The general manager of China for the customer enterprise's Global Strategic Accounts Department said: "Manufacturing upgrading has become the 'only path forward' for the high-quality development of the apparel industry. In the course of the industry's digital and intelligent transformation, the emergence of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence is driving enterprises to evolve step by step toward intelligent management systems. In this cooperation, the flexible site adaptability and the energy-saving, emission-reduction characteristics of the Pallet Shuttle (four-way pallet shuttle) are more conducive to raising storage density and operational efficiency, and are very well suited to the corresponding application scenarios. In the future, we will also continue to leverage innovative technologies to promote innovative applications of artificial intelligence and automation across the entire value chain of the apparel industry, supporting the industry's high-quality development."
An ATOMIX executive said: "Close cooperation between digital technology and the real economy is of great significance. The two sides independently arrived at the same view of IoT and artificial intelligence technologies, and we are both very optimistic about the application value of flexible robots and flexible logistics solutions in production and warehousing environments. We are glad to work alongside manufacturing enterprises to help them build 'intelligent high-density warehouses' and to drive the application of automation, digital and intelligent technologies in the factories and warehouses of real-economy enterprises. This cooperation has also accelerated the close integration of digital technology and the real economy, both promoting the widespread application of digital technology in the industry and supporting the high-quality development of real-economy enterprises."
"Sewing Machine King" builds a lean, intelligent factory and sets a smart manufacturing benchmark for the apparel industry
The user of the intelligent high-density warehouse that went live this time is a global enterprise with the largest production and sales scale and the strongest overall strength in the worldwide sewing equipment industry. It has long kept shaping new competitive advantages through technological innovation and quality upgrading, while also continuously improving its intelligent manufacturing. The company invested in and built a smart factory in the Taizhou Bay New Area with the aim of creating a future factory for the sewing machinery industry; the factory has been awarded the title of "Future Factory" by Zhejiang Province.
The apparel industry has long faced widespread challenges such as rapidly changing consumer demand, high operating costs, production management efficiency that urgently needs improvement, and a gap in the workforce. Outdated infrastructure at apparel enterprises has also directly produced problems that constrain enterprise development, such as fragmented management, data silos in business operations and slow progress toward intelligence.
In response to the many challenges in the industry, this "Sewing Machine King" has proactively carried out comprehensive business deployment. To date, the enterprise has introduced a fully automated intelligent production line for precision machining of machine housings, and has integrated digital twin technology to achieve digital simulation; it has established an industrial IoT platform and digital production lines for the intelligent sewing industry; and it has introduced the intelligent high-density warehouse, further raising the company's intelligent manufacturing level and achieving end-to-end intelligent management across the entire value chain.
The "Sewing Machine King" intelligent high-density warehouse project is completed, with both parties working together to drive high-quality development of the apparel industry
The "intelligent high-density warehouse" project put into operation this time was delivered in a relatively short period. The project is located on the first floor of the building and is 8 m high. In this environment, compared with a stacker crane system, the advantage of ATOMIX's pallet shuttle system lies in "discrete equipment, distributed control": it can be combined and flexibly expanded on demand like building blocks, and it has strong site adaptability, enabling a better return on investment.
When speaking of the original intent behind cooperating with ATOMIX, the deputy general manager of the intelligent warehousing product line at this leading enterprise in the sewing field pointed out: "This warehouse is located on the first floor of the building, is 8 m high and mainly stores finished sewing machines; it is characterized by few SKUs and large volumes, and it is a retrofit of an old warehouse, so it is very well suited to a four-way shuttle solution. This kind of flexible system relies more on algorithms and scheduling software, and ATOMIX has clear advantages in algorithms and technology, which was also an important factor in bringing about this cooperation."
The "intelligent high-density warehouse" project is centered on the pallet shuttle system and consists of hardware equipment such as pallet shuttles, racking, lifts and conveyor lines, plus an intelligent software platform that includes WES and TES. It realizes automated inbound, storage, picking and outbound of finished goods, packaging materials and empty pallet stacks, as well as cross-area linkage between production lines and warehousing. According to earlier calculations, compared with the conventional floor-stacking solution, the warehouse's inventory capacity after the retrofit grew by more than 110%, significantly improving operational efficiency and making business information more transparent and visible.
The cooperation between the two companies has effectively driven the innovative integration of the real economy and digital technology, and has successfully created an industry example of applying digital technology to the real economy. In the future, the two parties will continue to deepen cooperation around digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, and will explore a high-quality development path for the digital and intelligent upgrade of the apparel industry.