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Technical and technological impact on textiles

Two developments last week received in the media smaller attention than they deserve. These relate to technology and technical impact on the textile industry. The technical aspect arose out of the seminar — “Technical textiles - A roadmap for India” organised in the capital. The technological aspect arose from the textile majors’ determination to use the information technology to the best to save cost and plan the execution of orders. This came to light from a story in the media. The technical textile is an important development because the players in the industry contend that they could produce goods worth $ 20 billion by 2020. This is their target. That is possible only if India is able to post a growth rate of over 4.5 per cent per annum because, competing countries like China are increasingly displacing India in the global technical textile market. India is presently accounting for only two per cent of the global trade estimated at $ 90 billion, even as China gets some 20 per cent share. The major players in this segment of the textile industry want the government to take the issue seriously without which reaching such an ambitious target would be difficult. That is the very purpose of the seminar as well. The seminar received the benefit of the presence of the textile secretary. But, the use of the technical textile should be in both the foreign and Indian markets. In India, only 0.3 per cent of the production is used. The consumption spreads to defence, automobiles and construction sectors. The principal items manufactured include covers for the automobile industry, fibre nets, woven hoses for pipeline construction and bullet-proof jackets for the defence. These are special items and cannot be manufactured without a high level of technical understanding of the user requirements. That’s why they are called technical textiles. Given the fact that the automobiles industry is growing fast in India and for that matter elsewhere in Asia, this segment offers a bright scope for the technical textile trade. Likewise, the defence requirements are high. The government’s spending on defence has been growing year after year. The government is also determined to ensure that the defence gets a quality upgradation. There is an all-round effort to step up the technological build up in the defence which also means that the use of the technical textile in the department would be impressive.

At an earlier defence meet focussing on the innovative approach to strengthen the warfare management, top defence personnel told this columnist that the modern warfare could not be faced without equipping the personnel suitably with technical textiles. Textile can mean a lot to the Defence personnel and the convenience of using a rough and tough dress adequately equipped with bullet proof facility, more pockets and hidden sockets for storing bullets, arms and ammunitions besides the personal items including water is a massive challenge and requirement on the industry. The textile secretary rightly described the technical textile as a ‘sunrise’ and a ‘highly profitable’ segment. In fact, some time back, there was study on the growth of this sector, but the recommendations had not been put into practice, contend the players. The only fact that cannot be brushed aside is that profit does not come just like that. Global competition is growing in all segments of the textile industry, the technical textile included. So, the only key to success in this lies in devising a concerted action by all the key partners to the issue — all wings of the industry and the government. As for the issue relating to the technology is concerned, Indian textile majors are reported to have gone in for technological solutions that are aimed at using the diversified information tools to upgrade the supply system. The result is that these companies have shown that they could gain on higher efficiency in demand management. The media reported that the Coimbatore-based Lakshmi Machine Works has gained 20 per cent last year by using extensively e-solutions. The reports also say that textile retailers are increasingly using the hi-tech radio frequency identification device (RFID) solution to improve processing. The list of the beneficiaries is endless. The companies have been able to reduce the lead time significantly. They will be able to re-use the components and save on cost. The RFID is believed to help the textile players in improving the equation between the demand and supply through remote sensing of the product and the manual intervention is kept to the minimum. This high tech device is a tag attached to the product. Its chip is linked to the antenna. The signal emitted by the tag is tracked by the antenna and displayed in the detector. The result is the immediate information on stocks. So, this helps in inventory management and reduction in lead time. That also adds value to the customer service and the overall business satisfaction. The device is used for garment forecasts. So, with technical and technological aspects, textile trade has come a long way.

- P S Sundar