Flexible supply chain and customized manufacturing are part of China’s strategy to promote industrial development toward intelligence. If these efforts are successful, it will greatly enhance the competitiveness of Chinese companies in these areas, while at the same time reshaping the pattern of global manufacturing in the future.
文 | Dong Jinpeng
At 7 in the morning, take the D2281 train from Nanjing and go south, 14 hours to the southern end of Shenzhen. The train flies all the way through Wuxi, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Putian, Quanzhou and other cities, connecting the lifeline of the Chinese clothing and footwear industry.
In the past ten years, China’s e-commerce has risen rapidly, and parcels have been sent from this area to the vast hinterland. Today, 30 out of every 100 garments in the country are sold through the Internet. The strong momentum of e-commerce has gradually eroded the upstream production and manufacturing sectors, requiring faster production and better quality.
At about the same time, demand on the Internet began to differentiate rapidly. After China’s economy has experienced rapid growth for many years, most of China’s basic material and cultural needs have been met today, and they are beginning to pursue more diverse and differentiated consumption. Especially for this generation born around 2000, this demand is spurring a variety of customized businesses.
At 2:40 pm, the D2281 train arrived at Wenzhou South Station. It used to be China’s fashion capital. Today, small garment factories and family workshops have long since disappeared, and only a few have been upgraded to large-scale production and refined operations. Not long ago, I first came to this southeast coastal city, taking a taxi from Wenzhou South Station to Wuma Street. The local taxi driver said that after the reduction of the clothing factory, the labor force in the field also returned.
From Wenzhou all the way to the south, the train will pass through Putian and Quanzhou, and arrive at Shenzhen North Station before 10:00. From north to south, when the day’s itinerary is about to end, you will find that Wenzhou is just the epitome of the entire clothing and footwear industry, and the old era is over.
However, there are still some remaining brands and factories that are trying to build a flexible supply chain based on C2M (Customer to Manufactory) to respond quickly to orders of different sizes. Shenzhou International, a clothing company in Ningbo, Zhejiang, is now the largest foundry of international brands such as Adidas and Nike in China. In recent years, through the import of equipment and the introduction of technology, Shenzhou International has gradually established an intelligent factory.
“China’s factories must go in this direction.” YSD Yun Shangding CEO Berlin realized that it is already very urgent, “Many traditional enterprises are not saying that they will not change, but will die.” The problem that fell.”
YSD Cloud is a Chinese-owned brand of Cimpress (NASDAQ:CMPR), providing retail brands, IP and traditional manufacturing companies by building a flexible supply chain for Industry 4.0.Integrated on-demand production and customized solutions. In the 25 years of business, the company has served 20 million customers in more than 130 countries and regions around the world. In 2018, the company’s turnover exceeded $2.6 billion.
The flexible supply chain and customized manufacturing are also part of China’s strategy to promote industrial development toward intelligence. In this area, opportunities are growing and change is happening quietly. If these efforts are successful, it will greatly enhance the competitiveness of Chinese companies in these areas, while at the same time reshaping the pattern of global manufacturing in the future.
“Our things are like Lego toys”
One morning in early October this year, when I met Berlin in the Caohejing Development Zone in Xuhui District, Shanghai, she and the team had been understated for more than two years. In 2017, she set up a Chinese branch in Shanghai, which is the second time Cimpress has entered China.
In 2012, the company entered the Chinese market for the first time and is still operating the paper printing business that they are best at. Cimpress withdrew from China because of the lack of water and soil. After that defeat, they reflected on the strategy of entering China and believed that the model of success in other countries does not necessarily work in China.
The Chinese divisions of many foreign companies are subject to headquarters, and most of them are copies of the headquarters business model. In 2017, Cimpress entered China again, and they intend to abandon tradition and become a model that is truly suitable for China.
Twenty years ago, Berlin went to France to study, and after graduation he entered the investment bank and consulting company. Later, she joined Cimpress’s strategic department in France and was responsible for emerging markets including China, India and Brazil. When Cimpress wanted to make China’s branch a startup project and leverage the advantages of the Group’s technology to help upgrade China’s traditional industries, Berlin chose to return to China as Cimpress Greater China and YSD Yun Shangding CEO.
This time, they first chose the clothing industry. Berlin tells me that many industries and sectors, including cars and packaging, require flexible manufacturing, but clothing is a relatively traditional industry with a greater pain point. In the past few decades, China’s garment industry has been dominated by labor, but as labor costs have risen, the advantages of China’s manufacturing industry are losing, and some factories are shifting to lower-cost Vietnam, Cambodia, India and Laos. If you can improve the efficiency and intelligence of the factory, it is expected to regain competitiveness in these areas.
Berlin knows a small brand in South China that is fast-reversing, more than 50 pieces of clothing, each product only produces 1-3 pieces, and only do medium size, and then quickly test the market in Tmall. Once the order is received, the back end is quickly produced; if there is no order in a month, it is taken off the shelf. The entire team of more than 200 people, all manual processing. She feels that once this model is bigger, such as receiving 300-500 orders per day, it needs a perfect system and a flexible and fast-reverse factory.
China has the world’s largest manufacturing industry cluster. Cimpress has entered China for the second time. YSD Cloud is still developing the C2M capabilities of the Group from front-end customized orders and sales platforms to intelligent production processes. Landing. In the apparel industry, YSD Cloud will also modularize the integration experience of large-scale customized production systems and processes, providing garment enterprises with a set of customized and on-demand production solutions to help them implement intelligent production processes and achieve flexibility. Anti-supply chain.
Berlin said that Cimpress’s core strength is to provide a complete solution from the front-end custom platform to the back-end production supply chain. The various solution modules are freely embedded in the partner’s existing sales channel platform and warehousing logistics. System and production processes, even some hardware and software.
Customers who cooperate with Yunshangding are mainly large and medium-sized enterprises, and must have some basic information systems. YSD Cloud is still a very open system. “Our things are like Lego toys, very flexible,” Berlin said. “Unlike German Industry 4.0, if you want to transform a factory, everything goes from start to finish, from software to hardware, every process. Use his.”
After the transformation, through the CSD system of YSD Yunding, customers can place orders from Tmall, physical stores and other channels. These orders will be skipped to the original dealers and directly transferred to the factory to enter the production system of the factory. On the production side, YSD Cloud is still open to a variety of process equipment, including digital printing direct injection, embroidery, UV, laser, thermal transfer and sublimation, from order to design, scheduling, production, warehousing and logistics. Intelligent management, while meeting the requirements of customization and scale, to achieve flexible manufacturing.
In the field of clothing, the popular personalized customization is mainly based on light customization. The so-called light customization is to perform secondary processing such as embroidery and printing on the already produced garments. With the continuous deepening of the entire industry, more and more brands are participating in it, and the market is gradually deepened, starting from the fabric to be customized, that is, deep customization.
“This is the basis of light customization”
In the Caohejing Development Zone, Berlin and the team rented the first floor of an office building, covering an area of more than 1,000 square meters. The whole space was divided into two parts, one part was the office, and the other 300 square meters was arranged in a small area. factory. To facilitate testing and experimentation, here is a collection of almost all the machines used in the factory.Before any technology is introduced, it must be run in its own small factory.
In this small factory, Berlin and colleagues show us how flexible manufacturing and flexible customization-based smart manufacturing work step by step. Shown here is a light custom process, mainly embroidery, printing, thermal transfer, sublimation and so on. Usually, the custom-made delivery time is 24 hours, and the deep customization will be longer.
With the C2M system, orders from e-commerce platforms, stores, etc. will be automatically collected into the order platform of the factory, and then the system will arrange production according to the material inventory. After the production is completed, a production work order will be printed with two two-dimensional codes corresponding to the order number and the production order number. Each production work order clearly states the production information of the order, such as process, materials, technology, etc. Workers carry a “fool” operation with a work order attached with a QR code, and many links are replaced by the system.
The scheduling system is connected to the process, materials, technology and other systems. If there is no corresponding reserve and inventory, the system will not take orders. When the worker takes the production work order and receives the materials, the corresponding inventory will be automatically adjusted, and the virtual inventory of the C-end consumer orders will be adjusted. Consumers upload pictures and patterns on the front end, and then place orders, the system will automatically process the pattern and generate the production process.
“The factory no longer needs skilled output, image processing or other processing. Workers just need to scan the QR code in front of the machine, then put the clothes on, press the button and start printing. “Berlin said, “For the factory, there is no need for too high skill requirements.”
The technicians were carrying a production work order on hand, and we followed him through a door with an embroidery workshop. Two women workers were walking around the embroidery machine. They only need to stand in front of the embroidery machine and scan the QR code on the production work order. The address and pattern uploaded by the consumer will appear on the display screen of the embroidery machine. The corresponding production instructions are also automatically input into the embroidery machine. Soon, the system recognizes the color lines and color numbers and starts working automatically, and the workers just have to stand by and watch. After a few minutes, an embroidery work is done.
After finishing, the system will perform intelligent quality inspection on pattern comparison. The traditional quality inspection relies on skilled and skilled masters, but the content of each order is different. YSD cloud is still determined by technology, only need to scan, the machine automatically recognizes the detection. After passing the quality inspection, you can put it in the warehouse and wait for delivery.
After the transformation of the supply chain, data will be generated at each step. These data will be uploaded to the cloud in time, and some will be directly transmitted to the front end. Consumers can clearly see the data, whether it is in production, quality inspection or delivery.
In addition to factory-oriented solutions, YSD Cloud also offers solutions for pre-shipment of retail stores and e-commerce. The solution for the store is to put the printing and embroidery into the retail store. The consumer selects the favorite product, and the store prints the pattern or embroidered within 3-5 minutes. The other is to make secondary processing of products, such as customized gifts, before the e-commerce is shipped.
Those things that look novel in China may have been popular for many years abroad. For example, in MUJI, Tokyo, Japan, there will be embroidery customization services, and custom patterns, characters or logos will be printed on the handbags. “As long as it is customizable, we can do it. This is the basis of our light customization,” Berlin said.
“Many people may want to do some transformation”
Uniqlo CEO Yan Jingzheng said that the fashion industry is not constantly improving or producing flawless fabrics, but chasing trends. Fast follow-up is also the key to ZARA’s success.
In the traditional e-commerce, the merchant receives the order, the worker goes to the warehouse to get the goods, and then delivers. In response to changing trends and personalized needs, merchants need to add SKUs and stock more. If you can’t sell the goods, there will be a large backlog of inventory, and there will be problems with capital turnover. In the past, there was always a need to balance between inventory and SKU.
But C2M has changed this supply and marketing relationship. Consumers are directly connected to the factory and there is no middleman. “Consumer connected production, will automatically check the inventory first, see if there is any information about this material, with orders can go down. Every product that consumers see is computer-synthesized, it is virtual inventory, these are not Produced. For each next order, the back end is in production.” Berlin said that this means that under the C2M model, the company only has stock of raw materials and no stock of products. Under the C2M model, merchants can greatly expand the SKU of a product.
A is an Australian school uniform customization company that has its own designers in each country where they do business. They are responsible for bringing the designed version to the customer. After the customer is determined, the designer will hold the relevant information. Communicate with the factory master. After the factory master gets the order, he disassembles it and then tells the workers in each position how to weave, print, heat transfer and so on.
Now, they are working with a flexible manufacturing facility in China. Designers only need to make some layouts. Customers can place orders and change colors and patterns directly in the C2M system. Under the basic model, just changing colors and fabrics can create thousands of SKUs. Cimpress also worked with some CAD companies, just changing fabrics and accessories, it produced tens of thousands of SKUs.
If the order arrives at a factory in China, it will be automatically distributed to different production lines and will be polymerized after production. After the integration system, all production processes are fully automatic, and from the start of raw materials, deep-customized uniforms can be produced in 7 days. Moreover, each school uniform embroiders the student’s name and then sends it abroad.
After the intelligent transformation, the personnel structure of the factory and workshop has also changed. “In the remodeled workshop, sometimes seven or eight production lines are together, direct injection, embroidery, thermal transfer, sublimation, laser and UV, but the operators are just a few people, because they can go to any production line at any time. “What?” Berlin replied, “Because any production line, just swipe the code, put things on it, it has become a fool.”
In the era of traditional factories, embroidery must find workers with very good memory, and skilled workers who must be skilled in direct injection. Similar work on these people is very demanding, and the cost of paying for it is relatively high, but these jobs are replaced by machines and systems. “For the worker, every time he comes to an order, he scans the QR code and tells him how to put the dress on, what line to use, very foolish operation.”
Berlin told me that on the first day of doing business with this factory, the boss said that after the project is over, many people may have to make some transformations, otherwise they may not use your position.
However, smart manufacturing has a higher quality requirement for workers as a whole. Now, in some of Cimpress’s remodeled factories, college students who graduate from vocational and technical schools are generally needed. Traditional factories do not have IT staff, but after they have gone to the smart factory, they need 1-2 IT staff to be responsible for maintenance.
“The central nervous system of data”
The urban area of Qingdao is 30 kilometers to the north. There is a clothing company called Cooltech, whose predecessor is red-collar clothing. About ten years ago, Zhang Yunlan took the red collar costume from his father and began to build a C2M business model based on personalization.
A few years later, Zhang Yunlan’s transformation was a success. Red-collar clothing changed from a traditional clothing company to an Internet technology platform, and eventually changed its name to Cooltech. Cool special intelligent from mass production to small batch personalized high-end customization, production of suits through the process of individualized process, delivery time can be 7 working days.
The success of Cooltech has quickly led to a number of followers in the apparel industry. Since then, many brands and factories in the apparel industry have begun their own intelligent transformation. Like Cool Smart, some of them have begun to provide relevant consulting services or technical support to their peers after completing their own transformation.
Now, in this market, in addition to YSD Yun Shangding and Cool Special Intelligence, Ali Tao Factory, necessary mallCompanies are also doing C2M flexible customization business in the apparel industry. Under the enthusiasm of capital and ambition, some startups have also entered this field to compete for this emerging market.
Compared with these competitors, YSD Cloud has already opened up the front-end C2M custom platform and back-end production platform, and realized the opening and docking of software and hardware. According to Berlin, Cimpress has access to the systems of many companies’ hardware, which can be invoked via software to command their machines to regulate their ink, printing and production status.
Cimpress has been doing C2M business for more than 20 years, and the entire business is very mature. It’s hard to find a software system company like Cimpress. It has very strong capital strength and has 15 own factories around the world.
As a technology-focused technology company, Cimpress has accumulated more than $1.3 billion in technology investments, and has created a mass-customized platform that includes key technologies through more than 2,000 technology researchers. With more than 200 international patents, the platform relies on strong IT technology, production and logistics systems to seamlessly interface, enabling the efficient mass production of any customized product without minimum order quantities.
Berlin said that many startup companies that do software in China rarely have their own production plants, and their systems have not been tested by large-scale data. “The ability of your system to handle this huge amount of data depends on how much of this data you have traveled.” She said, “I believe that many factories can do it in a day or two, including saying that you also need to reach a certain level. The magnitude of this, large hardware company Hewlett-Packard, etc. will cooperate with you.”
In China, the market that has been born through personalization and diversity may just begin. According to the data provided by the China Business Research Institute, in 2013, the scale of China’s apparel customization market was only 60 billion yuan. In the next five years, the annual average compound growth rate of the apparel customization market was as high as 22.9%. In 2017, the market size reached 137 million, an increase of 20.7%. According to the relevant data of Everbright Securities, by 2020, the size of the clothing customization market will reach 200 billion.
The flexible supply chain is produced on demand, and in addition to the apparel industry, there are still many industries that can be touched. Berlin also agrees that in societyIn various industries, in fact, you can combine with customization. “We are equivalent to the entire data of the central nervous system, just parsing consumer-customized things into different parameters, turning these data into production parameters, and finally returning to the consumer, is actually such a closed loop. From the point of view, it can be applied to clothing because clothing has the biggest pain point. But in fact, many industrial enterprises can use these data in the future,” she said.
In Berlin and the team’s low-key stealth for more than two years, they have been doing some testing and research and development, and are also working with some brands. After going through all the processes, YSD Cloud is still scheduled to appear on the market at the end of 2018. At this time, more Chinese brands and factories are focusing on customized and intelligent manufacturing, and are beginning to seek upgrades and changes. From a broader perspective and a longer period of time, everything is just beginning.
About observation +
If you want to communicate with the editors of “Observation +” and the tens of thousands of friends, welcome to add Junjun WeChat: hello36kr, join our community and learn to play together.
If your company, industry and hot topics in the new business world are closely related and are seeking coverage, please feel free to contact us (Contact: Longzheng Contact: longzhenzi@36kr.com).