Nantong Home Textiles: From "Weaving" to "Smart Manufacturing"

On average, 1,350 sets of sets, 670 quilts and 340 pillows are produced every minute, the annual output of home textile bedding exceeds 1.2 billion pieces, and the annual foreign trade export volume exceeds 10 billion yuan... This is the productivity of Jiangsu Nantong International Home Textile Industrial Park. Recently, the reporter learned during the interview that the park has become the largest home textile production base and trade base in the country with a domestic bedding market share of more than 50%.

On average, 1,350 sets of sets, 670 quilts and 340 pillows are produced every minute, the annual output of home textile bedding exceeds 1.2 billion pieces, and the annual foreign trade export volume exceeds 10 billion yuan... This is the productivity of Jiangsu Nantong International Home Textile Industrial Park. Recently, the reporter learned during the interview that the park has become the largest home textile production base and trade base in the country with a domestic bedding market share of more than 50%.

The world's home textiles look to China, and China's home textiles look to Nantong. Nantong City has formed a modern textile industrial system with a full range of categories such as home textiles, cotton textiles, clothing and printing and dyeing. Anchored in the direction of high-end and intelligent development, Nantong Home Textiles continues to improve the industrial chain, strengthen the agglomeration effect, and lead the global home textile industry trends.

Focus on high-end textiles

Zhai Yuying, member of the Party Leadership Group and deputy director of the Nantong Science and Technology Bureau, said: "Nantong is one of the world's three major home textile centers. In 2023, there will be 1,466 textile enterprises above a certain scale in the city, with an output value of 210.43 billion yuan, which will reach 220 billion yuan this year. High-end textiles have formed the most iconic and representative industrial cluster in Nantong."

Scientific and technological innovation is the key to the development of high-end textiles.

Ordinary cotton yarn is treated with submicron fiber technology to form a low-proportion tree mosaic, construct a micro-nano antibacterial network structure, and greatly increase the comprehensive antibacterial rate of the fabric to 3A+ level. This is the "credit" of the key technology of low-proportion and high-efficiency antibacterial micro-nano fiber yarn-dyed fabrics.

In 2021, Nantong took the lead in implementing the "unveiling and commanding" system for industrial innovation in Jiangsu Province. Among them, the key technology project of low-proportion and high-efficiency antibacterial micro-nano fiber yarn-dyed fabrics jointly issued by Jiangsu Lianfa Textile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lianfa Textile") and Nantong Science and Technology Bureau was unveiled by the team of Qin Xiaohong of Donghua University. After more than 10 months of research and development, the team not only solved the antibacterial problem of fabrics, but also overcame the difficulties of compounding warm moisture-absorbing and heating materials, cool cooling materials and cotton yarns, and developed warm/cool technology fabrics.

In 2022, the low-proportion high-efficiency antibacterial micro-nano fiber yarn-dyed fabric products won the "Best Science and Technology Innovation Award" of the China International Fabric Design Competition. Through cooperation with Donghua University, Lianfa Textile has greatly increased the added value of cotton yarn, and the company's comprehensive strength has been at the forefront of the national yarn-dyed fabric industry for many years.

To create a landmark industry, it is necessary to cultivate a group of technology-based enterprises with strong innovation capabilities and form an enterprise cluster. Jiangsu Dasheng Group Co., Ltd. is the "vanguard" enterprise in the national cotton textile industry; Xinyuan Cocoon Silk Group Co., Ltd.'s natural colored cocoon silk, functional silk home textiles and mulberry silk comprehensive development achievements are at the international leading level; Jiangsu Jingbang New Materials Co., Ltd. and other three companies won the Jiangsu Science and Technology Progress Award. Nantong also has a large number of companies that have become well-known companies in various segments of the domestic textile industry.

Realize data sharing

From cutting, sewing, inspection to ironing, finishing and packaging, all processes of home textile manufacturing are completely controlled by computers; the hanging system and other management information systems realize data sharing and data visualization... In Nantong International Home Textile Industrial Park, such intelligent production scenes can be seen everywhere.

The relevant person in charge of the park told reporters that through the application of digital technology, the overall production efficiency of home textile products has increased by about 30%. At the same time, labor costs have been reduced by 35%, inventory costs have been reduced by 20%-30%, procurement costs have been reduced by 5%, inventory capital occupation has been reduced by 15%, and production resource energy consumption has been reduced by 36%. Through full-process monitoring, the accuracy of finished product quality has reached 100%, and the qualified rate of finished products entering the warehouse exceeds 99.6%.

The application of technologies such as "big data +" has enabled Nantong textile enterprises to transform from traditional "weaving" to "intelligent manufacturing". The data between systems are effectively utilized, breaking the "information island", realizing data interconnection and sharing, and forming a complete set of information management and control systems, covering multiple links such as ordering, scheduling, process reporting, quality monitoring, warehousing management, and financial management.

There are new technologies on the production side, and new strategies on the sales side. In June 2023, the Xianyifang Live Ecological Center project, the first closed-loop carrier of live e-commerce in the home textile and home furnishing category in China, was officially put into operation, opening up a new scene for home textile sales.

Digital transformation continues to release more dividends. At present, Nantong International Home Textile Industrial Park has built multiple public service platforms such as industrial technology research, customs supervision, index release, quality inspection, and intellectual property protection. Shaoxing Huansi Smart Technology Co., Ltd., Nantong Falcon Information Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Yishang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. and other 10 service providers have settled in the park's digital service platform; Jiangsu Meiluo Home Textile Co., Ltd., Kaisheng Home Textile Co., Ltd. and other 10 companies have carried out digital transformation first; Jiangsu Baoman Home Textile Technology Co., Ltd., Nantong Mengjie Home Textile Co., Ltd. and other companies have entered the sequence of creating Jiangsu provincial and Nantong municipal intelligent manufacturing demonstration workshops (demonstration factories); the park's smart logistics construction is accelerating, and a comprehensive big data platform for home textile data sharing, analysis and decision-making, comprehensive evaluation, grid management, etc. has been built to provide important basis for industrial decision-making.

Source: Science and Technology Daily