Calculate Consumptions

Once the production is planned, the styles, colors, and quantities are defined, and the deadline is set, it is time to actually start the production process. 

Obviously, everything starts with the consumption calculation of every material necessary for the garment/collection production. Therefore, the production team’s priority will be analyzing the page of the Bill of Material of the Tech Pack, where all the materials needed and in what quantity for one single unit realization are listed. Such data will be multiplied for the total number of units to produce, in order to obtain the total amount of material requested.

The above procedure is true for all the materials that are counted per unit, and for which the consumption calculation during the prototype realization is, for obvious reasons, perfect (such as buttons, zippers, snaps, tags since they are counted per unit and are therefore certain). Also applicable to raw materials such as elastic and yarn (count per meters/yards), consumption will not change from the sample to the final garment since they are linear units of measurement.

On the other hand, we suggest you realize the fabric calculation following the marker realization, by checking what is the actual consumption of a single unit once the marker is done and all the pieces are placed on the whole fabric width in the most optimized combination.

In all cases, while calculating the total consumption, it is mandatory to always apply a margin of error that can go from 5% to 20%. The margin can be different based on several factors, such as: 

• The Material in question
• How elaborate is the construction of the garment 
• How many processes, excluding the traditional Cut & Sew, will the garment require
• How much does the material shrink (this is applicable just to fabrics)
• etc.

Order Raw Materials

Once the consumption is calculated, it is now time to order and purchase the correct quantity of necessary raw materials to the suppliers for production completion’s sake.

Heads up: if the quantity you need of a certain article is lower than the MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) imposed by the provider, your order will not be accepted. If this is the case, you will be either forced to purchase the minimum quantity purchasable, even though it’s more than necessary, or either order the correct amount of material but with a surcharge per unit.

You will need to create a Purchase Order and send it to the provider filled with all the indispensable information.

Quality Control: Check the Received Materials

Even though the common thought believes that quality control consists of being only the final moment in the production process, this is completely untrue. In order to assure a good completion of the project and a good final quality, after every passage a quality inspector is requested to sample, verify the results and prepare a report.

For this reason, checking the correctness and quality of the raw material is mandatory, in order to ensure everything was realized as requested.

For more information, Contact us.