The digital transformation of the textile dyeing industry is moving from rhetoric to organized action. On June 28, the China Dyeing and Printing Industry Association officially established the Smart Manufacturing Technology Committee in Yantai, Shandong, marking the first specialized branch focused on smart manufacturing within the association.
Background
The meeting was a continuation of the seventh council's fifth executive meeting. Vice President and Secretary-General Zhang Huaidong chaired the proceedings, while Wang Yan from the Industry Development Department reported on the preparatory work for the committee. Vice President Dong Shuxiu introduced the candidate list for the first committee.
The final elected committee includes Sheng Shouxiang, Chairman of Huafang Co., Ltd., as the director; Xiang Zhong, Vice Dean of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, and seven others as deputy directors; Wang Yan as secretary-general; and 22 members including Wang Junli, director of the chief engineer office at Shanghai Jia Lin Jie Textile Technology Co., Ltd. This lineup combines leading enterprises and academic research institutions, signaling a focus on industry-academia-research integration.
Industry Impact
Sheng Shouxiang noted that the dyeing industry is at a critical stage of digital and intelligent transformation. With national strategies promoting a manufacturing power and digital China, the committee's establishment is timely. He emphasized that the committee will push the industry's smart manufacturing to new heights and foster new productive forces.
Association President Lin Lin highlighted the strategic significance of the committee. She stated that it addresses industry transformation pain points, fills gaps in digital development, and strengthens core competitiveness. Crucially, it will connect smart equipment, CNC processes, industrial software, application scenarios, and standard construction to form a full-chain support system.
For buyers and factories, this means smart upgrades will shift from single-point equipment replacement to systematic process reengineering. Many dyeing firms have introduced automatic dosing systems or digital printing machines, but benefits are often limited by disconnects between upstream and downstream processes. The committee aims to solve this through standard setting and system integration.
Lin proposed three work directions: deepen the application of digital technologies, pushing AI and digital management from single-point to full-process integration; build a unified smart manufacturing standard system for dyeing; and foster industry-wide collaborative transformation to ensure tangible results.