Dr. Harald Weber
Managing Director VDMA Textile Machinery Association
Remote Services and Recycling are Important
VDMA Textile Machinery represents around 140 manufacturers of machinery, equipment, components, accessories and software for the production of textile materials – from spinning to the production of textile fabrics and finishing. They represent about 90 per cent of the total industry volume in Germany. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, VDMA Textile Machinery Association’s Managing Director Dr. Harald Weber says he expects to witness a good Olympics of textile machinery in Milan in June.
How would you describe the current market for German machinery manufacturers?
Most of 2022 was a good year for the German textile machinery sector. The overall exports of textile machinery and accessories summed up to approximately €3 billion, which was slightly above the good year 2021. But from autumn on, incoming orders have slowed down noticeably and there have been some considerable cancellations. The turnover forecast of the VDMA prepared in October assumes a minus of 5 per cent for our industry in 2022/2023 (2021/2022: plus 19 per cent).
What kind of impact has the geo-political tensions caused to the industry?
The general conditions for the mechanical engineering industry are indeed very challenging. The war in Ukraine and the pandemic as well as the disputes between China and the US showed us that the things that we took for granted in international relations have changed or are still changing. The frameworks have become more uncertain. Unfortunately, material shortages will continue to have a strong impact on business activity in 2023. The energy crisis is causing great uncertainty in European customer industries, especially in textile finishing.
How is the demand for German textile machinery?
As already mentioned, the incoming orders have slowed down noticeably during the last few months. A reluctance to invest can be observed throughout the entire textile chain. Causes include faltering private consumption in China, Europe and North America. Inventories are high, with stocks e.g., at sporting goods manufacturers alone doubling. The situation is, however, better in the technical textiles sector.
What kind of support has the German government and VDMA offered to its members?
With regard to India, I would like to mention an event that was initiated by VDMA, and which is officially supported by the German government: From December 4-8, 2023, a business mission of German manufacturers of textile and garment machinery as well as accessories will take place in Ahmedabad and Coimbatore. Our member companies are looking forward to deepening existing business relations with Indian customers and to build new ones on this occasion.
What have been the latest innovations and technological developments at VDMA in the last two years? And what are some of the key technologies according to you that will shape the future of textile engineering?
Innovations have been made in the fields of digitalisation and automation. And this will continue in future. An increasing level of automation and remote services characterises the textile industry. Serving these markets, VDMA member companies see themselves not only as machine suppliers but also as competent partners on the technological aspects of digitalisation and the processes of their customers. An intensive relationship between spinners, weavers, knitters or finishers, machine suppliers, chemistry suppliers and other technology providers is the key to future success. Assistance via remote services/ teleservice and predictive maintenance software to avoid machine stops are provided by numerous VDMA textile technology suppliers. Digitalisation and Industry 4.0 also help to counter the increasing shortage of skilled workers, and the machines of many VDMA companies offer a lot of useful features to assure reproducible quality results. They include process simulation on a PC to optimise the process parameters before production even starts. Another issue worth mentioning is the digital product passport and the efforts in progress to enable this from our side.
Which are the advanced materials that are driving the change in the textiles industry?
It is difficult to say whether materials will change the textiles industry as we know it today. But, in general, we see that textile processes and textile products are finding more applications, e.g., in medicine, and in steel-replacing areas. The demand for technical textiles will increase disproportionately. Another factor regarding material is recycling. The machine manufacturers are working on advanced technology to create high quality textiles from recycled material. But for creating a circular economy, design for recycling is very important. This has impact on the used materials so that hard-to-recycle material mixtures need to be substituted with other materials achieving the same functionality.
What are some of the innovations that will be displayed at upcoming ITMA Milan?
“Transforming the World of Textiles: efficient – digital – circular”. Under this heading, VDMA technology providers will present their solutions along the value chain in Milan. In the run-up to ITMA, VDMA will carry out a “Way2ITMA” Webtalk series, where attendees can get first impressions.
What are your expectations from the upcoming show?
The preparations are in full swing. After a long period of lockdowns, travel restrictions, cancelled and postponed trade fairs, I am pretty sure that people are keen to meet in person again and that we will witness a good Olympics of textile machinery in Milan in June.
Is remote manufacturing going to be a reality in future? How soon?
In the context of Industry 4.0, the networking of systems is increasing and sensor data, status information and control commands are being exchanged. This creates the conditions for new types of production concepts, such as ‘remote manufacturing’. It will no longer be necessary to combine the production factors, consisting of elementary factors (labour, materials, operating resources), and the dispositive factors (planning, management, monitoring, organisation) in one place. In the future, it will be possible to operate production facilities abroad and to monitor and control them at the process level e.g., from Germany. I am not a clairvoyant, but I think until this becomes reality, there is still a long way to go.
Interviewer: Shilpi Panjabi
Published on: 09/06/2023
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
