The Right Fabric Sourcing Practice for Apparel Manufacturing By: Arun Chattopadhyay

(Views expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author) get the right cloth can be some measures a last-risk challenge verbal expressiond by clip manufacturers. Out of the total price of manufacturing a coiffe military personnel, the cost of material can contribute in the midst of 50 and 65 per cent. Furthermore, even a minor oversight in claiming the right theoretical account and right manufacturer whitethorn spoil the wide dress up programme. Interestingly, though the fabric constitutes the main part of a garment, many a(prenominal) of the robes merchandisers fork up a very limited knowledge rough fabric.They consider fabric as a nonher region of raw poppycock like buttons, care labels, and hang tags or packing materials. Unfortunately, describing a fabric in terms of specification to fulfill its end use is ofttimes more complicated than communicating the contractment of any other component of a garment and many apparel merchandisers do non have the unavoidable knowledge or training to order the right fabric from the right manufacturer at the right price. To be on the safer side, they exclusively remove various suppliers to bid for their lowest price and finally select the one who move outers the lowest price or the most favourable term. thus we often see the adverse effects of poor fabric sourcing dodge every day in the apparel industry. Garment air loading cost is prohibitive and applied as penalty only when the apparel manufacturer fails to deliver the consignments beyond acceptable delays. The cost of air-freight is so high that air shipment of a single consignment of garments may scrub off the profit of a few months for the garment manufacturer. A canvass revealed that more than 80% of all garment air shipment is caused referable to poor fabric sourcing guidance.Fortunately, such critical errors can be avoided when sourcing twist fabric for manufacturing garments and the procedure is easier than we thin k just about it. When discussing with the garment buyer, do not just talk about the target price he or she is giving you. Ask about the fabric in more detail. This is not only about the counts, construction and weight of the fabric but about some important and critical points. Here are certain things to hold in in mind to ensure a trouble free fabric sourcing.Know the end use that clarifies the required quality standards like colour in fastness, pilling / abrasion resistance, tear and tensile strength, stability towards circumscribed types of www. fibre2fashion. com garment muffle if any etc. Do not feel hesitant to ask those questions because at the end of the day if something does not match the buyers requirement, everyone lead suffer losses. Special requirements like shade / strike off approval conditions, finishing standard, feel of the fabric, etc. , to be discussed, noted and shared out with the buyer and the fabric manufacturer.The garment delivery lead time should b e calculated after taking the fabric delivery lead time into consideration. Many garment buyers demand very short, sometimes unrealistic delivery lead time. You should consider the lead time required for each necessary activities like LC opening, sample approval, lab dip approval, one or devil re-submits that may be required, inspection and shipment time for the fabric, clearance and expatriate to the warehouse and all related activities. Inspection of the fabric and grouping those concord to shades are to be done with extra care.For example, if one exceptional colour is having a large quantity, it is natural to have 2-3 batch wise to(p) variation. Mixing shade batches on the cutting table can go away in disaster. To make the process easier, the fabric supplier should be instructed to deliver the shade grouping charts with roll number mentioned against each shade swatch. The garment buyers also should be informed clearly that for large volume orders that require fabric proces sing in more than one batch, there would be small batch to batch variation in properties.Fabric with supererogatory surface finish like peach finish, microsanding, etc. needs special care. Firstly, the supplier must be instructed to roll such fabric with face inside and put arrow label on each piece showing the direction of such finish with clear arrow marks at both ends. This is to avoid massive shade variation out-of-pocket to stitching pieces undefiled in different directions, together. Transportation and storage vitiate buying fabric that may change properties during the reasonable time required for transportation storage.For example, do not buy a postcure resin finished fabric from a faraway place because during transport and storage, the www. fibre2fashion. com resin may start cross-linking in the fabric, thus spoiling the required DP range after garment finishing process. Last but not the to the lowest degree orders should be placed with fabric manufacturers of reputa tion. Giving 10 cents more to a responsible and reputed manufacturer may prove to save lot of be and penalties going forward.Failing to supply garments on time also in earnest affects the reputation which is priceless. The products of reputed companies also give better realization, lesser wastage and higher susceptibility at garment making process. At the end of the day, we should keep in mind that real prosperity does not mean only buying cheap and selling high to earn short term profit. The apparel manufacturing company that focuses on delivering quality, punctuality, communication and value to each customer will never have any shortage of business and riches in the long run.About the Author The Author is specialized in management of Apparel Fabric business. During his more than 30 years of managerial fancy of working with a number of Indian textile fabric and apparel manufacturing companies, he has observed that more than 80% problems in the Indian textile and apparel Indust ry is related to managing people and lack of adequate HR Development initiatives. Besides having his consulting profession in textile fabric marketing, he also offers Executive Coaching and Consulting in the textile and apparel industries.