents. The technology was developed by and is patented by Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Centre, USA. This factory will bring about 400 jobs to Arkansas.