Microfactories and Fashion

What is a microfactory?

A microfactory can also refer to a factory designed for flexible small batch production that can produce a wide variety of products as opposed to a single monolithic mass production type approach.

What are the challenges with microfactory?

1. Companies must invest in training programs to ensure their workforce is capable.
2. you'll need to consider factors like location, transportation access, and regulatory compliance. Assessing factors like proximity to suppliers and customers and the cost of building and maintaining the microfactory is crucial.

The flexibility can be a benefit but a challenge. The cost to retool a line can be very costly and time consuming to re-tool for a different product.

Are microfactories and option for sectors like fashion?

How can we move from a design-make-sell model in fashion, to design-sell-make? Danish supply chain startup Rodinia Generation thinks it has the answer. The company has raised €3 million to fund the creation of a global network of ‘microfactories’ — starting in Europe then expanding to the US — that will provide fast, nearshore, low-impact production, turning fashion’s current bloated production model on its head.

Rodinia is not the only one exploring the potential of microfactories, which it defines as having a small floor space, a water-free process, a ‘brain’ (the software to run the operation) and automated data harvesting. Others include Teemill, Unspun, Son Supply and Fashion Enter, while tech companies such as Gerber and Kornit are packaging the concept up as a product. What Rodinia hopes to do, with the new funding, is scale the model.

Rodinia’s original 200-square-metre microfactory in Copenhagen has been operational since 2021, working mostly with local Scandinavian brands such as ISNURH , Underprotection - ethics & aesthetics , Hummels and Mads N?rgaard Copenhagen , alongside what CEO and founder Trine Young describes as “big global players”, which the company declined to name.

Across just five machines connected by software coded by Rodinia, fabric is printed, cured and cut to specification, all without the use of any water or toxic chemicals (a stark contrast to conventional production, which can cross borders and involve thousands of litres of water and many toxic chemicals throughout dyeing and processing). Finished pieces are sorted via robot arm then sent to a separate facility to be sewn into garments by machinists, the only step is yet to be automated. The sewing process will become vertically integrated in future iterations of the microfactory, says Young.

Source - https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/companies/are-microfactories-the-answer-to-making-fashion-on-demand

In era of both ESG and higher costs the manufacturing sector continues to look at ways to streamline their manufacturing processes while driving the best ESG products to their customers.

Paul Young CPA CGA

Paul is a former IBM Customer Success Manager that has deployed over 300 data and AI solutions across industry and geographies for the past 8 years. Paul is a Financial Planning, Analysis, and Reporting SME working with data including integration of macro and micro indicators as part of the integrated business planning and reporting cycle.

[email protected]

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