Levi Strauss Announces Project to Laser Finish its Jeans
Jonathan Fuller | March 05, 2018On February 27, clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co. announced Project F.L.X., a modernized denim finishing process.
According to the company, Project F.L.X. will result in a drastically reduced time-to-market and a safer, more sustainable automated process. The project will implement the following modernized techniques:
- An automated laser finishing system to replace labor- and chemical-intensive processes. Conventional hand-finishing processes are inefficient and potentially dangerous due to the use of hazardous chemicals. By laser-finishing jeans, the company can cut finishing time from two to three pairs per hour to 90 seconds per pair.
- Digital finish designs using a new imaging tool, which reduces design and development time.
- Changing the production process to move decisions on final products later down the line, to take advantage of on-demand and local production.
- Eliminate the total number of chemical formulations in Levi’s jeans, from thousands to a few dozen. This is in line with the company’s goal of achieving zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020.
Source: Levi Strauss & Co.“With this new model, we can deliver the authentic and iconic products we’re known for in an incredibly responsive and responsible way,” said Liz O’Neill, senior vice president and chief supply chain officer for Levi Strauss & Co. “The advanced imaging capability is a game-changer for us, and something that has eluded our industry for years.”
Levi’s developed Project F.L.X. at their Eureka Innovation Lab, and is working with long-standing partner Jeanologia for laser technologies.
While increased automation and greater efficiency during the production process may cost some workers their jobs, this may not be an entirely negative development. Recent reports have highlighted the dangers of hand-finishing jeans, including exposure to hazardous chemicals and occupational lung diseases like silicosis resulting from sandblasting jeans.
Project F.L.X. aims to achieve the same faded finish obtained by hand finishing, in a significantly shorter time period and with safer methods.
How easy it is to say in one breath : May cost some workers their jobs, this may not be an entirely negative development.
Not unless you are one of the workers.
As for " the some ", that should really be, " the some thousand or more " .
As for the denizens soon to be on the unemployment line.
This laser process will also cause many companies to go belly up.
Such is the price of progress.
Progress will always carry a tax and those fixtured in complacently indeed will pay the Lions Share of the tax. So Lasers deliver efficiency both in production, and in a Green Process. The discussion is not about the workers who were utilized in the water/chemical process of the prior process losing jobs....the discussion is "how do we migrate them to the newer process"? Laser Additive is a great example....3D printing in metal is reducing weight by 25/30%, increasing strength and translating to a fuel savings of about $1million a plane......great for the environment! Yet...the machinist to be utilized for finishing the components are woefully missing.......great opportunity for the training and education of this quickly developing need.