Mr. Avinash Mayekar, MD & CEO Suvin Advisors Pvt. Ltd.
Ground breaking innovations has taken us from an era operated on steam and heavy load machineries to the generation wherein everything is available on virtual cloud whose size of storage is limitless but the space used on the planet is nearly zero. And the machineries today are not just light in weight but compact in all aspects. There are new attachments or reduction of lot many components in textile machineries. We are also entering a phase of robotics which has brought some time and cost saving in overall productions. Despite such advances there is always a great scope for new developments. As the road to innovation has no end. Years into this sector we have always waited for ITMA to reveal new direction for textile machineries across all the sectors be it spinning, weaving, processing or introducing new technology for the technical textiles being a specialized segment.
ITMA is the center of attraction for showing a new path for textile industry today. Textile industry is in a great situation in recent past. The brands are increasing their quality standards, they are improvising the garments in all respects like durability, experimenting different types of dyes & chemicals, new fibers are being introduced like linen, bamboo, banana fibers, new finishes, promoting green textiles for care of environment. So all the above extraordinary features are offered to the end consumer at high price levels. However from a customer’s point of view the cheapest cost is what they desire with an appropriate quality, variations and something unique and one with a green label. Various technologies are already developed to achieve all the above with a minimal harm to the customers pocket. So, we suggest ITMA as the prime textile machinery exhibition should focus on showcasing the innovative ideas and concepts in this regard as well. As today the consumer is the centre of attraction of all marketing events even in the B2B segment.
If it is possible, we suggest, ITMA to give benchmark figures to its exhibitor’s to come out with machineries in next editions that will have at least achieved 10% improvement as against the previous edition either in productivity, quality, sustainability or develop models which would be cost effective. They can think of changing the metallurgy as per the latest developments in that sector. Their main focus should be on reduction in operating costs such as power, steam, water consumption, space reduction etc. The technology advancements happening in the fields like nonwovens, disposable textiles & recyclable fibers can be the major criteria on which ITMA show must focus on. Also the show should encourage all machinery manufacturers to come out with technology that will just not increase the productivity but also decrease the operating costs.
Automation will be another major area for focus in ITMA as we know nowadays labour cost is increasing day by day. Especially in India the 2nd largest textile manufacturing country, there are many unpredictable labour issues that affect the total capacity utilization of the plant and lead to huge losses on account of absenteeism.
We have observed that every next edition of ITMA i.e. after 4 years technology advancement is seen. I feel they should also ensure that after 3 editions the entire machine models that were previously displayed should also be changed. This will give emphasis on reducing the machine life by manufacturers and come out with cost effective machines which will be more acceptable to the industry.
Some funds can be kept dedicated for the research and development in this regards by the machinery manufacturers. It should be mandatory for the machinery suppliers to showcase their innovation and costs incurred on research & developments. Especially in India not much is seen in R&D. Subsequently it is the major reason we are only seen manufacturing conventional machineries and almost absent in manufacturing technical textiles machineries or any innovative machines which are being developed in other parts of the world.
Logistic is another important aspect as we know most of the machineries are being manufactured in one part of the globe and are then transported to the destinations scattered all around the globe. Hence, evaluation should be done on finding the best logically suitable manufacturing hub which can work as a sourcing hub for all machinery suppliers in various textile destinations strategically located in various locations thereby giving an advantage to the consumer on reduced transportation cost and much smaller delivery time.
Conclusion:
ITMA is considered to be the role model for textile machinery manufacturers. It has already facilitated funds to carry out research & development as well as taken measures to share the latest knowledge base on the developments with the young learners of textile world. We think, ITMA should come out with bench mark figures for their exhibitors to improve and increase the productivity of their machines by reducing operating cost. ITMA should insist the manufacturers to work on reducing consumption of power. The per kg reduction in power utilization figures can be displayed by the manufacturers in every edition against the one obtained in previous edition. They must also urge the manufacturers to reduce weight of the machinery to save material and reduce cost with cost effective metallurgy. ITMA must focus more on showcasing new techniques for green textiles, recycled fibers, new fibre developments and revolutionized technology. They can urge the manufacturers to introduce such developments and also promote it with a single objective of fulfilling the end consumer’s demand for variety of products especially products like disposable textiles, etc. Also from better logistic management, ITMA may study the various locations and come up with strategic locations for developing sourcing hub near the textile industry. This will reduce the overheads of transportation and will lead to a shorter delivery period. ITMA can also think of promoting developing countries like India to help them increase their dominance in manufacturing of textile machineries.
Suvin Advisors Pvt Ltd, as management and engineering consultant, would be happy to get associated with ITMA or Indian government to carry out such studies and help in overall development of the textile world.
Let us carve out…a better tomorrow!!!
