Look beyond the horizon
Industry statistics for 2023 are generally encouraging: production volumes of clothing, leather goods and footwear have increased, while the decline in the textile segment has slowed, said Dmitry Guzov, director of the Innovation Center for Textile and Light Industry (Moscow). The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation assures that the production of textile products in the last eight months has increased by 10.6 percent. Experts highlight progress in the production of knitwear, synthetic and chiffon fabrics and positive dynamics in the production of technical textiles.
In the Ivanovo region, which remains one of the flagships of light industry, between January and September the volume of products shipped by the industry increased by 17 percent. According to Governor Stanislav Voskresensky, this was influenced by the implementation of the state order: almost 30 local companies are registered in the defense industry register and the range of products they produce for the needs of the army is expanding. In the first half of the year, the region’s production of work clothes, mittens and industrial gloves increased by approximately 20 percent, and production of knitted and woven fabrics increased by 13 percent. For this type of products, Ivanovo factories occupy 50 to 70 percent of the Russian market.
At the same time, according to Guzov, domestic production of yarns (by 8.3 percent in total, linen by 45 percent, wool by 21 percent) and nonwovens (by 7.9 percent in 10 months) is declining. ). A survey among businessmen showed that this is due to a shortage of raw materials and machine tools.
– Light industry equipment is obsolete and we have lost the ability to manufacture it ourselves. The industry does not have enough investment: borrowed capital is not available to entrepreneurs, and they will think three times whether to make these investments or not, confirmed Andrey Churaev, general director of Ro-sport LLC, an expert in organizing textile production and tailoring (Moscow Region, Dedovsk). – Government support is needed to automate production.
When automating production, it is necessary to take into account possible difficulties with the repair of imported equipment.
The high cost of borrowing caused by the increase in the official interest rate was also highlighted by the president of the Russian Union of Tanners and Shoemakers, chairman of the board of directors of the Russian leather group of companies (which includes the Ryazan tannery), Igor. Surin. According to him, the current bank lending rate of 17.5 percent exceeds the average margin of companies in the sector.
– In 2024, the Central Bank seemed to plan to reduce the key interest rate. We hope so. Otherwise, support measures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade will be required so that light industry does not lose its growth rate,” Surin said.
And the prospect of losing this pace is quite real, confirmed Alla Sbitneva, project director of the Corporate Business Development Department of Sberbank PJSC:
– The pace of growth of the sector is encouraging, but in 2023 its companies invested only 14 billion borrowed funds in development, and all of these are short-term loans. What will they produce in three years?… Now the light industry is in a kind of scissors: on the one hand, the enormous opportunities offered by the need to substitute imports, on the other, the low investment activity. Despite the high cost of resources, it is imperative to invest in equipment and raw material projects (especially in the production of viscous and synthetic yarns), visit international markets and industry events to see machines that we do not have yet, and many products. that we do not launch.
Support Lease
The head of the Ivanovo region, Stanislav Voskresensky, recalled that in 2020 a specific support measure for light industry enterprises carrying out technical re-equipment had already been introduced at the federal level and proposed to maintain it. The 50% discount on the initial payment for equipment leasing was extended annually. The question is whether this will be done now.
– In our region, 20 companies took advantage of a unique discount. They received aid of 2.3 billion rubles. This made it possible to attract additional investments of more than 10 billion and create more than a thousand highly productive jobs,” said Voskresensky.
For example, the Rodniki-Textiles factory (a resident of the Ivanovo Economic Complex with 700 employees) resorted to preferential leasing in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Thanks to this, in particular, we launched in October this year an automated line for the production of dyed and finished. It processes an average of eight thousand meters of fabric per shift.
According to the director of the company, Igor Smugalov, four lines have been replaced in the dyeing and finishing workshop and six more will be installed: “All equipment is highly automated and more economical, which allows reducing the time for setting parameters during the transfer. from item to item, ensures more stable operation and generally expands production capabilities.”
In addition, with government support, the company acquired laboratory lines that allow it to accelerate the production of new colors, develop dyeing technologies and improve product quality control.
Voskresensky expressed his proposal to expand rental subsidies at the plenary session of the forum, addressing Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Oleg Bocharov. He avoided answering. However, behind the scenes, business owners were assured that measures to support the industry are being discussed, including consideration of high loan interest rates.
Take it to automation
The main task of existing production facilities is to increase the level of automation, Manufacturing 4.0 experts noted. Modern equipment makes it possible to produce large quantities of products with stable quality and few people are needed for its maintenance, which is especially important, given the chronic shortage of personnel in light industry. According to estimates presented in November 2023 at the “Workwear” forum in Ivanovo, the sector lacks at least 50,000 employees, including 35,000 seamstresses.
– At a specialized exhibition in China, we inspected a full-cycle footwear production complex. Its capacity is up to 1.5 million pairs per year, its staff is 10 people. Our factory produces between 300,000 and 340,000 pairs with 300 employees,” Alexey Tarasenko, general director of the Perm “Trek” shoe factory, compared the level of automation.
Programmable complexes at the new headquarters of the Home Style group of companies in Ivanovo (which produces home clothing made of knitwear) helped to increase productivity and eliminate the additions of seamstresses.
“In 2022 we reconstructed a building with an area of more than seven thousand square meters and initially installed automated systems there for cutting and sewing products,” said production director Anna Minkina. – We have almost completely eliminated manual placement and paper patterns; Thanks to this, the speed and quality of cutting has been improved and costs have been reduced. In the sewing workshop, labor productivity increased by 10 percent. The automation of accounting eliminates fraud in the production indicators of seamstresses and errors at the order picking stage. We follow market innovations. For this reason, many companies are developing sewing machines with an intelligent system of adaptation to different fabrics, so that they can be easily changed, for example, from viscose to footer.
Digital solutions can be implemented at different levels depending on the company’s resources and goals, explained Andrey Churaev. You can automate the document flow or cutting area, set up a system for sewing machines to interact, and test software systems for screen printing or embroidery. But we must understand that it will cost money not only to buy equipment and software, but also to create the conditions for its operation.
“Everything costs money: electricity, which is consumed by the equipment itself, ventilation, lighting, video surveillance for security and control of the production process…” Churaev recalled. – Try starting laser cutting and turning off the air exhaust! GOST regulates the power, temperature and incidence of light from windows, which is especially important when working with dark fabrics. You can build a very modern production facility, like the Untex factory in Rodniki, but there will be a large volume of material transfer between machines.
Also, when automating production, it is necessary to take into account possible difficulties with the repair of imported equipment. Thus, the Moscow company for the production of hosiery “Akos Tex” was designed at one time in Italy and equipped with Italian machines. All operations, including manual ones, are automated; For example, one machine in the packaging area replaces four to six people. Now the company “imports substitutes” not only for European brand products, but also for spare parts.
– Automation – these are controllers, sensors, sensors, stepper motors. Most of the components, including controllers and controllers, came from Russian manufacturers. We are mastering 3D printing and milling so we don’t have to order parts, but cut them ourselves. But there are no cables, microcircuits and guides for 3D printers in domestic production. And although we have “brains” and raw materials, some things we cannot repeat,” said technical director Oleg Grishin.
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