Automation Trends in Apparel Manufacturing

There is a lack of literature to describe how these technological advances can develop new approaches of doing business and impact apparel brands’ current production models. We obtained 50 US and International patents, filed between 2015 and 2020,related to the research topic by searching key words (e.g., sewing automation,apparel manufacturing automation, and apparel) on search engines such as Google Patents, USPTO, and The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This research gathered a sample of 30 relevant utility patents. A thematic analysis was conducted of all collected utility patents to classify emerging themes from apparel related innovations and disclose those fields that are underdevelopment and implementation in the apparel industry. There were three critical themes identified for customization and automated systems: (1) innovative software systems, (2) autonomous componential inventions, and (3) autonomous systems. User customization is apparent and plays a critical role in software and autonomous componential systems.