While many fear that automation could lead to a potentially catastrophic number of garment jobs losses, a recent article from Vice’s Motherboard argues that it’s also possible that automation could actually benefit the 60 million people around the world that the industry employs.
If just the more mundane tasks are automated, rather than the entire production process, the article explains, it could “decentralize factories altogether by creating small manufacturing hubs across the world.”
And there are already companies, like Softwear and Sewbo, that are doing just that: designing and building machines that can execute the most monotonous and repetitive manufacturing steps, like simple seam work and hemming.
In addition to easing the burden of those menial and time-consuming tasks, that kind of automation can also enable small-scale, worker-run operations to increase their volume, and in turn, their overall revenue. And that, could ultimately end the reign of “sprawling factories with low wages and unregulated labor practices.”
You can read more about it at Motherboard.
