全球比较大的服装制造商将继续投资于人力

The march of the robots may be slower than feared: at least on the production lines in emerging markets.

机器人的前进速度或许比人们担心的慢一些：至少在新兴市场的生产线上如此。

The world’s biggest maker of clothes is betting on human workers rather than automation as it seeks to win more contracts from clients such as Marks and Spencer, Uniqlo and H&M.

全球最大的服装制造商晶苑集团(Crystal Group)正押注于人类劳动者而非自动化——该公司正试图从马莎(Marks and Spencer)、优衣库(Uniqlo)和H&M等客户那里赢得更多合约。

Crystal Group, which recently raised $490m in an initial public offering in Hong Kong, said sewing robots could not compete on cost with human labour in developing countries. It is planning to expand its staff by more than 10 per cent annually in Bangladesh and Vietnam in the coming years.

晶苑集团最近在香港启动首次公开发行(IPO)，筹资4.9亿美元。该集团表示，缝纫机器人在成本上可能竞争不过发展中国家的人类劳动者。该集团计划在未来数年将孟加拉国和越南的员工数量每年增加逾10%。

“The handling of soft materials is really hard for robots,” said Andrew Lo, chief executive of the company, which is 80 per cent owned by his family after the IPO.

晶苑集团行政总裁罗正亮(Andrew Lo)表示：“机器人真的很难处理柔软面料。”在IPO后，罗氏家族持有该集团80%的股权。

He said innovations such as the Sewbot, designed by Softwear Automation of the US, were “interesting” and would cause disruption. But he did not foresee early-stage sewing robots competing with human labour in low-cost countries in the near future.

他表示，由美国Softwear Automation研发的Sewbot缝纫机器人等创新很“有趣”，将搅动起一些波澜。但他不认为处于初期阶段的缝纫机器人在不久的未来能与低成本国家的人类劳动者竞争。

Most of the growth will come in Bangladesh and Vietnam, where Crystal and other clothing manufacturers have been moving to escape fast-rising wages in China, the world’s biggest producer of clothing with more than 30 per cent market share.

多数增长将来自孟加拉国和越南——为逃避全球最大服装制造国、占全球服装市场逾30%的中国迅速上涨的薪资，晶苑集团以及其他服装制造商一直在将生产迁往这两个国家。

Crystal’s factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam already account for about two-thirds of sales, and Mr Lo forecast that the proportion of production outside China would continue to grow as it expands in other lower-cost countries.

晶苑集团在孟加拉国、柬埔寨、斯里兰卡和越南的工厂已占到其销售的三分之二左右，罗正亮预测，随着该集团在其他低成本国家扩张，中国以外产量所占份额将继续增加。

He said labour costs in southern China’s manufacturing heartlands were already above $700 per month — more than double the monthly average wages of $300-$350 in Vietnam and $150-$200 in Bangladesh.

他表示，中国南方制造业中心的劳动力成本已超过每月700美元，是越南和孟加拉国平均月薪的两倍多，这两个国家的平均月薪分别为300至350美元和150至200美元。

Crystal Group was the world’s biggest producer of garments by volume last year, according to market research group Euromonitor, although it only has market share of 0.4 per cent in the highly fragmented industry.

根据市场研究公司欧睿国际(Euromonitor International)的数据，按产量计，晶苑集团去年是全球最大服装制造商，不过该集团在这个高度分散的行业所占市场份额仅为0.4%。

The company generated profit of $145m on revenue of $1.8bn last year.

去年，晶苑集团实现利润1.45亿美元，营业收入为18亿美元。

The Hong Kong-based company will use the proceeds of the IPO to expand its fabric production capabilities in Bangladesh and Vietnam, its main manufacturing centres.

这家总部位于香港的公司将利用此次IPO所筹资金，扩大其在孟加拉国和越南(该公司的两个主要制造中心)的产能。

Palaniswamy Rajan, chief executive of Softwear Automation, said his company’s Sewbots, which were developed with funding from retailer Walmart and the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, could not compete on cost alone with workers in places such as Bangladesh. Softwear

Automation首席执行官帕拉尼斯瓦米•拉詹(Palaniswamy Rajan)表示，仅就成本而言，他的公司生产的Sewbot机器人无法与孟加拉国等地方的人类劳动者竞争。这种机器人的开发得到零售商沃尔玛(Walmart)以及美国政府下属的美国国防部高级研究计划局(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)的资助。

But he added that changes in the industry would make his robots competitive as fast-fashion retailers look to shorten production times and move manufacturing nearer to customers.

但他补充称，该行业的种种变化将让他的机器人变得具有竞争力，因为快时尚零售商谋求缩短生产时间并让制造地更靠近客户。

“Automation in Bangladesh may not make sense because you still have to ship, but if you make in the US, it makes more sense because there’s no [import] duty, no shipping, you’re closer to the customer and there are shorter lead times,” said Mr Rajan.

拉詹表示：“在孟加拉国使用自动化技术可能不是合理选择，因为你仍需要运输，但如果你在美国生产，那么使用自动化技术就是更合理的选择了，因为这样一来就省去了(进口)税，也省去了运输，你更接近客户，交货时间更短。”

Softwear Automation is planning to roll out its first automated T-shirt production lines in the US in the next 12-18 months before moving on to more complicated items such as jeans and shirts.

Softwear Automation计划在未来12到18个月在美国推出首条自动化T恤生产线，然后将继续进军牛仔裤和衬衫等更复杂的产品。

Mr Rajan said his robots had the dexterity and visualisation skills to handle soft materials but that it would take his engineers time to program them to complete the 10-20 different steps needed to make a simple T-shirt, before later taking on the challenge of a shirt, which requires 70-80 steps.

拉詹表示，他的机器人具备处理柔软面料的灵敏性和视觉化技能，但哪怕是制作一件简单T恤，都需要10到20个不同步骤，要让机器人完成这些步骤，工程师需要花时间编程，而需要70至80个步骤才能制作好的衬衫将是下一个挑战。

But while he hoped his start-up would help launch a robotic sewing revolution, he accepted that automation would at most account for a quarter of global production in the next 20 years.

尽管拉詹希望他刚刚创立的这家企业将帮助掀起一场机器人缝纫革命，但他承认，未来20年，自动化最多将占到全球产量的四分之一。