Review of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Garment Manufacturing

Abstract

Nowadays, apparel manufacturing enterprises are confronted with ever-increasing global competition and unpredictable demand fluctuations. These pressures compel manufacturers to continuously improve the performance of their production process in order to deliver the finished product within the most approximate period of time and the lowest production cost. However, consistent and optimal solutions are difficult to obtain under a fuzzy and dynamic manufacturing environment. Therefore, in response to the need for new approaches, a large (and continually increasing) number of efforts have sought to investigate and exploit the use of AI techniques in a variety of industrial applications. This chapter provides a systematic review of contemporary research articles related to the application of AI techniques in garment manufacturing. The research issues are classified into three categories, including production planning, control, and scheduling; garment quality control and inspection; and garment quality evaluation. The challenges facing adoption of AI technologies in garment industry are discussed.