For Grier, it’s a culmination of a journey that started about two decades ago.

 

“Our pilot factory is completely built and from a performance standpoint, we are ready to do everything,” Grier said. “We are getting our funding package and our installation package together for the customers that seem to be ready to go. After 18 to 20 years of working on this discovery and technology, I know it is only an enabling technology. It doesn’t make a profit by itself. What we had to do is get all these companies to build a demonstration factory that put all these technologies together.”

 

The pilot factory is a result of the investment and collaboration of equipment and software manufacturers who comprise the Virtual Inventory Manufacturing Alliance (ViMA). In addition to AM4U, it includes Gerber Technology, Eton Systems (a manufacturer of robotic technology), dyeing and printing machinery manufacturer Monti Antonio, software maker Optitex, knitting systems manufacturer Vangard Pai Lung, software designer ErgoSoft and Allied Modular, a developer of modular building systems. An alliance partner is the Cal Poly Pomona Department of Apparel Merchandising and Management, which has provided research and market education.

 

“In the past, companies didn’t see value of working together, but they are working together now,” Grier said. “It’s been very exciting.”

 

Purchase-activated manufacturing & Active Tunnel Coloration

 

Grier said apparel companies have wasted billions of dollars on tariffs. Purchase-activated manufacturing (PAM) offers the chance to eliminate this cost while also eliminating the need to maintain large inventories.

 

“We can leverage our consumers and make it where we wear it,” Grier said. “Every domestic manufacturer can do this all over the world. Making products after they are purchased or after it’s been depleted in the store is the new way. This technology has never been integrated before.”

 

Grier described the Active Tunnel Coloration (ATC) as a technology that offers the ability to change color and prints on the fly. He said the machine can “harness the energy” stored in the fabric itself to do the dye and print process. He said the energy stored during the process of making the synthetic fiber (primarily polyester and nylon) itself is releasable by the process in the ATC machine.

 

Grier likened the process to that of selecting a paint color at Home Depot or Lowe’s, where colors are selected and blended with basic white paint rather than the stores stocking huge inventories of pre-mixed paint colors.

 

“Apparel is the place to go with this,” he said. “The whole industry will flip over this. Just like we have many craft breweries in this country, we will have many factories. These jobs will be here in the U.S.”

 

If the AM4U technologies become successful on a large, commercialized scale, as Grier believes, it could reduce over-production of apparel and reduce the need for outsourcing.

 

“It will redefine the way we manufacture,” Grier said. “It will change supply and demand to demand and supply and eliminate the need for inventory.”

 

Picking up steam

 

AM4U started picking up steam in May following the Texprocess Americas exhibition in Atlanta, where it was featured in a new technology pavilion organized by [TC]2, the Cary, N.C.-based company that specializes in technology development and supply chain improvement. AM4U was subsequently overwhelmed with requests for sample runs.

 

“Generally, companies send us some of their fabric, prepared to print with their artwork,” Grier said. “We produce a sample piece and we usually add to this some of the other possibilities of what we can do such as pull-through color or a separate color on the back.”

 

The individualization offered by a mini-factory is a good fit, according to Grier.

 

AM4U is organizing an array of funding sources for eligible companies wanting to acquire their own mini-factory. These sources will have facilitators who can help companies with their business plan. Grier said he expects six of the mini-factories to be built by the end of the year.