Zund UK have partnered with Fashion-Enter to demonstrate a sustainable micro-factory concept in London, using the Zünd D3 Digital Cutting technology.

Fashion-Enter is a not-for-profit social enterprise, which strives to be a centre of excellence for sampling, grading, production and for learning and development of skills within the fashion and textile industry.

The pressure for sustainable and on-demand production is growing rapidly within the fashion industry. Whether it is fast fashion or sportswear, digitisation and automation are the path to the future in apparel manufacturing, with single ply cutting providing the solution to changing demands across the textile industry. In an increasingly digital production environment, order sizes are smaller, order cycles shorter, and the degree of customisation keeps increasing. Lot size 1, fast fashion, and mass customisation are among the hottest trends. High-performance digital cutting systems from Zünd, combined with highly advanced yet intuitive software, enables fully automated digital cutting with minimal manual intervention.

The Zund UK and Fashion-Enter partnership will showcase a sustainable micro-factory concept in the UK which uses the latest technology and advanced workflow processes. Dean Ashworth, Sales and Marketing Director at Zund UK said “The project is aimed at brands and retailers; we want to demonstrate to them how they can create a sustainable manufacturing facility in the UK. We believe onshoring apparel manufacturing will support the growing trend for made-to-order and ethical production. Furthermore, technology and production strategies are developing to deliver the capabilities needed to reshape the fashion industry. Zünd single-ply cutters are setting new standards in speed, efficiency, and accuracy. The Zünd D3 cutter delivers ultimate performance and productivity with two cutting beams operating simultaneously with sophisticated nesting algorithms increasing material yield and helping to keep production costs low.”

Jenny Holloway, Chief Executive Officer at Fashion-Enter added, "In light of the recent unprecedented demand for make in the UK, the timing of our unique partnership is excellent. In the last week alone, we have had five major retailers and e-tails contact FEL for speed of response fashion and now, thanks to Zund's outstanding cutting technology we can commit to leaner and more efficient manufacturing. Zund is particularly effective on one piece flow which is the future of garment manufacturing working within the parameters of a micro factory which in time we will extend to our Welsh site too in Newtown Powys. We would like to say a genuine thank you to the amazing team of Zund who spent the last week installing and calibrating the G3 cutter. Now this really is state-of-the-art-manufacturing."