Material Utilisation
Through Optimisation of Fabric Usage

Material Utilisation (MU) is one of the key performance indicators as it constitutes about 58% -60% of total production cost in the apparel industry. As many companies generate waste equivalent to 15-20 percent or more of the total material purchased; a 1 percent saving usage could yield a profit increase of 8% - it is an area to be considered as a source of profit improvement. 

What is Material Utilisation? 

The absolute measure of material utilization can be summarized as: “the number of meters of fabric and trim purchased by a company to achieve delivery of the required number of perfect garment to the customer”. 

Typically, areas of the business, which have an impact on MU are :

  • Purchasing

  • Costing on material requirements

  • Product design / pattern engineering

  • Materials intake control

  • Material stock control

  • Materials testing / inspection / claims

  • Cut order planning

  • Materials issues and allocations

  • Marker marking

  • Cutting room methods

  • Damage handling and re-cut control

  • Material usage analysis and reconciliation

  • Material management organisation

MU Performance Measures 

Basically, MU performance measures in the apparel industry focus on : 

  • Production planning

  • Marker arrangement and planning

  • Cutting room performance (post marker loss)

  • Production performance

  • Overall performance

. Production Planning – To know the fabric characteristic and performance. The key performance measured is the percentage of Cut vs Order.

. Marker Planning – Time is a crucial factor.

. Cutting Room Performance – In typical cutting flow, an audit is done on spread losses upon completion of the spreading process. Fabric loss monitoring is mainly from various spread losses including : End loss, Splice loss, Gap loss and Width loss.

* Remnants Control – To analyse the nature of remnants fabric after cutting and sewing as well as surplus unshipped finished garments. Therefore, it is important to know the characteristic and performance of fabric.

* One of the important process in cutting room quality control is cut piece inspection process. The process provides accurate indication of fabric quality. All defects must be recorded and standard should be set up for minor defects. 

. Production Performance – Factors in garment production performance measurement :

       * Inferior Garments        * Fabric defect      * Sewing defect
        * Shade issues               * Unshipped garments   
          * Unaccountable             * Balance Stock 

. Overall Performance – Material management is managed not only by the material related department, but it is also the responsibility of all. Firms must have proper understanding of incoming material; and corrective action to produce garments that balance with quality and price. 

Best Practices 

A. Working Closely with Fabric Mills

     Both suppliers of fabric and apparel manufacturers look and discuss on ways and share experiences in solving garment related problems i.e. mending, fabric touch up, refinishing etc.

B. Pre-Production – Among the two critical factors are maximize cut to order (%) and surplus management.  

C.  Fabric Inspection

     *  Inspection System – Set up a standard 4 point inspection acceptable system.

* Shade Evaluation – Evaluated on the color continuity between rolls and sides and color difference.

* Check on bow, skew and any distortion.

* Check for stripes repeat.

* Roll length verification. 

Based on all the above factors of fabric inspection, the Computer Maker Department (CMD) will be advised on the re-cut allowance estimated. 

D. Computer Maker Department (CMD) 

CMD receives and analyses information from Fabric Inspection. CMD then arranges and plots marker. The KPIs evaluated are :

* Size per marker (Long marker)

* % of Utilization and Yards per Dozen (YPD)

* Fabric defect / shade defect analysis 

E.  Spreading and Cutting

The benchmark standard for a world-class material management manufacturers is the losses after cutting should be within 1% - 1.5%. 

F. Cut Piece Inspection

 *  Sets standard according to buyers’ criteria.

* Educates the cut piece inspectors on mending re-cut/ replace and what is the    acceptable standard.

*        Sampling on cut piece standard is done. 

G.  Post Production

     During this stage, two critical success factors are ship to cut and ship performance.

     * Ship-to-cut Analysis is made to ensure that is it as close as 100%. Inability to achieve 100% will result in production waste, sample, fabric fault and balance stock.

     * Ship performance. 

Conclusion

Among the waste streams often categorized as primary and secondary associated with an apparel firm are : 

. Apparel Manufacturing –Primary Waste 

      * Fabric remnants          * Samples           * Sewing thread

      * Cutting or scraps         *  Trimming         * Mill end 

. Apparel Manufacturing –Secondary Waste 

     * Waste        * Tubes         * Paper waste      
     * Pallets        * Bags          * Cones      
    *Plastic wrap  * Shipping cartons 

“Waste prevention is on obvious solution”. The American Textile Manufacturers Institute’s survey of 36 companies and 260 plants showed that after implementing waste reduction practices, the total amount of waste generated per plant per month decreased significantly. 

Advances in computer-aided design have helped companies lower their costs. Strategies could be used to decrease fabric waste through changes in technology and operations. 

-  Abstracted from P & Q Digest, NPC-

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