THE SEWING CONUNDRUM: The Largest Barriers to Bringing Apparel Manufacturing back to the USA at any Reasonable Scale is the Lack of Sewing Talent
Michael McDonald, President of SPESA, shares his thoughts on this challenge from the perspective of the suppliers to the industry and states that over the last three years, he has seen more amenability to investment than he’s seen in a very long time, at least from the private sector.
“It’s still not easy. It’s never easy to start a startup. It’s even harder to start a startup in the textile, fashion, and apparel industry.”
GUEST ARTICLE WRITTEN BY CARY SHERBURNE OF WHATTHEYTHINK
The Sewing Conundrum
As the apparel manufacturing industry left the United States in the 70s and 80s in search of cheaper labour, it left the sewing talent we had in search of new careers, or moving on to retirement. Now we are trying to reclaim that talent pool in order to bring at least some of that manufacturing back here. Michael McDonald, President of SPESA, shares his thoughts on this challenge from the perspective of the suppliers to the industry.
As we have discussed many times in this space, one of the largest barriers to bringing apparel manufacturing back to the U.S., at any reasonable scale, is the lack of sewing talent.
As we recently discussed with Jennifer Guarino, President and CEO of the Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC) located in Detroit, there are efforts underway to train the next generation of sewists and to find innovative ways to make them more productive.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Michael McDonald, President of Sewn Products, Equipment, and Suppliers of the Americas (SPESA), an association that represents the suppliers to the sewn products industry. So his comments are tuned more to the supplier perspective, and what suppliers to the industry can do to continue to automate manufacturing processes so they are more cost efficient, productive, and amenable to the industrial and economic environment here in the United States.
He stated, “There are more sewing machine operators in America today than there will ever be again,” a comment he has made often over the years, and he says he will continue to do so until it’s not true anymore. So while the valiant efforts of organisations like ISAIC are bringing new talent into the sewn products industry, the truth is that trained sewists are aging out almost as fast. He adds, “It’s just not a growing workforce pool. So the only real way to increase the production capacity in the U.S. is through automation, both mechanical and digital, empowering the workforce that we already have.”
One way, he suggests, is to make use of artificial intelligence for strategies like improving sourcing and building tech packs so it doesn’t take three or four months of back and forth between the brands and the manufacturers to perfect them. (In case you are wondering, a tech pack is the technical detail an apparel manufacturer requires to accurately manufacture a given apparel item—color, sizing, materials, etc.)
He also believes that AI can help make the manufacturing line more efficient, saying, “Let’s say you have 200 employees, and only 175 show up one day. AI can assess the efficiency, for example, of putting Employee A next to Employee F in the manufacturing lines. And there are a lot of other ways it can be utilised to improve the process and the product.”
McDonald also points out that there have been strides in sewing automation, but adds:
“It’s the greatest engineering challenge in manufacturing today. For example, working with flexible fabrics, robots don’t necessarily have the dexterity that human hands have. And while you may be able to program some mass production automation, doing that for customisation is a great challenge as well.”
Engineering talent is scarce as well. Since all too often in apparel manufacturing, the focus has been on getting the lowest cost, the industry doesn’t attract the same level of engineering talent as, say, aerospace, or automotive, or computers. On the upside, he says, “I’ve starting having some really good conversations with really smart engineers, some of whom may feel like they were tricked into getting into the industry. But I’m grateful for the work they are doing. We need that brain power in this segment of our industry to really improve our automation capabilities. And there are things to be excited about in that field.”
This includes improvements from iconic industry companies like Henderson Sewing, AutoMetrics Manufacturing in Canada for intelligent quality monitoring of welding and cutting processes, Brother Sewing Machines, and more.
“There are also new companies emerging, both in Europe and the U.S., that are really innovative.
One example is RotoStitch, who has just received investment funding to work on improving knitting,” he explains:
“When I talk to members in the sewing field, I tell them, if we can’t figure out automated sewing, then we will replace sewing, whether it’s with seam sealing and bonding from companies like CreateMe, or 3D weaving from companies like unspun, 3D knitting, etc., that reduces the amount of manual labour associated with assembling a garment.”
He points out that because you are dealing with flexible fabric, there’s still a human element to the process. “It’s how you combine the human labour element and make it more efficient with robotics, so you can have one person working five stations instead of five people working in one station.”
On a positive note: McDonald states that over the last three years, he has seen more amenability to investment than he’s seen in a very long time, at least from the private sector. He concludes, “It’s still not easy. It’s never easy to start a startup. It’s even harder to start a startup in the textile, fashion, and apparel industry.”
We’ll stay in touch with SPESA as new innovations come to the forefront from suppliers to the industry, and perhaps we’ll see a spike in apparel manufacturing in the U.S. over the next few years as a result of their work!
About Cary Sherburne: Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries.
Cary Sherburne is available for speaking engagements and consulting projects. To get more information contact us. Please offer your feedback to Cary. She can be reached at cary@whattheythink.com.
