Saving Fabric = Increasing Dead Stock

7/28/2019 Saving Fabric = Increasing Dead Stock

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Methods Apparel Consultancy India Pvt Ltd

Saving Fabric = Increasing dead stock??

To minimize waste has been the mantra of garment industry for the past decade in order to

increase bottom-line profitability. We have been educating ourselves on various innovativeconcepts and techniques to control the production floor but in order to plug smaller cracks are

we neglecting the bigger holes in the system?

Methods Apparel Consultancy in conjunction with OGTC conducted a ten week program for

cutting room improvement in 8 factories in NCR to investigate and improve fabric utilization,

the single biggest contributor in garment cost.

As you are all aware fabric comprises at least 50% of the garment cost and the best fabric

utilization is to use every inch of what you buy, converting it into garments and ultimately into

earnings.

To establish and identify the

major areas of waste 2 orders

were thoroughly investigated in

each of the factories. The results

of which have been presented

here so that you can see where

you stand.

The results show that of the total fabric bought for an order only 82% is being used effectively

the remaining 18% is being lost in one way or the other.

The major contributors to this loss are :-

Dead Stock:

It is the fabric that is left in

your stores after the order

has been shipped. This is

mostly the result of over

cautious buying.

No one wants to be blamed

for short shipment and so


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there are lots of stages where extra percentages are added.

As an example the Pattern master calculates consumption on medium size (2 mtr) and adds

extra approximately 10 cm to compensate for large sizes a further 3 to 5% is added for cutting

wastages and 2% for shrinkage and defects. The fabric is ordered and a further 5% is added

since the buyer allows a potential 5% to be over-shipped.

Cut to Ship Ratio: This ratio represents the number of garments shipped against number of

garments cut. The cut to ship ratio varies between 95% and 99%. 6 of the factories achieved a

ratio of 96/97% with only two of them achieving acceptable delivery percentages.

Example

Fabric required (Order Qty = 4000 pcs) =8000 mtrs

Fabric Bought (Order Qty + 5%=4200 pcs) = 9366 mtrs

If cut to ship ratio is 97% (avg) then 4076 garments are actually shipped.

Fabric accounted for = 8152 mtrs.

Fabric Unaccounted for or lost =1214 mtrs. In this case the loss is 13% of the total fabric

bought, this fabric is either dead stock, lost in cutting room, lost as reject garments or arrived

short on rolls from mill. However, once the shipment leaves we revel in the fact that we have

sent more than order qty instead of realizing the fact that we actually bought extra 5% fabric

but not converted it into earnings.

Because the buyers allow an extra 5% to be delivered that amount is being added to the

purchases, costed consumption figures are rough and have some FAT in them Think about

adding the extra garments to the shipment but dont buy fabric for them, in most cases you will

succeed in delivering the order complete.

Markers: 7.5% of fabric was being lost due to inefficient cut order planning and poor markers.

Consumption 2 mtr

Pattern Master 10cm 2.1

Cutting wastage 4% 2.18

shrinkage 2% 2.23

Garments Cut Garments Shipped


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Me

Cut Order Planning: Finding th

challenge for even the best cut

more productive and save at l

acceptable to the buyer, the ra

will lead to more economic cdispatched quantities. The conc

planning that is being done is so

Marker Making: CAD equipmen

CAD equipment; however it is s

are not being used as well as it

companies make miniature mar

and inefficient manual markers

50 markers were checked on thit was found that marker makin

cases savings were as high as

for thought and how manage

efficient use of this equipment.

Width Usage: Fabric supplie

variation it is important that

supplied to the marker making

can be made to maximise the a

can save a further 0.5% of the

the factories were grouping

appropriately.

Other Areas of potential Improv

Remnant Markers and End bit

(End bits) but they are frequentl

In each factory it was made ma

marker and part changes wer

costed/buying and achieved con

thods Apparel Consultancy India Pvt Ltd

most efficient markers for a given set of qua

planners. Good Marker planning can make cu

ast 2% of fabric issued. By utilizing the addi

io can be smoothed and the number of mark

nsumption figures and less work, without aept of cut order panning is lacking in many cu

metimes not as good as it should be.

t has been in the market for a long time, many

urprising to see that after spending thousand

could be in many of the factories we have visi

ers and send them to the cutting room where

re made resulting in poor fabric usage.

automatic marker making equipment currentlg unaided by humans can save 3.6% on an a

% , this leaves huge room

ent works to control the

has considerable width

abric width information is

epartment so that markers

vantages to be made. This

fabric in an order. None of

fabrics and using widths

ement:

Administration: Most factories cut garment

y saved to cut part changes and the remaining

datory to use all the remnants to cut garmen

e done only from off cuts. The final com

sumption will be considerably improved.

tities presents a

tting rooms 20%

ional 5% that is

rs reduced. This

fecting the finaltting rooms. The

companies own

, the equipment

ted. Some of the

they are ignored

y on the market,erage, in certain

from remnants

fabric is wasted.

s before the last

arison between


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Me

Housekeeping: Research show

clutter. The housekeeping in t

photographs below were taken i

Housekeeping is a major proble

been designed with shelves un

of fabric from current and old o

importance and these shelves

the shelves are removed and th

profitability to the business sho

throwing money on the floor an

Fabric Reconciliation: This is a

the management account of ea

doing complete Fabric reconcilia

The reconciliation reports is a c

much was bought, issued, laye

and summarizes profit and loss

not only in accounting fabric bu

fabric and of course in monitori

from a part of regular manage

orders plays a major part.

Before

thods Apparel Consultancy India Pvt Ltd

s that there is direct correlation between

e cutting rooms was hugely improved durin

n the same cutting room.

m in the vast majority of cutting rooms the l

erneath and these shelves are used to store

rders, fabric is treated very poorly with no un

romote poor fabric discipline and waste, we

at all fabric is treated in the manner that its i

uld demand, the way it is stored under the ta

expecting it to be there when you return, suc

ery important tool to control and monitor fab

h and every inch of fabric bought. None of the

tions

omplete summary of how the fabric was use

, Supplier shortages, amount unusable, End

on each order over costed consumption. This

also in evaluating suppliers for shortages in r

g exactly how fabric is being used. These reco

ent meetings in which fabric performance

After (same factory)

productivity and

the project the

ying tables have

ll sorts of pieces

erstanding of its

recommend that

portance to the

bles is similar to

h is the waste.

ic usage. It gives

companies were

, it covers; How

its and Off-cuts

report can assist

lls and quality of

ciliations should

gainst individual


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Costed/Buying Versus Achieved Consumption: There is a great potential for improvements in

controlling the amount of fabric bought, the estimates on which fabric is purchased and as

previously mentioned safety margins built- in lead to dead stock. If the staff involved stop trying

to protect themselves from errors and buy only what is really necessary lots of money will be

saved.

In many cases buyers are responsible for changing the style specifications at the last moment

which contributes to these variances. Our investigation into this suggests that on an average

10% extra fabric is being bought.

There is no point in improving markers, using the width better, reducing end losses, using end

bits better if you have overbought, all you are doing is adding to dead stock.

So the commonplace assumption that we know how to save fabric could be untrue! It is

possible that savings in the cutting room are worthless, since you have already purchased the

fabric!

It is vitally important that efficient fabric control systems are developed to monitor fabric usage

from purchasing through to a final reconciliation, and how much we have Saved which is now

on the stockroom shelves waiting for someone to buy it at a tenth of its original cost.

Can it be that all of your efforts go towards allowing senseless wastages and increasing your

dead stock holding?

Roger Thomas

Methods apparel Consultancy India

Documents

Saving Fabric = Increasing Dead Stock