Hubei Textile Supply Chain Observation: Fewer Signboards

After revisiting the Hubei clothing industry cluster, the reporters from all media of Hubei Daily found that the signboards once seen everywhere were hard to find.

A table, a person in charge, a striking signboard... At the beginning of 2023, when investigating, the reporter saw that the "three piece set" is the standard configuration in front of each clothing factory.

The textile and clothing industry is a labor-intensive industry, and workers are the key elements in the supply chain. As the "post-85" and "post-90s" are not willing to work in this industry, the structural shortage of labor has long plagued the bosses of Hubei garment factories.

Why are there fewer signboards?

The park has set up a human resources department to recruit employees for enterprises free of charge

When the phone rang hurriedly, He Zhitao quickly picked up the receiver and reported his identity: "Hello, this is the recruitment service hotline of Maozui Garment Industrial Park. Do you want to find a job?"

Hang up the phone and open WeChat. He has passed dozens of friend applications. "All of them need to work," He Zhitao said.

Maozui Town is a "famous town of women's trousers in China". For every three pieces of casual women's trousers sold nationwide, one piece is produced here. He Zhitao is the office director of the management committee of Maozui Town Garment Industrial Park and the new head of the Human Resources Department. As for the employment situation of the park, he said that there are 387 enterprises of all kinds in the industrial park, attracting more than 26000 industrial workers, about half of whom are local people, and the average annual net income of workers is more than 80000 yuan.

"Why can't we see the signboard at the gate of the clothing factory?" the reporter asked.

He Zhitao handed over a recruitment brochure: "It shows that the clothing factory is not short of people at present, and the recruitment combination boxing has worked."

Labor shortage, strong mobility, and lack of opportunities... The textile and clothing industry has also been plagued by the shortage of labor.

He Zhitao said that the labor shortage of the industrial park reached 10% when the staff was most scarce. The worker fault is also very obvious. Nearly 60% of the "post-70s" and "post-80s" practitioners are willing to engage in the clothing industry, and fewer and fewer "post-90s" and "post-00s" are willing to engage in the clothing industry. Every peak season, looking for workers everywhere has become a top priority for the bosses of garment enterprises.

In order to reassure enterprises in production, the Maozui Town Garment Industrial Park innovatively established the Human Resources Department, and took various measures to recruit employees for free.

The first step is to improve your internal skills. In the recruitment brochure, Maozui Town's garden style factory, hotel style living area, intelligent production workshop, and coveted snacks are very attractive.

The second step is to change your thinking. It is difficult to recruit people in peak season, so we should make reserves in spare time; If people cannot be recruited in the province, they will go to other provinces to recruit; If skilled workers cannot be recruited, apprentice workers will be recruited.

"These apprentices have been here for a month, and they have adapted well." On August 15, Deng Zhigang, the general manager of Hubei Jack Zhilian Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters that this year, enterprises are in urgent need of workers to expand production capacity. After the Human Resources Department of the park learned of the demand, it soon recruited 58 secondary vocational school graduates from other provinces as apprentices. After passing the assessment in two months, the company will sign a labor contract with them, and pay skilled workers equal pay for equal work.

At present, the industrial park has signed talent transfer framework agreements with Leibo County, Liangshan, Sichuan Province, and the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Moyu County, Xinjiang.

"Maozui's living environment is good and his salary is high. He Zhitao is confident.

There is a "super substitute", no need to give gifts to the team leader

On the sewing table, a joystick "pulls" the garment making template and swims freely, like an old tailor's skilled hands. According to the drawing, the computer commands the sewing machine to step on the template. The work is completed in less than 1 minute. The worker turned over the formwork, took out the two pieces of down jacket that had just been sewn, and stacked them on the last piece of clothing. The clothes have been stacked thick, and the pieces are like copies.

"The 'masters' of these intelligent sewing machines are all old tailors!" In the intelligent workshop of Qianjiang Jiaxing Garments Longwan Plant, Li Feng, the deputy general manager of the company, told reporters that as long as the drawings designed by the senior tailors are input into the system, these "apprentices" can draw gourds according to the gourd, fast and good.

Jiaxing Garments, a 14 year old leading enterprise in Qianjiang textile and garment industry, has 45 mature production lines and an annual production capacity of 6 million pieces.

Li Feng pointed to a green parent-child down jacket and said, "This is a huge amount of money. The company has received 1.5 million orders at present. Only by working overtime can we ensure punctual delivery in October. If any production line is suspended due to lack of staff, the orders will be affected."

Different from the mode of single piece payment in some places, Hubei textile and clothing enterprises mostly adopt the assembly line production mode to ensure the quality of clothing. However, the garment industry has a lot of odd jobs and strong mobility, which is a hidden risk: a team leader may take away a production line; Once a link is missing a "screw", the whole production line may be stalled. "In order to stabilize the production line, it is common to give gifts to team leaders," an enterprise boss who did not want to be named told reporters.

Machine replacement is an important step to reduce risks and maintain stable production capacity. Li Feng introduced that for the same output, intelligent workshops use 30% fewer workers than manual assembly lines.

Cultivating "super substitutes" is the key to reducing risks. In Jiaxing Clothing, there is a "versatile team" composed of 10 people. They are familiar with more than ten processes on the assembly line. If the workers at any position do not come, they can immediately take the place of them.

"Since this year, the production line has not stopped because of lack of people," said Li Feng. (Xiao Liqiong, Wang Jiaying)

(Source: Hubei Daily)