Impact of AM4U Technology On the apparel industry and the consumer
AM4U is a technology development and licensing company creating innovation for the apparel industry, based in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca.
AM4U invented AT-Infusion™, a system for digitally dyeing fabrics using physics instead of chemistry. AT-Infusion™ isn't just a technology, it is at the center of a shift in manufacturing methods, allowing apparel production to return home pollution free.
AM4U's Impact on the Apparel Industry:
The Effect of Excess Inventories
Problems of Oversupply:
- Because of lack of fore-knowledge of what will actually sell, retail over-orders and over-stocks
- Excess inventory is forced because of Minimum order sizes from manufacturers and Minimum dye lot sizes
- Because of the 3 to 6 months time period between design, test, order, source, dye, manufacture, ship from country to country, distribute, deliver to retail supply chain, companies have to bet on the future and place minimum orders in every size and style they want to sell
Problems of Discounting:
- Mark-downs and discounting are an attempt to move excess inventory and in the end, only reduce effective margins and cause real financial losses
- Why do Discount Chain stores exist? Because only approximately 20% of products sell at full retail. The other 80% has to be dealt with or it is a loss. The result is a tiered discount process aimed at protecting the retail price and brand while incurring high movement and handling costs.
- In the end, few apparel brands are profitable and the industry operates on borrowed money
Problems of Disposal:
- The apparel industry destroys and disposes of 45% to 50% of all garments made plus 5-10% scrap in the manufacturing process. This scrap ends up in the landfill causing toxic thread pollution.
Waste, Long Supply Chains, Oversupply, Hidden Costs, Excess Inventory, Toxic Disposal -- overwhelming the industry and impacting the consumer!
Eliminating a Culture of Myths
The cost savings of "low cost labor," mass manufacturing methods, focus on "Cost of Manufacturing," and a volume-based "Global Supply Chain" are all myths, further impacting all of us.
- By focusing on becoming the 'lowest-cost' manufacturer, industry has created a polluting, servitude style, false economy. The alternative is to focus on profitability and new methods of zero-inventory, demand-style, 'real-time' manufacturing.
- "Cost of Manufacturing" instead of "Profit" thinking drives up inventory, over-production, global pollution, and many other inefficiencies and costs.
Large scale labor-intensive manufacturing facilities are incomprehensible places to work
We do have an Alternative
-- AM4U's Solution
- Apparel Production is done in many small plants, paying real wages and located close to the consumer, using two revolutionary manufacturing methods. Revolutionary in the sense that they virtually eliminate the waste of excess inventory. Inventory becomes a virtual digital SKU able to be made from raw fabric within a day and shipped to distribution or a store for replenishment or direct to the consumer. Eliminating the traditional "apparel supply chain," results in a 5 to 10x increase in profits with little to no waste.
Digital Demand Replenishment:
- With demand-manufacturing, inventory is virtual as rolls of raw, white fabric and a digital design (a virtual SKU). Finished apparel is made only as needed to keep retail supply pipelines flowing to replace consumption, not stocked. Thus, due to short cycle times, manufacturing is 'on-demand' and 'real-time.'
Purchase Activated Manufacturing:
With PAM, nothing is made until the order is place and paid for by the consumer. This means zero-inventory of finished physical goods, only an unlimited virtual inventory of fabric and designs.
What AM4U has created is far more than just a new dyeing technology using physics. AT-Infusion™ is just an enabler. The shift in manufacturing method and its overall impact on the environment is so profound that we have to adopt it. And, if that is not enough, these new internet-age methods of manufacturing support returning production to North America at scale and creating tens-of-thousands of new middle-class jobs.
AM4U's Impact on Environmental Pollution
Water Pollution from Apparel and Textiles:
- 25% of all chemicals produced worldwide are used for textiles
- Traditional methods of dyeing using chemistry (forcing dye into fibers with pressure, toxins, and heavy metals) is reported by Greenpeace as the #2 water pollution source in the world.
- How bad is it?
- Dyeing chemistry, of all types, all pollute the food chain and people. In China, it is reported that polluted water causes 75% of all diseases. In certain dyeing districts, 12% of children are born with potentially cancerous tumors. Estimates are that 70% of all lakes and rivers in China are polluted as well as 90% of the groundwater.
- Textile and dyeing plants emit heavy metals into the water, including cadmium, mercury, lead, chromium, and copper
Textile Water Consumption:
- The amount of water used for thread, yarn, and fabric manufacture and dyeing is incredible. Here are some examples at a personal or garment level:
- Jeans: Consume 2,600 gallons per pair and produce a lot of pollution
- Cotton T-Shirts: Consume 1,000 gallons per shirt from the cotton field to the consumer
- Polyester Polo Shirts: Consume over 200 gallons each just in the dyeing process
How much Water is Hanging in Your Closet?
The Disposal Problem
- Toxic Threads
- Textiles in the landfill are leaching thread strands iinto the oceans at an alarming rate, according to Greenpeace research. Synthetics take 20+ years to breakdown. Threads and the toxins inside of them are absorbed and eaten, moving up the food chain and are now being found in fish stocks and filter feeders such as Oysters.
AM4U's Solutions:
- AM4U's physics-based AT-Infusion™ dyeing technologies create no water pollution and have no water consumption.
- The production process uses little energy and produces little scrap - mostly printing transfer paper that is recycled
- By using Digital Demand or Purchase Activated Manufacturing methods, inventory is either non-existant or just enough to replenish what is being purchased by consumers. Over-supply and excess inventories that end up in the dump are gone.
AM4U's Impact on Jobs
Bring Jobs Home:
- Apparel Production can return as a clean industry to high cost areas such as North America at profit levels to support real wages and create middle class jobs
- Since the ideal factory is small, factories can be regionally located close to shipping, distribution, and the consumer. This means many small factories, each too small to fail, become a catalyst for jobs.
AM4U's Impact on People
By replacing Chemical Dyeing:
- Using Physics, instead of Chemistry, inert, non-toxic dye is placed inside the fibers and sealed. The results include no residues on the surface of the fabric or on your skin, no toxins to be absorbed and no need to pre-wash those new clothes. Safe for people!
- With the dye sealed inside the fibers, fabrics can be bleached to remove stains and kill bacteria without damaging the brilliant color of the fabric or adding more pollutants during the wash cycle.
No Toxins, Bleach Proof, No Water Consumption, No Pollution!
AM4U - TRANSFORMING THE APPAREL INDUSTRY AND BRINGING JOBS HOME
