Textile industry 4.0

Textile industry 4.0: how technology can help companies’ competitiveness

Industry 4.0 is a revolution that is changing the way textile companies design, develop and produce their products and interface with customers. Industry 4.0 relies on the use of digital technology to increase productivity and product quality and reduce costs. Textile companies are investing in advanced technologies, such as iot, artificial intelligence and robotics, to improve their competitiveness, flexibility and efficiency. Thanks to the new technologies it is possible to guarantee an optimal management of the raw materials and of every phase of the production process, from the realization up to the delivery of the finished product. Industry 4.0 in textiles also allows monitoring of production processes and providing customers with real-time information on the status of their orders.

But what is meant, specifically, by industry 4.0 in textiles? And what can be the advantages for a company? Let’s find out together!

What is Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is a term that describes the ongoing transformation of manufacturing, based on the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics, and the collection and analysis of information through Learning Machine processes to improve the management of the production cycle. Industry 4.0 represents a new era in production, in which machines are able to communicate with each other and to interface with humans in an increasingly fluid way. This change is transforming the way companies produce and distribute their products, offering new opportunities to increase efficiency and flexibility. The technologies that are driving Industry 4.0 are constantly evolving, and their impacts on the industry are still largely unknown. However, it is clear that this new era of production will bring profound changes in business models and industrial processes, offering new challenges and opportunities for companies around the world.

How does Industry 4.0 work?

Adopting new technologies 4.0 means working by digitizing processes and then rethinking your business model. Digital transformation is not only about buying new machinery or reviewing processes, but also about profound change and improvement of all business processes. Technological innovation is also necessary to meet the growing demands in terms of respect for the environment and greater attention to the environmental sustainability of production processes. Key technologies used in Industry 4.0 include:

• artificial intelligence, that is the application of algorithms of machine learning in the business processes, both regarding the production and the management and maintenance of the machinery;
• data analysis, to meet the real needs of the market, defined on the basis of a careful scientific analysis;
• digital printing technologies to make production processes more efficient and reduce resource consumption;
• Internet of Things (IoT) to connect all parts of a company through the network and make the supply chain more sustainable, but also to control and manage production, the warehouse and the fleet;
• Cloud to allow an integrated management of the various departments and streamline information flows by improving and making more secure the sharing of information within the company;
• Digital Finance to facilitate and make the integrated administrative management faster and more immediate. A digital management of corporate finance is also useful for accurately and efficiently controlling revenue and expenditure, thus improving work processes.

Beschi and Industry 4.0: digital innovation to improve production efficiency

Beschi constantly invests in digital innovation to offer customers an increasingly efficient, modern and up-to-date service. For this reason, the company focuses on Industry 4.0, that is, an increasingly connected, automated and optimized vision of the company in terms of management, which is able to combine the Italian artisan tradition with the most advanced technologies, also with a view to improving the environmental sustainability of the textile industry. As of 2017, Beschi has invested in the renewal of the machinery fleet and to date 70% of the presses are equipped with the latest generation of equipment, with a consequent improvement in production efficiency.

The company has also invested in internal digitalization, to computerize and interconnect all business processes: from the insertion of customer and supplier orders to the scheduling of the work plan, from the loading to the destination with delivery date of the products, until the sale to the customer. This has allowed us to offer customers more flexible, faster, punctual and higher quality services, with a significant optimization of costs and improvement of production.