The Fact:
In my discussion with a couple of garment manufacturers who mainly work on high fashion garments, I understood that there is a need of systems that can help them in WIP tracking of the production orders.
The processes involved in high-fashion garment manufacturing are different compared to the standard (basic) apparel items such as woven and knits garments. The processes involved in high fashion clothing are - manual khaka making, hand embroidery, bead work, panel cutting after marking each panel, stitching one by one garment. One garment is mostly stitched by one tailor. The lining part is stitched separately and later the lining is joined to the main garment. High fashion garments involve the dry cleaning and washing processes as well.
The major processes and process flow include the following. They like to track processed quantity on these processes.
The major issue faced by high fashion garment manufacturers is tracking the correct location of each item in an order accross the processes. The garment pieces in the WIP may be in the cutting process, or in stitching, or in the repairing process. Maybe in the QC checking and finishing stage. It is difficult to get the right information when needed without a IT technology tool.
RELATED ARTICLE | Manufacturing Process of High Fashion Clothes
The Need of The Fashion Manufacturers
What I understood after talking to the business heads and managers, they are lacking of having WIP data in the desired formats. They don't have clue of missing garments. The data and reports that might be helpful for managing orders are listed below.
- A WIP report that can show them size wise and color wise movement of the order
- A Report that can provide information of WIP across the processes.
- Tracking of units received from embroidery vendors and number panels in their hand by order.
- Tracking of process time of inside processes for different designs - inside processes mainly - hand embroidery, sewing garments, repairing garments, garment checking time.
- Further calculating actual costs of each design.
- Tailors performance
As the garment moves mostly individual piece form, tracking of individual garment is important rather than by lot (lay number of Order).
Related Article: Production Report Summary by Date (for an MTM Suit Factory)
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| Figure: Production report summary |
Solutions:
Factories can get their desired reports and WIP tracking of their production orders by implementing a right solution. A solution that can capture movement of material (garments) from one process to another. A real-time shop floor production tracking system is the right solution for the high end fashion manufacturers. In the WIP tracking system, the user needs to define the processes that one needs to track WIP.
Simplest steps for real-time tracking system - generate barcode or RFID tags for each garment. Attach the tag to the individual garment panels keeping piece number.
A real-time system captures individual garment movement for process wise WIP.
If you are looking for WIP tracking system for your company, you can contact me. I would be happy to guide you.