Many companies are struggling with massively increased production costs – energy prices and wages in particular are putting pressure on margins, while at the same time the migration of production orders to Asia continues. International competition is intensifying as producers from low-wage countries are faster, cheaper and increasingly better positioned in terms of technology. Investments in modernisation and digitalisation are often not being made due to a lack of planning security and economic leeway. Another problem is the shortage of skilled labour. In textile production in particular, there is a lack of qualified personnel for repetitive and physically demanding tasks such as sewing or quality control. Last but not least, demographic change means that human quality assurance activities have to be automated.

Digitalisation as a response to the challenges

A key lever for overcoming economic challenges is the increased digitalisation of manual production processes: Modern robotic solutions and AI-based assistance systems make it possible to automate monotonous and physically demanding activities and ensure consistently high quality. This not only saves time and human resources, but also reduces costs for rejects, rework, and quality checks. In addition, the digital networking of processes is playing an increasingly important role: it enables the real-time recording of production data, the early detection of errors and therefore continuous process optimisation. As a result, companies gain transparency and traceability and can make faster and more targeted decisions based on reliable data.

Real-time quality control with Faibrics “seamguard”

With its AI-supported “seamguard” system, Faibrics offers an innovative solution for digitising seam quality in textile production. The Faibrics “seamguard” is a camera-based quality control system for textile seams that is attached to industrial sewing machines. The AI-supported technology evaluates seam quality in real time. Quality data is managed centrally and documented securely – creating consistent, cross-location quality standards. The Faibrics “seamguard” can be customised and enables specific quality control solutions for different areas of application in the textile industry. A key benefit: continuous quality control ensures that faulty products do not enter further production stages. Textile companies can therefore avoid cost-intensive complaints and increase their production efficiency and profitability. In addition, digital quality control enables more targeted utilisation of existing staff capacity – including productive multi-machine operation. "The combination of cloud technology and artificial intelligence opens up completely new possibilities for quality processes in textile production. They are able to react to changes in production in real time – for maximum process stability and measurably higher product quality," summarises Marie Weedermann, Managing Director of Faibrics GmbH.