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
7/28/2019 Saving Fabric = Increasing Dead Stock
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Methods Apparel Consultancy India Pvt Ltd
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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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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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
7/28/2019 Saving Fabric = Increasing Dead Stock
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Methods Apparel Consultancy India Pvt Ltd
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