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Clothing manufacturing 4.0 – Changing the way we make fashion

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Rodinia (Clothing manufacturing 4.0 – Changing the way we make fashion)

Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-11-01 do 2020-02-29

The fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world: 121.5 billion tonnes of water (2,700L/garment produced) and 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 per year are wasted propelling climate change.
30% of the annual production of garments are never sold, due to a slow sequential production system in which, it is cheaper to overproduce than produce just what is needed. Also, in a fast fashion world trends are shifting faster than new clothes can be manufactured due to slow production lead times and a low tech industry which relies on very cheap manual labour.
Rodinia is an automated and digital clothing production process managed by our cloud-based Clothing Manufacturing Efficiency (CME) software with the potential to eliminate overproduction of clothes.
The production line comprises a digital printer, a curing oven, and a cutting machine,- robotic arms can additionally be added-. The production process is faster than ever, uses no water, minimal energy and non-toxic biodegradable dyes for printing. It is thus the first ever sustainable and affordable production solution build for SME fashion brands to produce closer to home (nearshore).
From a technical point of view, we have defined the floor planning, the equipment and the setting up of our Green Fashion Factory – pilot facility, identified the development of our CME software from the architecture, back end and front end point of view and its AI implementation and determining the pilot programme which will validate our technology. We have elaborated a complete Execution Plan with a risk analysis and mitigation measures. Commercially, we have performed an analysis of our target markets, updated our business and revenue streams, and also consolidated our dissemination and commercial strategy. We have updated our Freedom-to-Operate with a law firm analysis and a based line scenario and financial forecast have been drafted to evaluate a five year projection.
"The fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world, generating 8kg of CO2 and 2,700 liters of water per garment produced. Clothing represents over 60% of total textile usage, yet more than two-thirds of approximately 57 million tons of waste are generated (17.5 kg per capita equivalent). ""Every second, an entire garbage truck full of textile waste is directed to landfills or incinerators"". The world economy could gain as much as €160 billion annually if the fashion industry could successfully redirect waste to wealth.

Rodinia automated clothing manufacturing process supported by our CME software enables manufacturers to adjust their production to real demand by reducing drastically production lead times while offering no lowest limits in production-size (volume). Overproduction will never again be an issue (overproduction accounts for 45 billion garments per year) and will facilitate a reduction in clothing waste. In addition, 0% water and no toxic chemicals are used in the production process.

The EU Member States imported clothes worth €166 billion in 2018; and €84 billion came from non-EU Member States. With Rodinia, we can bring fashion production closer to home – to be produced where the actual demand is. Automation is the key to make it a reality as companies can now compete due to increased productivity, shorter lead times, more transparent supply chains thus taking into account the rising labour cost in the current low labour cost countries. Rodinia is therefore enabling a new paradigm in the history of fashion: sustainable, ultra-fast (just-in-time), and nearshore production."
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