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With China's economic development into the new normal, the textile industry has emerged with automation, intelligent equipment instead of manual labor "machine substitution" boom.What has this boom brought to the industry? What problems have you encountered? Is there a trend change in the industry workforce?In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the current situation of "machine substitution" in the textile industry, the China Finance, Trade, Textile and Tobacco Union has recently deepened.Jiangsu, Fujian, Henan, Tianjin, Shanghai, ShandongIn the key areas of textile industry development, representative enterprises such as spinning, chemical fiber, weaving and clothing were selected to carry out special research, and some basic situations of "machine substitution" in the textile industry were clarified.

Difficult recruitment, expensive labor force textile industry "machine substitution"

The traditional textile industry is a labor-intensive industry, with the gradual disappearance of China's demographic dividend, transformation and upgrading is urgent. Mechanization, automation, and intelligence have become effective ways to transform traditional industries, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, reduce staff and increase efficiency, and alleviate recruitment difficulties. This has also opened the curtain of "machine substitution" in the textile industry.

The report shows that,Rising labor costs and the industry's long-term structural shortage of workers have become one of the main drivers of the textile industry's "machine substitution.

In recent years, the growth rate of labor remuneration has been accelerating. Enterprises have to raise the wages of employees 1 to 2 times a year, and enterprises obviously feel the pressure on employment. The development of the textile industry requires a large number of textile technical workers and skilled personnel. The eastern part is the traditional labor inflow province, there is a gap in the supply of local labor, and the return of skilled workers in the central and western provinces who are migrant workers has caused textile enterprises, especially the eastern textile enterprises, to generally face the dilemma of "labor shortage. At the same time, due to the high work intensity of the textile industry and the high mobility of employees, especially the young employees born in the 85 s and 90 s are mostly unwilling to engage in monotonous and repetitive jobs with high labor intensity. The front-line workers cannot be effectively supplemented, which also makes many textiles. The company has been short of jobs for a long time, forcing the company to "replace people with machines".Take some textile enterprises in southern Jiangsu as an example, the enterprises face about 10% of the shortage of jobs every year.

At the same time, the industrial upgrading of the textile industry and the realization of high-quality development have a demand for intelligent manufacturing, and "machine substitution" has become the general trend. The survey shows that the quality of textiles is the competitiveness of enterprises, but the development of textile quality in China is not optimistic. The instability of quality not only exists between different enterprises and different regions, but also between different batches of products within the enterprise, which directly affects the market competitiveness of products.In terms of promoting stable product quality and achieving high-quality development, intelligent robot production has incomparable advantages over manual production.

the report pointed out that currently,The strategic deployment of "Made in China 2025" and "Industrial 4.0", as well as the "National Textile Industry Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" and the corresponding national and local incentive policies to support equipment upgrades,Together constitute the textile industry to achieve "machine substitution" intelligent manufacturing background.Due to the problem of labor costs and the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), manufacturing powers such as Europe and the United States have shifted their focus to India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries. Whether it is human capital, equipment or technology, Chinese textiles have suffered Challenges from Southeast Asian countries; at the same time, although many companies have introduced advanced foreign equipment, they still cannot change the relative technological backwardness of the industry. Therefore, "machine substitution" is imperative.

"Machine substitution" for the textile industry energy efficiency

This research has made a thorough investigation of the "machine substitution" effect of some sub-sectors of the textile industry. The report shows:

1. Cotton spinning industry.Large-scale technical transformation of cleaning and carding couplet and simple cleaning and carding couplet, high-efficiency and coarse, high-efficiency tight-race spinning long car, automatic winding machine, etc., yarn quality index and average labor of ten thousand spindles, energy saving and consumption reduction reached a new level. In particular, the application of spinning intelligent falling yarn machine greatly reduces the labor intensity of spinning workers, and the labor force can be reduced by more than 40%. Taking Changyuan Textile Company in Changle City, Fujian Province as an example, the original 10 spinning workshops were technically transformed and fully automatic production lines were introduced. The number of workers was reduced from 504 to 317, and the average monthly salary was increased by 1000 yuan.

2. Chemical fiber industry.Through intelligent technological transformation such as flexible technology, energy saving and consumption reduction, the level of product differentiation, quality performance and production efficiency have been significantly improved, and the number of workers has been greatly reduced. Take Fujian Baihong Group as an example. After the implementation of "machine substitution", the automatic thread drop process will reduce the labor by 70% and the automatic packaging process by 80%. The cost of updating the automatic packaging equipment can be recovered in 3 to 4 years.

3. Functional textiles.The company has introduced a large number of high-performance automated warp knitting machines, flat knitting machines, round machines and supporting finishing equipment, and developed various types of clothing, shoe materials, home textiles, and industrial functional knitted fabric products to adapt to the domestic and foreign market demand trends. Taking Fujian Jinjiang Huayu Weaving Co., Ltd. as an example, 400 full-automatic warp knitting machines were introduced at one time, and the number of lathe workers was reduced from more than 800 to more than 200. Upgrade from 1 to 2 machines per capita to 5 machines per capita. The monthly salary has increased significantly from about 4000 yuan per capita, and the monthly salary of the best skilled workers can reach nearly 10,000 yuan.

4. Shoes and clothing manufacturing.Pay attention to the improvement of design concept and intelligent manufacturing, clothing function, art and fashion design are constantly strengthened, and the level of design and sewing processing and finishing has made significant progress. Qipai, Seven Wolves, Nine Muwang, Jinba and other advantageous enterprises adopt robots instead of manual cloth laying and implement logistics process automation, which greatly reduces labor intensity and improves production efficiency.

5. Printing and dyeing industry.From the experience of advanced regions, after the implementation of "machine substitution" in printing and dyeing enterprises, the water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value of the enterprises decreased by more than 15%, the energy consumption decreased by more than 17%, the discharge of industrial wastewater decreased by more than 10%, the water reuse rate reached 52.7, and the labor cost was saved by nearly 60%.

Small and medium-sized enterprises "machine substitution" difficult

The report shows that "machine substitution" has incomparable advantages in replacing labor to improve productivity, but there are still many difficulties for the majority of textile enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.

First of all, the one-time investment of "machine substitution" is high, and enterprises are short of funds and financing difficulties. Enterprises would rather maintain the status quo than invest heavily.More than half of the enterprises visited by the survey have an investment of more than 10 million yuan, with the highest even exceeding 100 million yuan. In addition, in recent years, corporate financing costs have risen, financing difficulties and other factors have discouraged companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, from "machine substitution. At the same time, the layout of the factory buildings and production lines of some old and small enterprises cannot provide enough space for the equipment upgrade of "machine substitution", and the renovation, expansion and even new construction of the factory buildings will further increase the cost of "machine substitution. At present, the country is pushing to deleverage to reduce leverage and reduce overall debt ratio, the amount of loans available to banks has been greatly reduced, the cost of financing is high, and only the amount has no funds. In order to maintain normal operations and ensure cash flow, companies are reluctant to invest in large equipment and high-tech equipment.

Secondly, the government supporting policy needs to be further detailed.For example, the survey learned that Henan Province has issued the "Three-year Action Plan for the Development of Intelligent Manufacturing and Industrial Internet in Henan Province (2018-2020)", which will promote the "machine substitution" plan in the coal, chemical, food and other industries, and plans Build 50 provincial-level smart factories every year. However, the Henan provincial government has no specific policies to help the textile industry, and the cities have no clear support policies. Policy, financial assistance is not enough, resulting in enterprises on the "machine substitution" will not be strong.

Third, the level of domestic textile machinery production is still unable to meet the needs of high-quality textile production, imported machinery is expensive, extending the recovery cycle of capital investment, but also increased the maintenance cost of daily equipment.Research shows that the digital and intelligent upgrading of equipment is not like the simple and extensive technological transformation in the past, which can be completed through imitation or commissioned trial production. Instead, companies need to use more universities and automation equipment research units to cooperate together to fully integrate the process from the process to the overall production process. There are many uncertainties in the research and development process.

Fourth, the cultural and technical level of textile enterprises is relatively low, and there is a serious lack of technical personnel.After the introduction of automation equipment, the demand for all kinds of technical personnel will increase sharply. Textile enterprises need to train or introduce high-level technical personnel, which is undoubtedly a greater burden.

Fifth, the wage level of textile workers in the central and western regions is low, and the subjective will of enterprises to carry out "machine substitution" is not strong.For example, Anyang City, Henan Province implements the monthly minimum wage of 1600 yuan and the hourly minimum wage of 15 yuan. There is basically no labor shortage in the local area. Even if the employment is tight occasionally, after the wage is appropriately raised, sufficient manpower can generally be found.

"Machine substitution" will change the industry employment structure

Since the first industrial revolution, the replacement of human labor by machines has become an irreversible trend.The "machine substitution" of modern manufacturing industry directly turns machines into labor. Has it had a great impact on the traditional labor market and enterprise employment?

The research report believes that the labor-intensive characteristics of the textile industry will not change in the short term.According to the survey, at present, "machine substitution" is not implemented in the whole production process of an industry or an enterprise, but is widely used in some production links of an industry or enterprise. In other words, robots only replace manual operations in individual industries and links. In the short term, they mainly have a positive impact on the improvement of production efficiency and product quality. They will not change the labor-intensive characteristics of the textile industry and will not cause serious problems. Personnel unemployment.

The survey results show that the current textile industry workforce is relatively stable.The textile industry did not cause workers to be laid off because of "machine substitution", but sought "machine substitution" because it could not find workers ". Behind the "machine substitution" in the textile industry is the reality that there is a serious shortage of textile talents and enterprises are striving for workers. At present, there is no hidden worry of a large number of front-line workers being laid off in textile enterprises. Most of the employees who have been streamlined due to "machine substitution" have been transferred to other enterprises, and a small number of them have moved to other enterprises. The workforce is relatively stable, and the pressure on the social placement of laid-off labor is still relatively small.

The research report also pointed out that "machine substitution" will change the employment structure of the textile industry.For labor-intensive textile enterprises, "machine substitution" will greatly reduce the proportion of front-line workers and optimize the personnel structure. Low-skilled and even some skilled workers are replaced by robots, while technical positions for debugging, maintaining and controlling robots will increase relatively.

"Machine substitution" will put forward new requirements for labor skills.In the past, it was "single labor", but in the future, it will be "digital labor". Human labor will be more and more combined with electronic and intelligent. The improvement of employees' technical skills is a strong support for enterprises to implement and promote "machine substitution", an inevitable choice for the application of human-computer interaction technology to achieve collaborative production of labor and machines, and a strong guarantee for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

"Machine substitution" will create new jobs.Although "machine substitution" squeezes the employment space of low-and middle-skilled workers, it does not reduce the total number of jobs for workers. "Machine substitution" not only curbs or eliminates some old production capacity and traditional jobs, but also creates new employment and entrepreneurship space and development momentum.

The report states that,Old age, low technical levelEmployment will be more difficult. After the use of advanced machinery and equipment and the improvement of production efficiency, the proportion of personnel with lower comprehensive ability will be reduced, generally between 50% and 90%. Under the same circumstances, the employment rate of young, highly educated and skilled personnel is higher, and the employment rate of older and low-tech personnel is lower.

"Machine substitution" still needs the government to send charcoal in the snow.

The report suggests that the government should actively guide enterprises to carry out technological innovation and help enterprises solve the difficulties encountered in the process of "machine substitution.

One is to strengthen the textile industry "machine substitution" technical force. Encourage and support domestic and foreign universities, scientific research institutes, multinational companies and textile enterprises to jointly build R & D centers, strengthen the construction of enterprise engineering (technology) centers, broaden various channels for enterprises to enhance the technical strength of automation transformation, and unite various advantageous resources to jointly cooperate Develop various technologies required by enterprises for "machine substitution. Increase the investment in "machine substitution" industry-university-research cooperation, set up a "machine substitution" industry-university-research cooperation special project, give priority to financial support and talent introduction, and promote the rapid implementation of industry-university-research. By optimizing the representative enterprises of key industries, helping enterprises to build "machine substitution" demonstration lines, leading the full implementation of "machine substitution" in the textile industry.

The second is to ease the financial pressure of "machine substitution" in textile enterprises.We will increase financial subsidies for "machine substitution" for textile enterprises, and change the special subsidy for "machine substitution" from "ex post subsidy" to "ex ante subsidy". Set up a special incentive fund to give special rewards to the industry's first "machine substitution" demonstration line. Accelerate the reform of the credit system, strengthen credit support for "machine-for-man" enterprises, reduce the financing burden of enterprises, reduce credit costs, and enhance the strength of financial services for the real economy. Optimize the tax and fee system to reduce the tax and fee burden of "machine substitution" enterprises.

The third is to do a good job in the guidance and service of "machine substitution" in the textile industry.Do a good job in the planning and guidance of "machine substitution", formulate the medium and long-term development strategic plan of "machine substitution" in the textile industry, guide enterprises to use domestic automation equipment, and revitalize the local intelligent equipment manufacturing industry. Actively promote the construction and improvement of various systems of "machine substitution" in the textile industry, including the "machine substitution" project approval system, project promotion system, supervision system, review system, reward and punishment system, etc., to standardize the management process and restriction Mechanism to provide system guarantee for "machine substitution. Organize the establishment of a comprehensive service platform for "machine substitution" to provide technical intermediaries, organization and coordination and other services for all units and collectives participating in "machine substitution.

Trade union organizations take the initiative to do three things well.

The report proposes that trade union organizations should give full play to their own advantages and take the initiative in the process of "machine substitution.

One is to promote the government to train all kinds of talents needed for "machine substitution" and improve the skill level of employees.Fully seize the favorable opportunity for the flow of talents to emerging countries, and actively introduce high-end equipment technology professionals from developed countries. Promote the government to cooperate with higher vocational colleges through macro guidance, overall coordination and financial support to implement the "machine substitution" order-based talent training plan. In terms of improving the quality of industrial workers, we should speed up the establishment and improvement of a public service platform for the construction of industrial workers, improve the vocational skill appraisal system, and create a good institutional environment for creating a team of industrial workers with reasonable structure and good quality.

The second is to actively guide and urge enterprises to establish a human resource management concept that attaches importance to the development of industrial workers.We will explore the establishment of a long-term mechanism for the development, training, use, evaluation and incentive of industrial workers, and give full play to the key role and dominant position of enterprises in promoting the construction and reform of industrial workers. At the same time, through technical exchanges, skills competitions, on-the-job training and other forms, promote the post development of industrial workers; through platforms such as model worker innovation studios, "teachers and apprentices", migrant workers' "learning and dream action", and employee education and training demonstration bases, etc. The skill improvement and personal development of workers provide a broad space.

The third is to protect the legitimate rights and interests of employees in an all-round way.Trade unions in enterprises should actively participate in enterprise management, fully understand the development direction of enterprises in a timely manner through democratic management forms such as the workers' Congress system, grasp the post adjustment information in advance, and do a good job in organization and mobilization, psychological counseling, and job transfer training, so as to help employees quickly adapt to new jobs. "Machine substitution" will change the working hours, labor intensity, and labor methods of employees. When the trade union organizes collective negotiations, it can strive for greater benefits for employees in terms of wages, overtime pay, rest and vacation, and occupational health. At the same time, local trade unions should take detailed and practical re-employment assistance actions, include laid-off and unemployed people in the scope of employment and entrepreneurship services and related employment and entrepreneurship policy support, find out employment needs, and strengthen targeted career guidance and job introduction.