Cloud Knitting Program Reuse for Custom Knitwear Orders
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Solution Overview
Problem
The current production flow for knitted products is inefficient due to the time-consuming process of creating knitting programs and debugging machines for customized orders, leading to reduced production efficiency and income for factories, as they often prioritize large quantity orders over small quantity customization requests, resulting in idle machines and unsatisfied customers.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based customization platform is used to generate knitting programs for new products by replacing and adjusting the design files of basic products, creating a working file executable by knitting machines, thereby reducing production costs and increasing efficiency for customized products.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional production flow is used for customized knitted products, then production flexibility and customization capability are improved, but production time and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-uploading knitting program instructions for basic products to the cloud-based platform before customization is needed. When a customer places a customized order, the system directly uses these pre-prepared instructions as a basis, eliminating the time-consuming process of creating programs from scratch and enabling rapid customization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying by replicating and adapting existing knitting program instructions from basic products to create customized product programs. The system copies the fundamental knitting instructions and modifies them according to customer specifications, rather than developing entirely new programs, thus significantly reducing program creation time.
2Adaptability or versatility
If traditional production flow is used for customized knitted products, then production flexibility and customization capability are improved, but production cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by creating a cloud-based platform that serves multiple functions: storing basic product knitting instructions, receiving customization orders, automatically generating customized knitting programs, and transmitting instructions to knitting machines. This multi-functional system consolidates previously separate processes, reducing overall production costs while maintaining customization capability.
Solution Approach 2:
By copying and adapting existing knitting program instructions rather than creating new programs from scratch, the system significantly reduces the labor and time costs associated with program development, thereby lowering production costs for customized products.
3Productivity
If factories prioritize large quantity orders, then production efficiency is improved, but machine utilization for customization orders decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary cloud-based platform that acts as a mediator between customer customization requests and factory production systems. This platform automatically generates knitting programs and transmits instructions to machines, enabling factories to efficiently handle customized small-quantity orders without compromising the processing of large-quantity orders, thus improving overall machine utilization.
4Adaptability or versatility
If manual program creation and machine debugging is used, then production flexibility is maintained, but production time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of program creation and machine debugging with an automated computer-based system. The cloud platform automatically generates knitting programs by adapting existing instructions and electronically transmits them to knitting machines, eliminating manual intervention and significantly accelerating the production process while maintaining flexibility through programmable control.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method and apparatus for customizing knitted products. A specific embodiment of the method includes: receiving knitting program instructions of basic products uploaded regularly by factories to a cloud-based customization platform; generating a design file and an order of a new product in response to a customer designing the new product on the cloud-based customization platform and placing the order; replacing the design file of the corresponding basic product with the design file of the new product to generate the knitting program for making the new product, and generating a working file executable by a knitting machine; sending the order and the working file to an intelligent factory system or manufacturing execution system; and producing the new product by using the knitting machine according to the working file.