World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said recently that
automation could render about two thirds of jobs in the developing world
redundant. An ILO report on Textile and Clothing Sector in ASEAN states the
textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) sector is at the highest risk of losing
jobs to automation. Reports suggest Raymond will be firing 10,000 workers
across its 16 manufacturing units in India. These workers will be replaced by
robots in around three years.
Adidas, in 2016, successfully tested an automated shoe
factory, ‘Speedfactory’, using 3D technology and robotics. Under consideration
is another automated plant in the US as well as its newest factory in 2018 in
Arkansas which will house autonomous robots — and their human supervisors— will
be able to daily manufacture 8,00,000 sports shirts.Texprocess, a major trade fair for the international garment-manufacturing and
textile processing industry, put on display a Digital Textile Micro Factory at
its May 2017 show in Frankfurt, Germany. It was a live demonstration of an
integrated production chain for apparel right from the design stage to digital
printing to automated cutting to sewing.
The threat from automation is
real and developing countries such as Bangladesh cannot escape this threat as
“we service the same brands that will demand higher productivity, lower cost,
lower carbon footprint, better working condition, quicker turnaround time, and
flexibility” said an industry expert.In Bangladesh, over four million workers in the garment industry are earning
over 82 per cent of the nation''s overall export income. The main ‘product’ of
Bangladesh is the labour of the millions who take raw textiles and turn them
into finished garments, however, much of this labour is concentrated in the
final phase of production before shipping known as ‘Cut and Sew — the same
process that Western innovation is working to automate. The question now is for
how long Bangladesh can sustain production on the ‘low labour cost” advantage?
A fiscal rethink may soon be necessary if the wave of automation causes large
numbers of job losses. Then making the robot pay tax and using the money to
retrain humans may be a solution to a problem.
Source: Providence Journal, U.S.A Thursday, 25 January 2018