The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasized the need to accelerate the advancement of new industrialization and promote the high-end, intelligent and green development of manufacturing. The textile industry is a traditional pillar industry, an important livelihood industry and an international advantageous industry in China. After more than 70 years of development, it has established the world's largest and most widely covered modern manufacturing system. To implement the "Action Plan for Digital Transformation of the Manufacturing Industry", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Data Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Digital Transformation of the Textile Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan") We will deploy and implement four major actions: empowering with new-generation information technology, innovative application of new models and new business forms, high-quality development of the industry, and strengthening the supporting foundation. We will also refine 18 specific measures, focus on key links such as chemical fibers, spinning, weaving, and dyeing and finishing, and implement precise policies to systematically promote the digital transformation and upgrading of the entire industrial chain and comprehensively drive the high-quality development of the textile industry.

Seize the strategic opportunity and deeply understand the significant meaning of digital transformation for the overall development of the textile industry

Digital transformation is an inevitable requirement for the high-quality development of the textile industry. As a vital pillar industry of China's manufacturing sector, the textile industry is expected to generate approximately 5 trillion yuan in revenue from large-scale enterprises in 2024. Its stable development is of vital importance for stabilizing economic operation and promoting the process of new industrialization. China is at a crucial stage of accelerating its transformation from a manufacturing giant to a manufacturing power. Speeding up digital transformation is not only the core task of economic and social development in the new era, but also an inherent requirement for industries to achieve high-quality development. The Implementation Plan clearly designates the digital transformation of the textile industry as a key measure to support the implementation of the national strategy, demonstrating the country's firm determination to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional pillar industries through digital empowerment, consolidate the economic foundation, and serve the overall development of the country.

The digital transformation of the textile industry is a key path to consolidate international competitive advantages. Against the backdrop of the deep reconstruction of the global industrial chain and the intensification of the competitive landscape, the traditional development model that solely relies on scale and cost has become unsustainable. For the textile industry to maintain and enhance its status as an "international advantageous industry", it must undergo a fundamental transformation from "winning by quantity" to "winning by quality, intelligence and greenness". The Implementation Plan systematically deploys the task of comprehensively driving the high-end, intelligent, green and integrated development of industries through digitalization, and systematically reshaping the value creation model of industries. It aims to fundamentally change the path relying on scale expansion and shift towards quality and efficiency-oriented development, taking digitalization as the core means to cultivate new quality productivity and reshape international competitiveness.

The digital transformation of the textile industry is a practical support for meeting people's needs for a better life. At present, the trend of domestic consumption upgrade is obvious. Consumers' demands for personalization, quality and greenness of textiles are growing rapidly, but the traditional production mode has responded inadequately to this. The Implementation Plan focuses on promoting the development of models such as personalized customization and flexible manufacturing, supports the establishment of cultural and creative databases such as ethnic characteristic patterns to empower design innovation, and optimizes product supply. These measures aim to precisely capture and quickly respond to new consumption trends through digital transformation, better meet the people's growing needs for a better life, and at the same time enhance the cultural confidence of the industry.

Activate the innovative momentum and systematically build the core task system for the digital transformation of the textile industry

Strengthen the collaborative empowerment of technology, ecosystem and standards to consolidate the foundation of transformation. At present, the technological competition in the global textile industry is intensifying. China urgently needs to break away from its reliance on high-end equipment and algorithms through technological breakthroughs, activate the value of resources with data elements, and form a collaborative empowerment system that deeply integrates "hard support" and "soft environment". The first is to build an independent and reliable technology chain. The Implementation Plan proposes to tackle a number of key technologies for digitalization and intelligence in the textile industry through measures such as "taking on challenges". Develop textile-specific sensors, intelligent detection equipment, quality control and execution systems, and achieve the integrated application of new-generation information technology and total quality management. The second is to build an open and secure data chain. The Implementation Plan emphasizes deepening the full life cycle management of data, building a data management system for the textile industry, and forming an industry basic database. Build regional and industry-level data sharing platforms to promote efficient connection, cross-domain sharing and value co-creation of data resources. Research and formulate guidelines for identifying important data in the textile industry, and strengthen the construction of network and data security protection capabilities. The third is to improve the unified and authoritative standard chain. The Implementation Plan proposes to establish a unified data standard system architecture for specific fields, unify data format norms, data exchange and interface norms, support leading enterprises to take the lead in participating in international cooperation on technical standards, and promote the "going global" of Chinese technology. By breaking through the digital breakpoints throughout the entire process of the textile industry and building a secure, controllable, open and compatible transformation infrastructure, it provides support for industrial upgrading and enables a leap from "single-point breakthroughs" to "system integration".

Deepen demand-oriented transformation to drive the upgrading of the industrial value chain. The upgrading of consumption and the diversification of the market have driven industries to leap from "supply-led" to "demand-driven". Reshaping the logic of the value chain through demand-side transformation can break the deadlock of overcapacity and homogeneous competition, and activate market vitality and industrial resilience. In-depth demand insight and agile response are the starting point for the upgrading of the industrial value chain. The Implementation Plan proposes to apply human-computer interaction, virtual interaction and other methods to obtain customers' personalized demands, promote collaborative design, cloud design and other methods, and enhance users' participation in the entire product life cycle. Support enterprises in building user profiles and demand forecasting models, and form a rapid response model to market demands based on digital decision-making. By breaking the traditional model centered on production and manufacturing, placing consumers at the core of the value chain and driving the entire chain of activities such as R&D design, production, and marketing to revolve around meeting and creating demands, the value chain can be transformed from a "push-type" to a "pull-type" model. Flexible and intelligent production are the key capabilities that support demand-driven and achieve efficient value creation. The Implementation Plan proposes to promote the flexible upgrading and transformation of production lines, develop a new model of intelligent manufacturing driven by big data, create shared workshops/factories, explore the "platform + sharing" manufacturing model, and form small-batch and differentiated flexible production capabilities. Ensure that in a highly customized and rapidly changing market, costs can be effectively controlled, quality guaranteed, and delivery times shortened. Transform the "demand-oriented" approach into profitable and sustainable products and services, and enhance the response speed, efficiency, and adaptability of the value chain.

Accelerate the in-depth application of artificial intelligence to anchor high-quality development. The structural contradiction of "big but not strong" in China's textile industry remains prominent. The Implementation Plan proposes to deepen the artificial intelligence empowerment action to break the deadlock. First, focus on the intelligent leap of core links to consolidate the foundation for high-quality development. The Implementation Plan proposes to guide enterprises to enhance the application of artificial intelligence in aspects such as R&D design, production and manufacturing, operation and management, and operation and maintenance services, promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence technology with knowledge in the textile industry, encourage enterprises to widely apply AI technologies such as computer vision, and drive the development of smart wearable products. Second, build an intelligent hub for the industry and expand a new ecosystem of cross-border integration. The Implementation Plan proposes to promote the construction of a large-scale model for the textile industry, enhance exchanges and cooperation with "digital breeding" technology, and increase data exchange with service industries such as commercial retail and tourism. Reshape the data flow mode of the textile industry chain and explore a new form of cross-border collaboration driven by "data + model". Third, empower the upgrading of management and services to lead a green and sustainable future. Deepen the application of AI in areas such as intelligent collaboration in the supply chain, refined energy consumption management, and precise tracking of carbon footprints throughout the product life cycle, empower enterprises to achieve refined, intelligent and green operation management, accelerate the transformation of textile enterprises from simple production and manufacturing to "manufacturing + service", and strongly support the green, low-carbon and sustainable development of the industry.

Strengthen support and guarantee to ensure the steady and long-term digital transformation of the textile industry

Strengthen collaborative governance and precise policy implementation to pool the synergy for transformation. Promote the establishment and improvement of a multi-party collaborative mechanism involving government, industry, academia, research, application and finance to comprehensively address major issues. An efficient collaborative mechanism and precise policy supply are the keys to gathering synergy, further achieving the deep integration of an "effective market" and a "proactive government", and providing institutional guarantees for balanced development throughout the region.

Strengthen the standard system and quality foundation to lead standardized development. Build a digital transformation standard system covering the entire chain and actively participate in the formulation of international standards. Promote the digitalization of quality management, strengthen the construction of pilot platforms for new materials, popularize intelligent online detection equipment and quality traceability systems, and consolidate the quality foundation of "China Textile".

Cultivate benchmark demonstrations and innovation carriers to accelerate the diffusion of experience. Select and promote a batch of typical application scenarios, and cultivate benchmark enterprises, industrial clusters/parks. Focus on supporting the construction of digital transformation and innovation carriers for the textile industry in the central and western regions, and create an innovation highland that radiates to the surrounding areas. Establish a digital transformation capability assessment archive covering large, medium and small enterprises by classification and grading to provide a basis for precise policy implementation.

Expand the professional service and talent team and break through the capacity bottleneck. Establish a digital transformation promotion center for the textile industry, support the construction of a number of digital transformation promotion centers that are deeply rooted in the industry and provide precise services, set up a service provider capability evaluation system and an enterprise self-diagnosis and assessment mechanism, and improve the quality and matching efficiency of service supply. Strengthen the cultivation of applied talents, and specifically train outstanding engineers who meet the requirements of the "four modernizations" development of industries. With the dual support of "professional services + precise talents", empower the transformation practice of enterprises.

Source: Chinese consumer goods