On March 20, as part of the business program "Russian Textile and Light Industry Week-2019", a round table was held on the topic "Digitalization of light industry: new drivers of development". The event was organized by the Engineering Center of Ivanovo Polytechnic University, the Innovation and Production Center of Textile and Light Industry, the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies and Soyuzlegprom.

The event was attended by: Nadezhda Kornilova, Head of the TLP IC of the IVSPU; Elena Rukhlova, Head of the Analytical Center of the Innovation and Production Center of the Textile and Light Industry, Moscow; Andrey Churaev, General Director of the BOSCO Manufactory; Anton Alfer, Chairman of the Digitalization Committee of Soyuzlegprom; Elena Kostenko, A-MARKET Group of companies» Vladislav Ivanov, company «Thermopol» Sergey Korolev, group of companies «Special Textiles» Natalia Anikeeva, franchisee 1C company; Sergey Molyavko, ShareCloth company; Igor Lutz, BBDO Group.

According to the participants of the round table, digitalization is becoming a central factor in the development of the textile and light industry in an increasing number of countries. But the perception of the state and business of this trend is different in many countries. It is important to understand that it embodies a comprehensive transformation of any industry, from management structures to the organization of production and marketing of products.

As some speakers noted, artificial intelligence and, in general, digital technologies are completely changing the system of product design and management of both production processes and product sales. The same factors, according to Nadezhda Kornilova, require a high-quality register of personnel and technological support in absolutely all sectors of the industry. It is impossible to develop digitalization in any industry purely sectorally, «point ».: this is a system category that requires consistent digital profile solutions throughout the industry chain.

According to Igor Lutz, «World practice shows that the choice of digitalization options and the pace of its implementation depend primarily on the availability of real opportunities to quickly adjust production to the changing requirements of competitiveness and simultaneously master new competencies in the industry. Moreover, the processes of digitalization are as closely interrelated with each other as all the components of production technology.

After studying the relevant practices of many industry enterprises, experts expressed the opinion that digitalization in the Russian Federation is often perceived as a local restructuring of production with the partial introduction of automated technologies in some manufacturing sectors. This approach is primarily due to the fact that there has long been a tradition to strive to minimize production and related costs in the hope that by increasing prices it will be possible to increase the profitability of production and, accordingly, its profitability. Therefore, the possibilities of digitalization are not fully used in the field of monitoring and forecasting of solvent demand for specific types of products. Including light industry products.

At the same time, there is a widespread opinion in the Russian business community, and in a number of departments, that the methods and technologies of digitalization developed and used, for example, in energy, mechanical engineering, metallurgy, oil refining, are quite applicable in such industries as light industry, agriculture, healthcare, etc., But with this approach, according to many expert estimates, there is a perception of digitalization as a new sphere of achieving record rates, which is called "indiscriminate" digitalization and outperforming competitors at these rates.  

Elena Rukhlova, a representative of the Innovation Center of the Textile Light Industry, drew attention to the most important factors of influence of this process and the production sector of the economy. First of all, there is a greater level of reliability in determining consumer preferences. Secondly, rethinking the industry needs for personnel and, accordingly, the issues of their retraining. Thirdly, comprehensive technological re-equipment of the industry. Including, among other things, the formation of a unified information technology platform focused on maximizing the trends of consumer demand and on a higher level of reliability of forecasting and demand modeling.

All the participants of the round table agreed with these conclusions.

Source and photo: Soyuzlegprom