Digital Printing Promoting Innovation in Textile Printing

For a long period, digital printing for the fashion, decoration and graphics industry was relegated to sampling and short run printing. With the advantages of innovative inkjet technology, the industry is now addressing the demand for environmentally responsible output, innovative designs, and the need to improve supply chain operation. This article examines the latest textile industry trends and examines the dynamics that digital innovations have on this massive industry supply chain. Innovations in design, digital print, as well as cutting and sewing of textile-based products.
 
Productivity
One of the largest areas in textile printing that has improved dramatically is the ability to produce just-in-time any length of fabrics or garments. With no cylinder or screen make ready, and with the advent of sophisticated workflow automation tools, textile mills can now produce any design rapidly - meeting the needs of designers and brands trying to meet the quick changeover in the fashion industry. Additionally, innovations in colour matching and design are revving up the creative process, shrinking creation time from months down to weeks to even just mere days.
Creativity
In the textile space, improvements in productivity and simplified design have also translated to greater creativity. With the ability to produce single item runs, there is no mass production risk associated with taking new designers on. Many brands are allowing budding designers to enter the fray and compete for mind share and recognition. It is common place today to be able and order quarter yard of fabric from traditional textile mills or a new generation of mass customization on-demand producers.

Environment
Lastly, environmental sustainability continues to rise to the forefront of service provider responsibility. Research has repeatedly shown that younger generations – particularly Generation Z – prioritize sustainability when it comes to product selection. In many cases, this age group is willing to pay more for products that were created with sustainability in mind. For the textile industry, this means a change. For generations, textile manufacturers have been considered a large polluter, with 20%  of waste water produced by textile mills globally.
Optimizing the supply chain
Now that we have broadly outlined the textile transformation and the factors driving it, we can more fully discuss just how the textile market is changing as digital fabric printing print volume continues to grow at 19% CAGR (reaching about 4 billion square meters in 2022 ).  With productivity and creativity trends urging companies to adapt a more flexible production schedule that prioritizes product diversity, it is only natural that improvements would come to the supply chain.

Just-in-time manufacturing
While just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing has technically been a term that has existed since the 1960s, it has grown in applicability in recent decades. JIT manufacturing allows new businesses to get their product lines to market in days or weeks, rather than months. For larger organizations, it can mean rapid response to the fashion industry needs to meet seasonal demand. Seasonal variations can be on shelves on time, giving textile companies better ability to please their customers.

Digital printing: Reduction in overstock and warehousing
The shift toward digital printing can also mean improved inventory planning, resulting in less overstock and warehousing needs. As textile service providers move away from longer runs and shift toward short, varied, targeted production – they have been better able to match product to client need. Clothing can now be made as needed rather than in bulk order, letting companies spend less on inventory that may or may not sell. These capabilities ushered in a new type of fabric suppliers - On Demand manufacturers. These companies use a Purchase Activated Manufacturing business model, whereby production commence only once an order was received and paid for in advance. There are no finished goods in the warehouse just blank raw materials.

Rise of On Demand fabric manufacturing (Mass customization)
With the supply chain being shortened using innovative print technology and continued advancements in workflow, new players have been entering the space over the last several years, empowered by easy online tools that make it simple to start selling customized clothing commercially. These fit into the growing uses of e-commerce in the apparel industry at large, where continued growth will drive estimated revenues up to $145 Billion by 2023 according to Statista 2018 digital market Outlook.
Several suppliers epitomize this trend, pointing out to the need for customization for a community of like-minded people and, on a larger scale, addressing the needs of the masses with diverse customized products.

Technology innovation
Clearly, many of these innovative solutions would not be possible without the relentless innovation in print technology and materials science, with the latter driving the use of the various types of inks needed for the best results on a range of fabrics. From Reactive dyes used for naturelle fibers to high energy and low energy sublimation inks, to those specialty inks for silk and nylon printing (Acid), and the emergence of new generations of pigment inks that can print on most fabrics without the intensive use of water as is the case with some textile inks - a world of design freedom and color has opened. Digital printing has evolved from the early 80s where it was used for strike-off only (proofing) to today where single pass sprinters reach speeds of up to 90 meters per minute. With textile specific transport systems, we have seen the impact of printhead reliability improvements and cost reduction enable production systems from 1.8 to 3.2 meters and beyond.

Summary
After several decades of development, digital textile printing is making its impact noticeable on the production volume of fabrics with 6% of share and growing at a double-digit pace. As with many printing segments, this industrial segment is part of expansive supply chain with many facets of raw material supply, brands, designers, producers, cut & sew, and logistical services. Ensuring environmental impact is minimized and delivering customized products are ongoing trends that are impacting this massive industry.
Digital printing technology is being adopted by both established manufacturers as well as entrepreneurial companies that use IoT infrastructure to start mass customization efforts that deliver on demand. Major brands are taking note and looking for solutions that allow them to achieve key business goals - namely high-quality consistent product creation, waste and inventory reduction, and satisfying customer demand for design innovation and personalization.