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Innovation in American Manufacturing from SoftWear Automation Inc

SoftWear Automation, Creating U.S. Jobs by Revolutionizing the Textile Industry

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The SewBots have arrived and they are bringing manufacturing back to the United States. SoftWear Automation, in Atlanta Georgia, has developed robotic technology for the textile industry to automate sewing, significantly reducing manufacturing labor costs. The machines are surprisingly inexpensive and allow for greater precision, higher speed and much longer hours than the traditional seamstress can manage by hand.

SoftWear technology will bring manufacturing to America We first became aware of SoftWear thanks to Valerie Uhlir. Valerie serves as our Chief Marketing Officers, in addition to leading a boutique marketing agency based in Atlanta where she has worked with a large number of high-growth global brands over the past few years. She served as SoftWear’s head of marketing and PR from 2014 through the end of 2015, helping the company perfect their messaging leading to the wave of coverage including features by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Economist, and many others. Given the company is based in the USA and could have such a large impact on American manufacturing, we’re happy to cover them.

“Not only will this technology help manufacturers bring operations back to the United States with the reduction of labor costs, it will create higher paying technical jobs for American workers.”, said Valerie. Traditionally, manufacturing jobs are some of the least desirable roles that many individuals do not desire due to the repetition, poor work environments (hot warehouse, anyone?) and low wages. High turnover and an aging workforce have made it difficult for manufacturers to keep jobs here. Additionally, other nations do not have minimum wage restrictions and are willing to use underage labor due to less stringent regulations. All of these factors have created a void of manufacturing in the United States, SoftWear Automation would like to change that.

This month alone, the company is delivering several LOWRY systems to manufactures in the southeast United States.  The future of sewn product manufacturing has officially arrived.

The U.S. has lost thousands of jobs in the past 10 years due to offshoring. In 1960, 95% of clothing sold in the USA was made here. Today, 98% of clothing purchased in the U.S. was made abroad. By implementing this technology, American manufacturing plants have several advantages:

  1. Lower costs on both labor as well as shipping costs, dramatically dropping the costs of creating sewn products
  2. Increase precision of products with ThreadCount™ technology
  3. Speed up production and deliver products to consumers faster
  4. Reduce waste
  5. Customization will become commonplace and inexpensive
  6. Localize manufacturing

Tailored clothing and details customized to an individual have long been expensive due to the additional time and costs to create customization. SoftWear technology eliminates that additional cost. Add this to online ordering and it is a recipe for low cost customization. For example, the software could make your jeans slightly smaller in the waist than the last pair of jeans in the same amount of time it would have made them anyway.

SoftWear Robots automate sewing | Manufacturing | Made In USA | Jobs

“Robotics are already taking over multiple industries, creating safer work environments and helping with some tough, dirty jobs. Textiles have been challenging to automate due to the pliable nature of fabric. SoftWear has created hardware that detects bunching and can fix creases before fabric is sewn, changing the game in fabric automation.“, said Valerie.

Walmart believes in bringing manufacturing back to the United States, but they also know that keeping prices low will be a challenge for their brands. Walmart invested a two million dollar grant to SoftWear Automation, through ATDC, to help bridge the gap and provide this technology to brands that want to bring their manufacturing home.

Sound exciting? We left out just one thing: this technology is for ALL SEWN products. Shoes, curtains, jackets, pants, carpet, towels, ties, hats, backpacks, blankets, bedding, car upholstery, handbags, hair ties, baby toys…

Watch the SoftWear LOWRY system work its magic here:

Connect with the friendly team @SoftWearInc on twitter to stay updated on how they continually disrupt the manufacturing industry.

What sewn products are you most excited to have Made In America?

Is America Ready for "Made in the U.S.A." Clothing?

Is America Ready for “Made in the U.S.A.” Clothing?

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While the reshoring tide is undeniably rising, the prospect of clothing and apparel manufacturing returning to the United States remains uncertain. Back in the 1960s, about 95% of clothing worn in the U.S.A. was also made here. Today the opposite is true. Can we flip the switch again?

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Reshoring Children's Products

Made in the USA – Reshoring Children’s Products

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For all expecting and new parents, you probably have learned how quickly buying your child’s products adds up! So why would you be willing to pay more for an American-made product when you could purchase a similar product or even the “same” product, produced overseas, for half the cost? Read more

The rise of 'Made by China' in America

The Rise of ‘Made by China’ in America

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Later this year along the banks of the James River outside Richmond, Virginia, a paper products maker based in northeastern China will begin construction on a new U.S. manufacturing plant. The factory will churn the region’s straw and corn stalks into household products including napkins, tissue and organic fertilizer—all marked “Made in the USA.” Made by China, in America.

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With Exports Rising, US Cities Expand Their Global Footprint

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With exports rising, US cities expand their global footprint

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Jack Brown Produce workers sort apples on a packing line in Sparta, Mich. The state, a big exporter of agricultural goods, is among U.S. regions raising its export profile.

It’s well-known American jobs have been lost to overseas competition. While work on U.S. manufacturing floors has declined, overseas markets have developed a growing appetite for American-made goods—from chemicals and wood products, to medical devices.

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Documentary: Made by China in… America?

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Documentary: Made by China in America? directed by Miao Wang about Chinese firms bringing manufacturing to the U.S. It is part of Morgan Spurlock’s “We the Economy” series (www.wetheeconomy.com).

When I was a baby, my mom waited in line at 3am with her ration ticket to pick up the monthly allowance of meat. As fortunate dwellers of China’s capital city, we received a little more than two pounds. In remote provinces, it was half or a quarter of that amount.

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The U.S. Medical Device Industry

The U.S. Medical Device Industry

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The United States remains the largest medical device market in the world with a market size of around $110 billion, and it is expected to reach $133 billion by 2016.  The U.S. market value represented about 38 percent of the global medical device market in 2012.  U.S. exports of medical devices in key product categories identified by the Department of Commerce (DOC) exceeded $44 billion in 2012, a more than seven percent increase from the previous year. Read more

Toy Maker To Bring Lincoln Logs Production Back to U.S.

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Toy Maker To Bring Lincoln Logs Production Back to U.S.
Production of Lincoln Logs coming back to U.S.A.  Manufacturing will once again be made in the U.S.A. (Photo courtesy of K’NEX Brands)

 

A Montgomery County manufacturer of plastic injection molds and K’NEX construction toys is bringing production of one of its classic toy brands back to the United States from China.

Lincoln Logs, a classic toy brand developed nearly 100 years ago, is part of the K’NEX family of brands. Beginning next year, Pride Manufacturing in Burnham, Maine, will manufacture the Lincoln Logs product line. The Maine company is a manufacturer of engineered wood products.

Related Article: Production of Lincoln Logs in USA Creating Jobs [p][/p]

K’NEX Brands, which licenses the Lincoln Logs brand from Hasbro, has designed Lincoln Logs since 1999, but decided to build upon its reshoring initiative that it introduced in 2009, said Michael Araten, president and CEO of K’NEX and its subsidiary, The Rodon Group in Hatfield. As part of this initiative, K’NEX delivered the production of Tinkertoy products back to the U.S. in 2012, where it is mass produced by The Rodon Group.

Since The Rodon Group does not make wood products, it needed to find a manufacturer in the U.S.

“We kept at it and finally found a manufacturer in Maine who will manufacturer the Lincoln Logs,” Araten said. “It’s really about substituting our U.S. supply chain for the China supply chain.”

Now, the entire supply chain for the production of Lincoln Logs will be U.S.-based, Araten said.

K’NEX will continue to design Lincoln Logs in Hatfield.

“We’ve started production of the logs now, so we can have product on the shelf in July,” Araten said.

Next year, K’NEX will launch 10 new sets that are made in the U.S.: Horseshoe Hill Station, Country Meadow Cottage, Oak Creek Lodge, 100th Anniversary Tin, Collector’s Edition Village, Wrangler’s Ranch, Wolf’s Lodge, Mountaintop Hideout, Grand Pine Lodge and Colts Creek Command Post.

Next on the company’s agenda is to potentially bring production of toy motors back to the U.S. “That’s our next big initiative,” Araten said.

He said there are many reasons manufacturing is returning to the U.S. from China.

Chinese labor rates are rising dramatically, the U.S. is experiencing an energy boom, manual labor is being replaced by automated systems in U.S. manufacturing facilities and the flexibility and skills of the American workforce are strong, according to Araten.

Toy Maker To Bring Lincoln Logs Production Back to U.S.

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Lincoln Logs to be ‘Made in USA’ Again Creating Jobs in the Process

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Lincoln Logs To Be Made in USA Again

Lincoln Logs, the popular building toy created nearly a century ago by a son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is coming home to the U.S. Read more

U.S. Manufacturing Becoming Low Cost

U.S. Manufacturing Becoming Low Cost

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Manufacturing Low Cost

Picture Eugene Hoshiko, File/Associated Press

U.S. manufacturing becoming low cost over the past decade compared with factories in China, Brazil and most of the world’s other major economies.

So says a new private study, which found that rising wages and higher energy costs have diminished China’s long-standing edge over the United States. So has a boom in U.S. shale gas production. It’s reduced U.S. natural gas prices and slowed the cost of electricity.

The Boston Consulting Group is issuing a report on its study of manufacturing costs in the 25 biggest exporting countries. Only seven of those countries had lower manufacturing costs than the United States did this year. And since 2004, U.S. manufacturers have improved their competitiveness compared with every major exporter except India, Mexico and the Netherlands.In 2004, for example, manufacturing in China cost 14 percent less than manufacturing in the United States. By this year, the China advantage had narrowed to 5 percent. If the trends continue, Boston Consulting found, U.S. manufacturing will be less expensive than China’s by 2018.

Over the past decade, labor costs, adjusted to reflect productivity gains, shot up 187 percent at factories in China, compared with 27 percent in the United States. The value of China’s currency has risen more than 30 percent against the U.S. dollar over the past decade.

The higher Chinese currency made goods produced in China and sold abroad comparatively more expensive. And foreign goods became comparatively more affordable in China.

Chinese electricity costs rose 66 percent, more than double the United States’ 30 percent increase. The start of large-scale U.S. shale gas production in 2005 has helped contain electricity bills in the United States and neighboring Canada and Mexico.

China, too, has reserves for shale gas. But it will need years to develop them.

“This is not something you can turn on overnight,” said Justin Rose, a partner at Boston Consulting and co-author of the study.

Brazil has lost even more ground than China. In 2004, manufacturing was 3 percent cheaper in Brazil than in the United States. By 2014, Brazil was 23 percent more expensive. Brazilian factories didn’t improve efficiency enough to offset rising energy and labor costs.

The countries where manufacturing was cheaper than in the United States are Indonesia, India, Mexico, Thailand, China, Taiwan and Russia.

Australia was the most expensive country for manufacturing. Its costs were 30 percent higher than those in the United States.

The survey doesn’t include transportation costs, which vary depending on where goods are shipped. Several countries also face obstacles not captured by Boston Consulting’s manufacturing cost index — from corruption to inefficient government bureaucracies.

SOURCE:  Washington Post

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