The Story of Intelligent Manufacturing in Liaoning Diebian｜Big data + intelligent manufacturing, Dayang Group builds the world's strongest clothing customization enterprise

In the clothing customization factory of Dayang Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dayang Group"), which has carried out intelligent transformation of the production system, we saw that after workers received orders remotely from computers, they used intelligent The typesetting system can select various fabrics required for a suit and complete the cutting in less than a minute.

Hu Dongmei, general manager of Dayang Group, said: "Our fastest delivery time is 4 working days. A very fast production closed loop allows consumers to transform customized clothing from high-end to very expensive. , (delivery time) is very long, unaffordable products become within reach and can be purchased readily. ”

Founded in 1979, Dayang Group has more than 4,000 employees. Engaged in the design, production and sales of various mid-to-high-end clothing products, the annual comprehensive clothing production and processing capacity is 11 million pieces (sets), the annual suit export volume is 6 million pieces (sets), and the annual clothing customization output is 2 million pieces (sets). With more than 85% of its products exported, it is the world's largest custom clothing manufacturer.

01 200 million yuan to build a global intelligent flexible customization factory for clothing

The private customization of suits has developed relatively maturely in developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan. Among Dayang Group’s suit orders, customized suits occupies a large proportion. For traditional clothing manufacturers, private customization, which has always been a niche market, has pain points such as high production costs, long manufacturing cycles, and difficulty in mass production and promotion. To break this bottleneck, companies must reform and innovate their production processes, and continuously optimize the flexibility of the supply chain through the development of information technology and intelligent transformation.

Since 2016, Dayang Group has begun to carry out intelligent transformation of the production system, and has invested a total of 200 million yuan to build Dayang Group's global intelligent flexible clothing customization factory.

With the goal of in-depth customization and instant experience, Dayang Group has created Ustyylit, a customized clothing industry Internet service platform. Through platform development, we open up the data link between clothing consumption and clothing design, production, materials, logistics, and customer service, and drive clothing design, surface and auxiliary material procurement, pattern selection, production organization, and planning according to consumers' personalized customization needs. Production scheduling, warehousing logistics, and operations management gather resources such as fabric and auxiliary material suppliers, manufacturing factories, traders, brands, and retail stores around the world to achieve on-demand flexibility in global clothing personalized customization through data interconnection and collaborative production. Intelligent customized production provides consumers with new experiential clothing customization services and promotes the integrated development of the digital economy and the real economy. The "full-category clothing personalized customization project that supports in-depth customization and instant experience" based on this platform was selected as the 2020 New Information Consumption Demonstration Project of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

02 Intelligence and digitalization run through the entire production and sales process

By applying the self-developed efficient production management information system, Dayang Group has realized the integration and decomposition of upper-level data, the summary analysis of lower-level data, A digital workshop based on dynamic data management with real-time updates of the production process. By strengthening the development of basic information system platforms, we ensure the stability and accuracy of data information exchange and achieve efficient operation of product production processes.

The large-scale flexible customized production line established by intelligent production equipment meets the production process flow requirements of single-order customization business, solves production capacity problems, and improves production efficiency. It realizes the flexible organization of mass production and single-volume and single-order customized production, and meets the demand for large-scale single-volume and single-order customized production capabilities.

Dayang Group has digitally transformed its marketing management model, continuously improving its digital service capabilities for global customers and consumers, meeting the differentiated needs of customers, and providing high-quality products and services. Through independent research and development of measurement standards and measurement data systems, tens of millions of version databases, and dictionary-coded unified material management systems, a basic data platform based on customized clothing has been built to lay a solid data foundation for intelligent manufacturing and intelligent services; through Build an efficient marketing service information system to achieve collaborative management of data from marketing terminals, production plants and suppliers, achieving comprehensive and close cooperation.

By gradually improving the intelligent production system, improving the level of intelligence and digitalization, and modularizing and combining the personalized needs of individual customers for all aspects of the client, supply, production, and logistics distribution. Later, large-scale production was realized, the basic capabilities and modernization level of the industry were comprehensively improved, the product quality of customized clothing was greatly improved, and the production cycle was shortened.

03 Intelligent manufacturing turns niche high-end consumption into mass fashion choice

Since the reform and opening up, the number of customized clothing as a high-end consumer has doubled. Consumers born in the 1980s and 1990s pursue personalized and fashionable clothing, and have a stronger demand for customized clothing.

At the same time, the differences in people’s body shapes have increased the demand for more fitting customized clothing. Therefore, the demand for private customization of clothing has increased significantly. According to estimates, the current domestic clothing customization market size is about 200 billion yuan.

Big data + intelligent manufacturing breaks through the key links of body measurement and pattern making, and the flexible supply chain enables mass production of customized clothing, reducing manufacturing costs and shortening the customization cycle. Advances in technology have made private customization of clothing, a niche high-end consumption, a fashion choice for the masses.

Hu Dongmei said: "The price of customized clothing is becoming more and more affordable. In the early years, a customized suit might cost three to five thousand yuan, but now you can customize a set of your favorite pure wool fabric for 2,580 yuan. Suits. Then, through some online promotions, such customized clothes may even be available for less than 1,000 yuan.”

Dayang Group’s global marketing network has spread to more than 20 countries and regions. Thousands of single-cut cooperative stores have been opened. The categories of customized clothing products have expanded from suits to 7 categories including shirts, pants, coats, women's clothing, and casual wear. The production capacity, delivery capacity, and product quality are world-leading. In 2019, Dayang Group's single-order customized products reached 1.304 million pieces (sets), earning more than US$70 million in foreign exchange from exports, making it the world's largest customized clothing manufacturer. The proportion of customized product sales revenue in the group's overall business revenue increased from 14.1% in 2016 to 36.2% in 2019. The company's product structure adjustment has initially achieved results. In 2021, affected by the global epidemic and the complex and changing international situation, Dayang Group's overseas clothing business experienced a cliff-like decline. However, customized clothing production still achieved sales of 1.2 million pieces (sets).

In October 2021, at the China Apparel Conference, the most prestigious annual event in China's apparel industry, Hu Dongmei, who served as the topic chairperson, gave an opening speech at the "Intelligent Manufacturing and Human-Machine Integration" parallel session , based on the digital transformation practice of Dayang Group, the experience of intelligent manufacturing in the clothing industry was shared with the participants.

In November 2021, the fifth batch of "National Industrial Design Centers" evaluated every two years by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was announced. Dayang Group relies on its leading design and R&D capabilities and technological innovation and industrial The deep integration ability of design has won high recognition from review experts. It stood out from many participating companies and was successfully awarded the title of "National Industrial Design Center".

In December 2021, at the third China Garment Manufacturing Conference hosted by the China Garment Association, 12 companies across the country won the title of "2021 China Garment Product Innovation Base". Dalian Dayang Clothing Customization Technology Co., Ltd. is among them.

Dayang Group strengthens the construction of four major innovation entities: technology center, design center, information center and testing center, strengthens industry-university-research cooperation with overseas experts and domestic scientific research institutes, and strengthens the management and cultivation of scientific and technological talents. , with creative design as the guide, market demand as the guide, and customer satisfaction as the goal, form a product and service innovation system to comprehensively enhance the core competitiveness of the enterprise. At the same time, we insist on taking informatization and digital construction as the core to promote high-quality development of enterprises.

Up to now, Dayang Group has 6 national-level high-tech enterprises, 1 national-level industrial design center, 1 national-level public service platform for small and medium-sized enterprises, and 1 national-level product innovation base. , 1 provincial enterprise technology center, and 1 scientific and technological innovation service organization, ranking among the top 500 enterprises in the world's clothing industry and the top 100 enterprises in the country's clothing industry. In recent years, Dayang Group has won many honors such as the "Liaoning Provincial Governor Quality Award" and "National May Day Labor Certificate".

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Dayang Group will actively promote the "dual circulation" strategy, focus on developing domestic business on the basis of stabilizing the international market, and focus on "Brand Dayang, Customized Dayang, Digital Five aspects: Dayang, Capital Dayang, and Culture Dayang" will comprehensively enhance the group's comprehensive competitiveness.

Dayang Group will adhere to the corporate spirit of "a group of people, a lifetime, one thing" and continue to create an industrial development path focusing on the global clothing customization business. By improving the level of intelligence and digitalization, it will promote The development of large-scale clothing customization business will contribute new strength to the development of China's clothing industry, the development of Dalian's regional economy, and the revitalization of the old industrial base in Northeast China.

Inside the garment factory of Dayang Group Company Ltd. (Dayang Group for short tailor), we see the workers finishing a garment within one minute after they have received a remote order on the computer, completed smart typesetting, and selected the fabrics for the garment.

“We can deliver the suit in 4 days. In this way custom-made garment becomes reachable to the consumer who had previously to spend more money and more time,” said Hu Dongmei, general manager of the garment group in Dalian.

Established in the year 1979, Dayang Group has 4,000 employees and its business ranges from designing, producing, selling middle and top quality dress products. Its annual output amounts to 11 million pieces or sets. It exports 6 million pieces or sets of western-style dresses. Its annual custom-made garments are 2 million pieces or sets. As the largest custom-made garment producer in the world, 85% of its products are made for exportation.

Since 2016, Dayang Group has undergone a transformation in AI production system and invested 200 million yuan in making the enterprise an international AI garment producer in flexible customization.

By optimizing its AI production system, the group has placed its focuses on intellectualization and digitalization for the sake of its customers, suppliers, producers, and distributors. Its clients' personal needs are modulized before mass produced. Now its overall capacity in production has been increased and modernized. And the quality of its products has been improved and production cycle shortened.

Since China has adopted the policy of reform and opening up to the world, a generation of young consumers has shifted their interest to personalized fashions. They are the ones who have a stronger desire for custom-made costumes and consequently there's a great demand on the part of the customers.

According to Hu Dongmei, the price is more and more customer- friendly. A business suit cost almost 5,000 yuan if it was custom made in the past,while its price has been cut in half to 2,580, even if it is of purely wool fabric. If it is ordered by online promotion, the price can be further reduced to less than 1,000.

Today's Dayang Group has market networks in more than 20 countries and regions and its cooperative tailor shops amount to over 1,000. Its products include 7 categories of shirts, trousers, overcoat, lady's dress, and casual clothes. It has become a leading garment producer in the world in terms of its productivity, delivery, and quality.

Up to now, Dayang Group has 6 high-tech enterprises of national class, one industrial design center of national class, one public service platform of national class, one innovation base of national class, one technical center of provincial enterprise, and one institution for science and technology innovations.The group is one of the world's top 500 enterprises, a leading enterprise in top 100 garment producers in China, winners of Liaoning Governor's Quality Prize, and National May 1 Labor Prize.

(Trans. by G. Q.)

Photography: Li Dong< /p>