Questions & Answers #2

1. Chanrda Shekar asked:  Please advise how to convert from KGs to Yards. Suppose if supplier gives price per KG, how I can convert it to yards. Secondly, suppose if we get consumption in yards, how to convert the consumption to KGs. Kindly advice through formula.

Normally, price of knitted fabric is presented in per Kg. and price of woven fabric is presented in per yard or per meter. However if you need sometimes you can use the below formula to convert fabric price per Kg to price per yard.

  Price per Yard= (Price per kg X Width of the fabric in meter X GSM)/1094   

Example: Fabric price INR 300/- per Kg, GSM 200 grams, Fabric width 1.2 meters. 

So Price per yard = (300 X 200 X 1.2)/1094 = INR 65.81/-

(Please note that result may vary a little from the exact price due to high density of yarn in selvedge.)

For the second question follow below steps to find consumption in Kgs 

1. Convert yards to meters. Multiply yards by a factor 0.9144. (e.g. garment consumption per piece in length is 2 yards) 
2. Measure fabric width in meters and find gsm (grams per square meter) of that fabric. (e.g. width = 1meter, gsm = 200) 
3. Now use this formula: Garment consumption (in Kg.) = (Length X GSM X width in meter)/1000 

Garment consumption (in kgs) = (2 X 0.9144 X200 X 1)/1000 = 0.3657 Kg or 365.76 grams

2. Zaman asked:  I need to audit my factory. Can you give me details information about international 3rd party agent’s name?

There is number of agents/labs those conduct factory audits. For example: SGS, Intertek, STR, TUV etc. To know more and contact details of these agents read our article Buyer Approved Garment & Textile Testing Labs

3. Prashant Singh asked:  Please give me Operation Breakdown tips for Formal Trousers.

There is an article on operation breakdown for trousers in our site under Industrial engineering. To read it, open the following link. Operation Breakdown and SMV of a Trouser.
We suggest you before sending any query please search with keywords in this site. Use search box on top right corner of webpage.

4. Nancy asked:  Can you give an explanation of how to calculate total cost per minute?

Minute cost is calculated for direct labors (sewing operators) those are on salary. You can use following formula for this calculation.

Minute Cost = (Monthly salary of the operators/Total minutes available in the month)

For an example assume that operator monthly salary is INR 5000.00
Total available capacity per month (in minute) = 26 working days*8 hours/day*60=12,480 minutes
So, per minute cost of the direct labor = 5000/12480 = 0.4006 INR

I hope, you got my point. If need further explanation you can write us again. For details read: Garment CM cost estimation using SAM or SMV

Secondly, if you are looking for the calculation of “Total cost per minute to the factory excluding material cost” then use following formula. 

Cost per minute= (Total production cost / total available minutes) calculated for a month and production cost is calculated excluding material cost (fabric and trims).

Where Total production cost = (Depreciation of fixed capital + total interest amount + CMT cost + Overheads) calculated for a month

5. Anirban Chatterjee asked:  I would like to know more in detailed form from where garment manufacturing technology can be done and the duration of the course.

In India, National Institute of Fashion Technology institute is the best one for GMT course. (Presently GMT course is named as B.FTech - 4 years & M. FTech - 2 years). To know details about of this course read article Garment Manufacturing Technology.

Similar kind of courses is also provided by Pearl Academy of Fashion and North Indian Institute of Fashion Technology.

6. Amer asked:  In your article ‘How to measure fabric Consumption of garments’ in the example of the style is = {(L*C) + (B*SL)}*2*GSM/10000 grams = [{(33*25) + (10*2*27.5)}*2*(2.54)2*200]/10000 grams = [{825 + 550}*400*6.45]/10000 grams = 354.83 grams  Can you explain this line = [{825 + 550}*400*6.45]/10000 grams how comes 400*6.45 can you explain this?.

Please note details calculation with color coding. I hope you can understand it.
= {(L*C) + (B*SL)}*2*GSM/10000 grams
= [{(33*25) + (10*2*27.5)}*2*(2.54)2*200]/10000 grams (2.54 is squared)
=[{(825)+ (550) } * 2*200 * (2.54 X 2.54) ] /10000 grams
= [{825 + 550}*400*6.45]/10000 grams
= [1375 X 400 X 6.45 ] /10000 grams
= 3548380 /10000 grams

Amer: I have understood. Can you explain more about the 2.54 what is this?? In your fabric consumption details you have not mentioned about this.

OCS: 2.54 is conversion factor from inch to centimeter. As you may know 1 Inch = 2.54 cm And 2.54 has been multiplied twice because we are calculating fabric area (length X width).

Amer: Is this possible we know about fabric length and width?

OCS: Knitted fabric is ordered in weight (Kgs). So consumption is calculated in weight. As per pattern / Marker of the garments /style fabric width is decided by pattern master/cutting depart. So, fabric width is always given or predetermined and fabric length will vary depending on fabric density (GSM) and fabric consumption per garment. 

If you know width, fabric consumption in grams and GSM then you can calculate Length (in cm) = (Fabric consumption in grams X 10000) / (GSM X width in cm).

7. Todor asked:  Hello, thanks for providing many useful information on your site. I would like to ask: Have you made some research connected with scheduling of operators who can do more than one operation (but with different efficiency)? How to balance the assembly line in that case and get the optimal operator utilization?

Yes, it is possible to balance a line using operator’s skill matrix. You are right - by doing so we can increase operator utilization%. 

After receiving your query I planned to write an article on this topic (line balancing using operator's skill history). I have posted it How to do Line balancing using Operator Skill History? Go through it. I hope you will find answer of your question.

8. Mohamed asked:  We are small manufacturer and we have more mistakes for calculate cost of garments and need help to way to calculate time of produce garment and time waste for solving and fabric defect cost.

Mohamed in your question you have asked three different issues as I understood

1. Garment costing 
2. Determining correct production time (standard time) 
3. How to reduce fabric defect 

1. Before suggesting you anything on garment costing part I like to understand how are you currently doing it? You can forward a sample costing sheet with brief explanation. 

2. I guess you employed work study person to look after engineering part. To get production on time you have to plan your production duration (style run) based on standard time, capacity and line efficiency. To establish standard time your engineers have to work on time study and analysis of time study data. Allowance must be added correctly during standard time calculation. After setting the standard time they need to work on floor with operator -- why operators do not meet the standards. I have published lot of related articles in the section of "industrial Engineering". You can get help from those. Also look into articles on production planning section.

3. It is obvious that higher the defective pieces higher the production cost. It will also consume lot of time in repair/alter the pieces. To get rid of this you have to establish quality management system. Currently I don’t have much idea about your organisation to suggest you something. If you are looking for help you can come with real information.