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OCTOBER 2012 StitchWorld 5

TechReview48 DECORaTivE STiTChES: Simply

valuE aDDiTiOn via SEwing

TechBytes

NewsTrack

TechEvent

8 OuTSOuRCing appaREl manufaCTuRing pROCESSES

30 iCahT-12 REinfORCES ThE impORTanCE Of pEOplE in TODay’S BuSinESS ClimaTE

34 inDian SuBCOnTinEnT viSiTORS pOwERS Jiam 2012

38 lOTS Of TEChnOlOgiES TO lOOk OuT fOR in 2013… CiSma anD TExpROCESS REaDy wiTh DiSTinCT agEnDaS

TechTalk20 ExpanDing SpORTS gOODS

maRkET maChinE STiTChED pROmOTiOnal

fOOTBallS nOw a Big BuSinESS

26 manufaCTuRing a fOOTBall fiRST lEvEl Of auTOmaTiOn

42 pERfORmanCE mEaSuREmEnT TOOlS – 4 human RESOuRCE managEmEnT

Editor-in-Chief

DEEPAK MOHINDRA

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CLAUDIA OLLENHAUER-RIES (GERMANY)

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Technical Correspondent

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Subscribe Online visit our website www.stitchworld.net

StitchWorldTechnology and Management in Sewn Product Industry

vol. x • issue 8www.stitchworld.net

Football manufacturing

Vibemac team led by Enrico Guerreschi at JIAM

Decorative Stitiches

Proenza Schouler Heritage Cotton

10 BanglaDESh: faSTREaCT’S EvOlvE a hiT wiTh BanglaDEShi COmpaniES

12 Japan: hamS pRESEnTS 3D SEwing maChinE BaS-326g-3D

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Read and comment on my blog at

http://stitchworldmagazine.blogspot.com

E D I T O R I A L

I love visiting trade fairs in my line of work. It’s a place to meet friends and well wishers, develop new contacts, exchange views with industry informed, get new leads and it is

also a place to make interesting observations…

This time around too, JIAM threw a googly that ‘German retailers are actively looking to shift production back to their country’. I have not deliberated on which product categories, but it was said in so many words by three sewing machine suppliers in separate conversations… that got me thinking. I recalled the recent success of the ‘Made in USA’ pavilion at Magic, Las Vegas with over 50 local manufacturers showcasing their products. It was the most visited area at the Source Zone and all major retailers from JCPenney to Target supported the concept, even the Government pitched its support.

Only recently I also came across a letter of a famous designer brand sourcing from India addressed to its equally reputed Indian buying office with a stern warning to improve on late deliveries and quality, with a clear hint that now onwards the brand intended placing fewer orders with the buying agent as they were looking to move back production to Europe… It made me think whether this is actually a good idea for the retailers, considering that production cost are much higher in the EU…

The realities are indeed interesting… fashion is changing very fast and it is increasingly becoming important for retailers to buy as close to the season as possible; buying locally takes just 6 weeks as against the average 16 weeks lead time from India. Again, sourcing locally would mean selling at original mark-ups with little need for markdowns, while holding very little or no inventory, both of which brings in greater profits.

That’s not all, the retailers also save on custom duties payable and commissions paid to buying agents. Besides this, they also don’t have to pay tax for any of the shipments that move in and out of the country…

Assuming that all these advantages surpass the ‘higher’ cost of production, which was the original reason for the shift in production to Asian countries and where now the cost of labour, infrastructure and logistics is on the rise… it is time for the industry to introspect! There are a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ at this point of time and maybe the concept is still too ahead of time, but it is something that the industry needs to deliberate upon.

StitchWorld has been advocating machinization as a growth driver, in this issue the production process, market and challenges of football manufacturing has been discussed in detail. The issue also analyses the recently concluded OGTC annual conference where the highlight was on people, people and people. Bring down cost on value addition is strategically important and this edition has some interesting tips for the use of decorative stitches as an alternate to expensive embroidery.

Deepak MohindraEditor-in-Chief

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8 StitchWorld OCTOBER 2012

Do you think outsourcing some of the core in-house operations like pattern making to organizations specializing in the same, having latest technology with better skilled manpower, can actually improve the timelines and the quality of the product, leading to cost savings? What all aspects of apparel manufacturing can actually be outsourced, and why? What other factors should one keep in mind and work on before outsourcing any service?

TECH BYTES

QIndustry responds...

Yes, definitely outsourcing in certain cases does help in reducing the cost, but I would say one has to compromise on the quality aspect. And quality being the major concern, core in-house operations shouldn’t be outsourced. Factors such as meeting the delivery dates, buyer concerns and quality should be kept in mind before outsourcing any activity. We at SK Overseas try not to outsource but due to increased work load and lesser capacity some of the operations like fringe work in the garment is outsourced to cut short the lead time. Only those activities that are easy to do should be outsourced to minimize the risk of not meeting the desired quality standards.

KaPil SadHSK Overseas, Partner, Greater Noida

An organization which specializes in a particular operation like pattern making is definitely helpful in achieving better quality and also helps in saving time, provided they are being run by professionals and the process is executed in a structured manner through proper communication channels. At the end of the day, timely delivery and quality is what matters to a customer, which is also our motto at Mariko. It helps in saving cost on infrastructure related investments, cost of recruiting manpower and managing the system. I would definitely like to outsource my operations, but the problem is that this sector is really unorganized and run by unprofessional people who lack proper technical know-how and importance of meeting the time lines. Generally, we outsource stitching of the garments and embroidery processes and are looking at outsourcing pattern making as well. Apart from timely delivery and quality, I would say infrastructure of the organization and technical knowledge of the product by the respective person are two important factors while outsourcing any of the services.

Uday SeHgalDirector, Mariko, Noida

No, we are not doing any outsourcing as we have everything in-house and I also don’t think that outsourcing operations will

help in achieving good quality and saving time. Operations like pattern making vary from country to country and from buyer to buyer and outsourcing them will not help us in achieving any accuracy for the same. I don’t have any plans in the future to outsource my operations.

Rajeev SadHOwner, Shikhar Exports, Noida

I am not sure about whether the whole process of outsourcing can actually help in cost savings, but yes it does help us in doing difficult designs as an exporter. I have to get the designs, prints and other value-added processes in the garment done from outside as 100% cannot be done in-house. With changing fashion, buyers also demand varied types of surface texturing and other techniques to be part of the garment and to achieve that in a limited span of time, outsourcing some of the services does help. Other than these areas, main areas where I will be looking to outsource are textile CAD designing and other design-related services in women’s wear. Factors one has to look out for when going for outsourcing are: the person in charge should be technically strong and should have deep insights of the product, person should be responsive to the task and should execute the timely delivery which is a major factor considered when doing outsourcing.

SHam aggaRwalDirector, Shivalik Exports, Gurgaon

Definitely, opting for outsourcing some of the services helps in saving cost, time and improves quality as these operations will be done by the organizations which are better equipped in terms of technology and labour to do the specific job. We are currently outsourcing our printing and embroidery operations due to lack of capacity in terms of machines, labour and infrastructure. The only thing which should be taken care of while outsourcing some process is the timely delivery of the goods and the quality of the work. The process should involve

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SEpTEmBER 2012 StitchWorld 9

Write your comments to us by 20th October 2012 at: [email protected] or post your views online through our website: www.stitchworld.net/techbytes

TechBytes StitchWorld November 2012 Question

How do you manage and improve your business efficiency with the use of IT...?

proper communication of the requirement of the work to be done between the exporter and the vendor.

moHit gUPtaDirector, Amtex Industries, Noida

No, outsourcing doesn’t save any cost as the organization from which the service is being outsourced will add their markup into the product and eventually increase the total product manufacturing cost. Also,outsourcing a lot of time means getting blocked as you cannot move forward till onereceives back the work like in the case of printing, until and unless printing of that one part is not complete the entire garment cannot be assembled. Reliability and inspection by the right person concerned from the beginning is required otherwise it can lead up to major bottlenecks.We try to have everything in-house but there are some things which we have to outsource as it is impossible to do every operation in-house in the limited capacity. But given a chance Iwould like to have everything in-house.

gUlSHan SawHneyOwner, North India Exports, Noida

Right now we are outsourcing some of our operations like printing and embroidery. In future also, I don’t mind outsourcing the value-added processes provided we get good response from the vendor in terms of quality. The person or the organization should take responsibility of delivering the goods on time and past record of the vendor should be checked before assigning any job to avoid any losses. I believe long-term outsourcing is a costly affair as compared to doing everything in-house and we are trying to bring the cost down by upgrading our facility. As the export business is going through a difficult phase, investing money in machines and labour at this point of time seems like a risky affair hence outsourcing appears to be the only way out to keep the business flowing.

Sanjay yadavOwner, Rama Exports, New Delhi

CMYK


TRADE STATISTICS

Indian apparel exports to the EU declined in both value and volumes in the first five months to the tune of (-) 17.97% and (-) 22.74%, respectively. The average UVRs are up from Euro 21.44 (per kg of fabric equivalent) to Euro 22.77 (per kg of fabric equivalent) this year.

The first half of 2012 was disappointing with US imports down both in value and volumes, while the imports were down (-) 4.22% in volumes, the value took a beating of (-) 0.64%. The average UVR was however higher than the same last year at US $ 3.21.

India’s exports to the US continued to decline and in the first six months of 2012, lost out in both value and volumes by (-) 9.73% and (-) 13.66%, respectively. The average UVR of the country stood at US $ 3.65, up from US $ 3.49, same period last year.

News Track

Bangladesh: FastReact’s Evolve a hit with Bangladeshi Companies Far East Knitting chooses Evolve to improve production and WIP control

Bangladesh based garment manufacturer Far East

Knitting & Dyeing Industries Ltd. has adopted FastReact’s Evolve solution to improve production line capabilities and WIP control. The software provides solutions to help companies enhance their enterprise operations and ensures exceptional returns on investment. The system was earlier adopted by Chittagong-based KDS Garment Industries Ltd.

Established in 1994, the ISO Certified and 100% export oriented knitwear manufacturer Far East Knitting has evolved from a small garments manufacturing plant, into one of the leading composite textile companies in the country today with 4200 workers and state-of-the-art printing, pigment dyeing & garment washing facilities. Specializing in high-fashion knitted tops, the unit annually produces 14 million pieces for fashion houses including New Look, Li & Fung, Incredible Fashions, Monoprix Exploitation, Williamson-Dickie

and Norban Corporation. The implementation of Fast React’s Evolve solution will provide increased visibility and control throughout the planning process and critical path of the production team; this in turn enables Far East Knitting to maintain short lead times whilst increasing their clientele base.

On choosing FastReact’s Evolve solution in its factory, Asif Moyeen, Managing Director, Far East Knitting & Dyeing Industries Ltd. said, “We chose Fast React as it is tried and tested software in the market and promises a stable, robust platform for production planning and management reporting.” He added, “By implementing the Evolve solution, we will cut

out a lot of the ‘leakages’ we endure during the production process. A lot of these losses are unaccounted for when you don’t have a secure software to rely on.” The company believes that as their operations expand, the software will support them throughout and Far East would be able to keep up with the dynamic apparel industry.

Commenting on its new and much popular, quick to install and user-friendly software, Dimitri Suraweera, Country Manager, FastReact commented that their studies had shown that competing just on prices was just not enough for survival for any garment factory. The need is also to put in affordable systems that help in reducing lead times. “Now is the time for forward thinking apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh to start putting systems in place that put them ahead of the game. These companies will be at an advantage when costs start rising,” he added.

C.A. Patel Textiles of Ahmedabad,

producing shirting fabric and bed linen for both the export and domestic market, and currently doing business worth US $ 30 mn, is soon going to start garment manufacturing. The company is investing US $ 6mn in a new factory of 500 stitching sewing machines here in the city, the production for which will start in another six months.

Talking to StitchWorld, Mukesh Bhai C. Patel and Sunil Bhai C. Patel, Directors of the company informed, “We are looking to add garmenting to our capabilities. Initially we will install 100 machines, and later the capacity will be enhanced in phases as per strategy.”

India: C.A. Patel Textiles diversifies into garmenting; to invest Rs. 30 crore

In the first five months of 2012, apparel imports by the EU saw the quantities fall by (-) 11.45%, while values also declined by (-) 5.02%. The average UVR increased from Euro 16.21 (per kg of fabric equivalent) to Euro17.39 (per kg of fabric equivalent) .

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News Track

Japan: HAMS new launch 3D sewing machine BAS-326G-3D

Human Apparel Machine System (HAMS), a Japan-

based manufacturer of sewing automates for all kinds of sewn product manufacturing, has been catering not only to the needs of the apparel manufacturing sector but that of the sewn product industry as a whole, since its inception in 1954. HAM’s new innovation for the sewing industry is its new three-dimensional sewing machine BAS-326G-3D which is a next step ahead in programmable sewing machines.

Spherical surfaces can now be sewed with utmost ease, as one has to just load the material in the cassette provided in the machine. BAS-326G-3D sewing machines achieve perfect stitch area

covering more than 90% of the sewing direction while realizing high quality sewing stitches. Clamps are mounted on the machine and lift amount can be adjusted easily from the operational panel. Special hooks for perfect stitch has been newly developed and it ensures excellent thread tightening even with the change of sewing direction and material. The machine gives economical operations with reducing power consumption as direct drive mechanism greatly reduces power transmission losses. Machine comes with an option of easy-to-use programmer PD-3000 which has the capacity of storing 512 programs or 50,000 stitches.

The new machine also

has thread breakage

detecting device, which

will stop the

machine and

immediately

notify the problem

to the operator. An air

cooled device is also

equipped in the machine

to control the breakage

of thread due to excessive

heating. With adoption of the

high rigid feed mechanism,

accurate needle positioning

can be achieved and with

servo control, high precision

pattern sewing is available.

Feed drifting which is a

problem associated with electronic sewing machine does not occur even on high speed and weighty materials.

The machine is compliant with the RoHS (Restrictive use of Hazardous Substances) directive in which substances like lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium is absolutely within the certified limits.

HAMS has modified the Brother BAS-326G for 3D sewing machine

sample

Japan: Juki introduces the new LBH-1790 series of lockstitch buttonholers

Juki Sewing Machine Corporation has been to

the apparel industry what Coca Cola is to the rest of the world. Juki has always kept their approach to product development linked to ‘customer satisfaction’, which has certainly helped them achieve commendable heights. The company had recently showcased the LBH-1790 series of lockstitch buttonholers, which can sew two buttonholes in a single cycle.

The high-speed lockstitch-buttonholing machine incorporates an electronically controlled cloth feeding mechanism. Using a new technology called “active tension” (electronic thread tension mechanism), the

machine is able to control the needle thread tension for sewing parallel, and the bartacking section of buttonholes can be separately controlled through the operational panel. The machine is capable of not only duplicating the same sewing conditions with ease but also of ensuring upgraded seam quality with consistency, while having the ability to store 99 different patterns in its memory which can be selected as desired from the operational panel.

The hollowed type frame promises efficient sewing of vertical button holes and the machine can also be operated with its head positioned horizontally. The machine is equipped

with multiple knife dropping function and with this it is no longer required that the knife be changed at the time the buttonhole size is changed, and dropping times can be automatically set according to the buttonholing sizes in cases where it is frequently changed for small lot productions.

The machine is able to continuously sew two or more different patterns without requiring the work clamp foot to be lifted. As such, as many as 20 programs can be registered in one

program and six different patterns can be stored. An electronic control feature has been adopted for the material feed mechanism, needle rocking mechanism and needle thread trimming mechanism with the use of ‘V’ belts to ensure operation with lower vibrations and lesser noise levels.

LBH-1790 series of lockstitch buttonholers

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Sri Lanka: Brandix extends GAP Inc.’s P.A.C.E. Programme for female workers; raises eco bar with new 2020 pledge

Italy: OptiTex and C&C Company sign joint deal for larger access to European markets

With the commitment to improve lives of its

employees, especially the females, Brandix plans to extend GAP’s Personal and Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) programme for its female workers. The programme provides workers with foundational skills, technical training and support to help them advance in the workplace and in their personal lives.

Ranked among the ‘Top 5 Employer Brands’ of the country, Brandix is always looking ahead to support its workers. “Female operators participate in the programme which is divided into eight modules of life skills education including communication skills, problem-solving, time and

stress management, health and nutrition, financial literacy and gender equality. Research has shown that such workers get faster promotions than those who do not participate,” said Anusha Alles, Head of CSR for the Group.

In another development, the company has raised the eco bar standards and pledged to reduce its environmental footprint further by 20 per cent by year 2020. Using 2013 as the base year, Brandix will make further investments in processes and innovations, progressively reducing the impact of its operations on the environment, aiming for a further 20 per cent reduction of the Brandix Eco Index over the next seven years, said Brandix Director AJ Johnpillai.

OptiTex, the popular 2D and 3D CAD/CAM, and

Virtual Prototyping software solutions provider from Israel has joined hands with its rival company from Italy, the C&C Company srl., popular in the production, distribution, support and installation of all kinds of CAD and CAM solutions in a strategic tie-up for mutual growth. “The deal would not only help both companies serve their customers better, but also strengthen their position in

the European markets,” said Amnon Shalev, V-P Europe & North Africa, OptiTex after signing the deal.

Commenting on the same Luciano Cerioni, Founder and Owner, C&C Company said, “We believe that the difficult economic climate presents us with a unique opportunity, as OptiTex’s solutions are a great platform for cost reduction and shorter time to market for the Italian Apparel, Automotive and Industrial Fabrics Industries.”

CORRIGENDUMIn the article “Pattern Outsourcing – An Unexplored Alternative”, StitchWorld, September 2012 (page no. 30 - 32), the name of ‘F2F Pattern Sourcing Pvt. Ltd.’ was inadvertently mentioned in the article as ‘Fashion2Fit’. The error is regretted. — EDITOR

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News Track

United Kingdom: United Colors of Benetton to use AlvaInsight fit strategy

India: Mia Dastkaar Zariwale starts organic garments

Popular globally for providing integrated

‘fit’ solutions for the apparel industry, Alvanon’s consumer research division, AlvaInsight, will soon be implemented by world famous fashion brand United Colors of Benetton. AlvaInsight, has supplied the brand with new and validated core body data profiles of its target consumer populations in the US, Europe and Asia. This data is being used to generate physical technical ‘fit’ mannequins, AlvaForms that will be used by United Colors of Benetton’s design, technical and sourcing teams, as well as their extensive

Mia Dastkaar Zariwale, a Lucknow based garment

export house is enhancing its product offerings by starting organic garments with a craft touch for ladies. The company will launch this women’s wear collection in Japan during a show called Indian Mela. Ten years old, Mia Dastkaar Zariwale is exporting hand woven and hand crafted ladies garments to Latin American countries like Brazil, Argentina and Colombia apart from Japan. Khalid Mahboob Lari, Director, informed StitchWorld “Our Japanese buyer Sisam Inc. is creating awareness about organic garments and

supply base around the world, to execute consistent fit practices.

Alvanon will also supply the company with garment grade rule development tools that would enable it to standardize fit across its global size ranges. The new core body standard, AlvaForms and grade rule development tools will also enable United Colors of Benetton to design and manufacture garments that fit more of its customers better thereby increasing customer fit satisfaction and market coverage.

European countries, especially Germany and France, are also very keen about organic garments so we decided to start this segment. We have dispatched a small sample for trial to Japan and waiting for its feedback. We are expecting this new product will give us 20 to 25 per cent growth.” The company is sourcing organic yarn from Maharashtra and weaving it in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. Khalid claims that extra cost of 30 to 40 per cent for organic garment is a problem, but some buyers are giving priority to such garment due to sustainable issues.

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When Vijendar Singh won the bronze medal at Beijing Olympics 2008 there was hardly

anyone who watched the match. Four years later at the recently concluded London Olympics

2012 when he lost in the quarter finals, there were millions sighing at his defeat. That is

what has changed, and that is what is going to bring a positive change to the sports goods

industry. With the Indian contingent performing satisfactorily both at the Commonwealth

Games and the Olympics, Indian athletes and sports persons have achieved iconic stature,

something that was until now the monopoly of cricketers. Sports have finally arrived as a

culture in our country and there seems awareness towards cultivating players from the bud.

Taking the lead from the same StitchWorld, in a series of interviews and discussions with

Jalandhar and Meerut based manufacturers of football and boxing gloves, highlights the

scenario both in the export and domestic market, and the China factor.

Expanding Sports Goods MarketMachine Stitched Promotional Footballs now A BIG Business

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is working in collaboration with 321

training centres across the country including 58 self-governed centres, totalling to 14,900 residential and non-residential trainees. Adding to this there is a mushroom growth of privately-owned sports academies including the initiatives taken by sport celebrities like Vijendar Singh (Boxing), Virendar Sehwag,

Suresh Raina, Anil Kumble, Bishen Singh Bedi (all Cricket), Baichung Bhutia (Football) and others who have either established or announced their academies for respective sports. Private sector giants like Tata have their football academy in Jamshedpur. Even famous English Premier League team Manchester United had come up with their training school in the country. Adding to this popularity is the latest trend which has recently come

up in elections and political rallies, where footballs or other sports good are being used as promotional material. All of this is an optimistic sign for the market.

The Sports Goods industry plays a significant role in the Indian economy owing to both rural and urban employment potential, which makes the industry very important and the Government needs to provide a training centre for workers and a research and development centre for product

Tech Talk

CMYK


markets and their strategies and response in the face of present market conditions. While cricket equipment manufacturing dominates the Meerut manufacturing circle, the Jalandhar market majorly relies on the inflatable balls. However, both the cities have considerable number of companies working on different products.

The sports goods manufacturing clusters in India are a unique example of transplanted clusters and the industry’s roots can be traced back to Sialkot(Pakistan), from where post-partition numerous skilled artisans of Hindu origin migrated to India and finally settled in Jalandhar and Meerut. Then onwards, the industry branched out into products based on material used, some restricted themselves to wooden equipments like cricket bats, wickets or hockey sticks while the others turned towards what we call ‘soft leather manufacturing’ making cricket pads, hockey pads, gloves, etc. This was followed by companies specialising in a specific product category.

Most of the companies in the sports goods market maintain a balance between business in domestic and exports. However, Ramesh Kohli, MD of the Rs. 20 crore turnover BAS and a veteran in the industry,favours domestic over exports. "The export market is under pressure from the US and EU slowdown, which is showing no indication of improvement for the next two years, whereas the boom in the domestic market has been brought on by the changing perception of sports from a means of amusement to a fitness mantra,” says Kohli.

This positive change has increased the market size for domestic players. “We are fully focused on the Indian domestic market with around 1600 distributors and there is no ambition for exports as for now, as the domestic market has given us umpteen business, and we are selling up to 10,000 balls a day,” says Mohit Prabhakar, Senior Manager, Product Development at Nivia, Jalandhar, which solely deals in the domestic market.

development, besides adequate infrastructure to ensure growth of the segment. Presently, India has a minor share in world sports arena, a meagre percentage. However, with sports being a part of everyday lifestyle, this percentage converts into a respectable Rs. 600 crore business. The top items of exports were reported to be inflatable balls, hammocks, cricket equipment, boxing equipment and table tennis equipment.

The clusters around Meerut and Jalandhar are popular for manufacturing sports goods in the country capturing 90% of the total share of manufacturing happening in the country, divided almost equally between the two cities. In Meerut alone, there are about 1,250 registered and 2,000 unregistered large, medium and small sports goods manufacturing units providing direct and indirect employment to around 70,000 persons. Jalandhar too has thousands of enterprises giving employment to about 1,50,000 workers. Interestingly, there is a difference between the priorities of both the

“Thinking of China as a competitor is naive. We at USI are very particular about our niche and therefore booked for next 6 months.”AnurAg ChAddhA director, universal Sports India

India is responsible for producing high-quality hand stitched match-footballs due to absence of automation in manufacturing.”rAjAn MAyor Md, Mayor International

“The domestic market is less susceptible to fluctuations. The export market does not show any signs of improvement for the next two years.”rAMeSh KohlI, Md, BAS

Globally the sales of sports equipments, active apparels, and athletic footwears are valued at US $ 315 billion for year 2010.

The global sports goods and equipment market grew by 2.8% in 2011 to reach a value of US $ 64.9 billion.

The sports equipments market is forecast to reach a value of US $ 72.8 billion by 2016, an increase of 12.2% over 2011. Data from NPD Group, Marketline

Tech Talk

CMYK


Many companies are focusing equally on both markets with success. Jalandhar-based Universal Sports India has 55 years of experience in the industry and has been approved by the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation, as official suppliers of boxing equipment used in all domestic competitions. The major share of the company’s Rs.25 crore stop-line comes from exports as they manufacture equipments for brands like Everlast and Lonsdale. Meanwhile, the company is an established name in the domestic market with availability in more than 250 organised retail stores. Anurag Chadha, Director with the company is somewhat affected with the slowdown in the export market and says, “We are mainly doing exports, but we believe that the domestic market has huge potential in the coming times. In fact, Mary Kom’s bronze medal in boxing at the London Olympic 2012, may give a huge boost to the market.”

Kuldip Mahajan, Owner, Hind Sports another Meerut-based boxing glove manufacturer with an annual turnover of Rs. 4 crore is however happy with his exports to Europe and Middle East markets. “The export market for boxing gloves is doing well at present and the volume coming from the market is positive. The success mantra

for Meerut industry lies in its ability to remain cost-effective as FOB for a pair of boxing glove ranges from US $10 to US $25,” he says.However, newly emerging markets such as Brazil are giving tough competition, besides facing a lot of competition from Pakistan and China.”

Football is the biggest categoryFootballs as sport equipment is the largest segment of the global sports equipment market accounting for 23.7% (in terms of sales) of the market’s total value. China (US$ 455 million export in 2009), is the leading manufacturer of inflatable balls followed by Pakistan ($ 118 million) and Thailand ($ 59 million).

At present the manufacturing of football is being done in 3 ways. The first process is the one in which the entire ball is hand-stitched by a single operator at a time. The second is the one where sewing machines are involved in the stitching, sometimes with complete assembly line setup. The third and the most recent method of football manufacturing involve moulding of the panels instead of sewing them. However, football moulding is still not a prevalent practice in the industry and most of the manufacturing done involves sewing.

Unfortunately, India still sticks to hand sewing

whereas China has majored into machine stitched balls. Footballs are made of different panel of PU/PVC/rubber material that are stitched together. Ideally, a football has 32 panels with a total of 910 stitches but the football may also be made of lesser number of panels.The entire process is similar to the manufacturing of apparels. The inflatable balls are generically divided into two categories, promotional balls and match balls.The parameters and manufacturing processes of both are distinctively different.

Of the total ball manufacturing business in the world, 90 per cent balls manufactured are for promotional activities with China leading the race by miles. “India is dawned with the responsibility of producing high-quality hand stitched match-balls due to absence of automation in the core processes of manufacturing,” says Rajan Mayor, MD, Mayor International, the oldest sports goods manufacturer of the country. Mayor Group has a factory in Jalandhar, producing around 10,000 balls every day through contractors working with around 2,500 households where each member produces 4 balls a day.

Another pioneer, Sagar Bhalla, Director, Bhalla Sports which has been in the industry for 57 years and was one of the largest

“We are fully focused to the Indian market with around 1600 distributors. There is no ambition for exports as for now, domestic market has given us umpteen businesses, and we are selling up to 10,000 balls a day.”MohIt PrABhAKAr Senior Manager, Product development at nivia

“Success mantra for Meerut industry lies in its ability to remain cost-effective as FOB for a pair of boxing glove ranges from US $10 to US $25.”Kuldip Mahajan owner, hind Sports

Top importing countries (2004-05 to 2008-09): The top five destinations of exports of Indian sports goods were United Kingdom (Rs. 150.29 crore); United States of America (Rs. 132.84 crore); Australia (Rs. 83.17 crore); South Africa (Rs. 25.24 crore); and Germany (Rs. 25.16 crore) – [Data from Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry].

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have installed automated machines in our factory but due to the scarcity of skilled labour and absence of training institutes in the region, even the mechanisation failed. Also the thread used in the stitching of a football is an 8 ply thread which cannot be used in the machines we have due to its thickness and flat surface,”adds Mayor.

Anurag says that the case is the same for boxing gloves, yet he advocates a different approach. “Thinking of China as a competitor is naive. There is no chance for us to compete with them in terms of machine-based products; Indian industry had forever survived behind the skill of its labour. We only survive where the customer doesn’t need that big a quantity. If it is a lakh piece or mise, they go to China. If it's 10-20,000 pieces, they come to us. We at USI are very particular about our niche and thankfully as an exception we are booked with orders for gloves for the next six months.” His company is sourcing most of its material (PU and PVC) from Taiwan.

Efforts to upgrade the manufacturing process are a direction for many. Anurag has tried breaking down the operations involved in the sewing of boxing gloves and take baby steps towards establishing an assembly line. Although, his experiment hasn’t brought much productivity as he has not been able to bring all the operations involved on to the line, and the product still follows the routine manufacturing process once the parts made in the line are done. That is exactly why the industry is desperate to implement technology and

suppliers of footballs in the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi in2010, claims, “Meerut is always known to produce quality rather than quantity and that’s why export market for sports goods in Meerut is thriving and factories are running to full capacity.”

Why compare between India and China...Whatever the product, sports goods manufacturers agree that making comparison is foolhardy. Kiran Khinder, Director and Production

“Meerut is always known to produce quality rather than quantity and that’s why export market for sports goods in Meerut is prospering.”SAgAr BhAllA director, Bhalla Sports

“The difference between the football being made here in India and in China is in material, technology stitching quality and the overall durability.”KIrAn KhInder director, rattan Brothers

is looking for support from training institutes to help in the transition.

However, few have achieved success in mechanizing the sports good manufacturing process, as in the case of football at Nivia. “Even though we are still producing high quality footballs by hand stitching, there are big volumes of football being produced on sewing machines via proper assembly line,” informs Mohit. He does, however, concur with his counterparts when it comes to the scarcity of resources. “We still can’t produce the same quality on machine as through hand stitch. The reason lies with the fact that appropriate machines, that can stitch 3-4 layers of fabric or work with a 5-8 ply of thread, have not been identified,” reasons Mohit.

China and the unavailability of material may be a few of the reasons for the current state of Indian sports industry, but they are not the only ones. Pakistan with its sport industry, 4 times the size of ours, is generating approximately US $ 450 million worth of business from the sports goods manufacturing industry. Kohli further highlights the deterrents in the sports good manufacturing industry. “There is an acute shortage of labour and also there is no regular supply of electricity,” he elaborates. Agreeing with Kohli, Anurag adds, “There has been a significant downfall in the younger generation showing interest to work as an operator. They prefer earning 5000 in an air-conditioned mall as security personal or as a doorman against 15,000 they could get after learning the skill.”

Machine StitchedA comparison of the growth of China's inflatable ball manufacturing market with that of its closest competitor Pakistan (the leading hand-stitch football manufacturer clearly justifies the need of automation in this sports good sector. Pakistan has seen its share fall sharply (from 23.2% in 2004 to 13.2% in 2009) while China has experienced consistent growth (28.9% in 2004 to 50.5% in 2009).

Head of Rattan Brothers says, “There is a remarkable difference between the football being made here in India and the one being made in China. There is a difference in material, stitching quality and the overall durability of the product. That is why we are only doing promotional balls; we are hardly doing match balls. The underlining differentiator is the material availability and the lack of technology.”

Trying to match China’s competency has failed for many. “In order to compete with China in promotional ball manufacturing we

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Footballs as sport equipment is the largest segment of the global sports equipment market accounting for 23.7% (in terms of sales) of the market’s total value. China (US $ 455 million export in 2009), is the leading manufacturer of inflatable balls followed by Pakistan (US $118 million) and Thailand (US $ 59 million).

Just like apparels, sports good equipments also goes through testing standards. “Our balls go through shape warranty test, bounce test, air retention test. The testing is done by established testing organizations like SGS,” informs Kiran.Anurag adds, “There are federations for every sport, like IABA for boxing. They provide licensing and product approval.” For example, FIFA responsible for World Cup footballs has defined standard test for a

soccer ball on the line of circumference, roundness, consistent rebound, water absorption, weight, pressure loss, size retention and balance. Boxing gloves also go through tests to check their weight (as boxing is fought in strict weight categories), colour fastness and strength. Similarly, there are British Standards for testing cricket protective equipments for strength. Garish Malhrotra, Technical Manager Hardware and

Toys at SGS testing says, “All PPE (personal protective equipments) that are exported to Europe, need to pass CE certification.”

With the exception of cricket equipments, there has always been a question mark on the quality of sports products manufactured in India. However, Anurag disagrees with this generalization. “For our boxing gloves, we work with two markets: UK and Australia. UK buyers want quality and are ready to pay a higher price, while Australia is

a price-sensitive market. We are successfully catering to both,” he avers.

Most of the companies complained about the state of the market and some even had alternative strategies. Both Rattan Brothers and USI are venturing into sportswear. “The aim is of course not to compete with the big players manufacturing for Nike and Adidas, but to export garments only to our existing product buyers,” clarifies Anurag.

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Operation breakdown with machine and manpower requirement

S.No Operation Description

Machine Type

Machine From Typical

Machine From Golden Rich

Machines From Baoma

Process Cycle Time (Sec)

Production Operators Required

1 Three Hexagon and one Pentagon are attached for cup 1

Flat bed Machine GC-0303CX JS-20628-DY GC-0378-1 27 1066.666667 1

2 Two Hexagonal panels are assembled with above preparation to give the First Cup


3 Three Hexagon and one Pentagon are attached for cup 2


4 Two Hexagonal panels are assembled with above preparation to give the Second Cup


5 First Belt is made Flat bed Machine GC-0303CX JS-20628-DY GC-0378-1 69 417.3913043 2

6 Second Belt is made Flat bed Machine GC-0303CX JS-20628-DY GC-0378-1 69 417.3913043 2

7 Attach belt to cup (First Hemisphere) Cylinder bed machine TW3-341 Js-2810-2820 GC-2618-1 70 411.4285714 2

8 Attach belt to cup (Second Hemisphere) Cylinder bed machine TW3-341 Js-2810-2820 GC-2618-1 70 411.4285714 2

9 Attach both hemisphere leaving last five seams open

Cylinder bed machine TW3-341 Js-2810-2820 GC-2618-1 55 523.6363636 2

10 Attaching bladder and closing final three seams Local 470 61.27659574 13

Total 935 411.42 X 2 = 823 27

15.58 mins.

Note: All calculations are made keeping the daily working time at 480 mins.

Bottleneck operation is at operations 7 and 8 and operator requirement is calculated at 823 pieces a day.

Manufacturing a football First level of automationFootball today is hand stitched, machine stitched or thermally bonded. The latter is a state-of-the-art patented process used exclusively for balls used in world class matches. Jabulani – the official football for FIFA World Cup 2010 is an example. However, most of the footballs present in the market are either machine stitched or hand stitched using 32 panels of waterproofed leather or plastic. Making a football, in its essence, is just like making a garment, using the same processes from pattern making, cutting to finishing and testing. Team StitchWorld visited some of the leading football manufacturers in the country with the intention of understanding the criticalities of football manufacturing and suggests a fully mechanized sewing setup for the same.

professionals are produced

by using AI-2000, Cordley,

Ducksung, Mircofiber or

other types of PU synthetic

leather. Promotional soccer

balls or practice balls are

usually constructed with

PVC or rubber (moulded or

stitched) covers.

Beneath the cover fabric,

comes the lining layers

contributing to the material

thickness thereby playing

a vital part in the quality of

soccer balls. Professional

soccer balls usually have

four or more layers of lining. Promotional or practice balls are often constructed with less layers of lining. These layers of lining are composed of polyester and/or cotton bonded (laminated) together to give the ball strength, structure and bounce. Molten latex is used for bonding these layers together and with the cover fabric, thereby giving the final integrated shell fabric that shall be cut and hand stitched around the bladder to give the final ball.

The three main components of a soccer ball are the cover

layer, the lining (usually of 3-4 layers) and the bladder.The word “cover” refers to the outermost layer of the ball, which can be one of the many variations of synthetic leather, ranging from AI-2000, Japanese Teijin Cordley, Microfiber, English Porvair, Korean Ducksung, Leather Art Pakistan Synthetic Leather, and PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Best soccer balls used in competition and by

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input table Kanban table

10 Hand Stitch operator's

1

3

5

6

7

8

2

4

5

6

7

8

99

Balanced line for the production of football

Football manufacturing in full view...Sewing flowchart for footballOperation breakdown of a machine stitched football

1st Cup Belt Belt 2nd Cup Bladder

1

2

7 8

4

9 10

5 6 3

Five hexagonal and one pentagonal panels are joined together to form a cup (operations 2 & 4)

1. Preparation for cup 1: Three hexagonal and one pentagonal panels are attached.

2. Cup making: Two hexagonal panels are attached to form first cup.

3. Preparation for cup 2: Three hexagonal and one pentangonal panels are attached.

4. Cup making: Two hexagonal panels are attached to form second cup.

5. Belt making for the first hemisphere: Attaching 5 pentagon panels and 5 hexagon panels.

6. Belt making for the second hemisphere.

7. Attaching the belt to cup for first hemisphere.

8. Attaching belt to cup for second hemisphere.

9. Attaching both the hemispheres together.

Operations

Five hexagonal and five pentagonal panels are joined together to form a belt (operations 5 & 6)

Cup preparation (Operation 1&3)

Cup preparation (Operation 2&4)

Belt preparation (Operation 5&6)

Cup and belt are attached together to give the hemisphere (Operation 7&8)

Both hemispheres are attached to form a football (Operation 9)

One cup and belt joined together to prepare a hemispheres and two hemisphere are joined together to form a football 7 & 8

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Bottlenecks with machine stitching high quality footballsEven though there is an imminent desire to turn to mechanization on the same lines as China, high quality promotional balls that India specializes in are still hand stitched. The reason behind this is that the same finish and strength cannot yet be achieved by machine stitching. When a stitcher is stitching the ball by hand, he continuously keeps on drawing out the thread vigorously after every stitch, tightening the stitch while binding the two panels together. Hence when the ball is later turned inside out, the stitches are not visible even when the ball is inflated. On the other hand, in machine stitching there is no such mechanism to tighten the stitches, making the stitches visible on the outer surface of the ball on inflation.

The other reason for the machine stitched ball being priced lower is due to the limitation of the strength of the thread. The flat waxed thread that is used in traditional hand stitching cannot be used in machine. Many yarn companies have tried to counter the problem by introducing similar thread in round configuration but the strength compared to waxed is not up to the mark. One other deterrent in stitching football by machine is the unavailability of skilled labour that could handle heavy duty machines.

Mostly the hand stitched football is of 4 ply, while the machine stitched football is of 2 plies. The industry says that there is a problem in stitching 4 plies fabric (up to 8 mm thick) with a machine. The technology providers, however, give a different story. According to them, the machine comes with a presser foot lift of 16 mm and hence there is no problem in machine stitching. It is actually the lack of awareness among the industry for the technology available in the market, which has created this perception.

Factory based machine stitchers in China produce between 36 to 40 footballs per day; however, they are usually working a 10-hour shift for six days a week. In contrast to this full-time hand stitchers stitch between four to five balls a day, working six days a week for an 8-hour shift per day.

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A 32 panel casing is the most common option forming the most popular version “Buckminster ball” with 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal panels. Other traditional designs are 18 and 26-panel constructions, used in various professional leagues, including Scottish and English leagues until 2002.

The innermost and most crucial component is the spheroidal shaped bladder which holds the air. Bladders are usually made from latex or butyl. Compared to latex bladders, butyl bladders retain air for longer periods of time. Latex bladders tend to provide better surface tension. However, butyl bladders offer the excellent combination of contact quality and air retention. Most balls use butyl valves for air retention, with higher end balls using a silicone-treated valve for superior performance.

Factory based machine stitchers in China produce between 36 to 40 footballs per day; however, they are usually working a 10-hour shift for six days a week. In contrast to this full-time hand stitchers stitch between four to five balls a day, working six days a week for an 8-hour shift per day.

The process of manufacturing footballs is similar to that of garments involving comparable preparatory methods and sewing being done using assemble lines.

Preparatory steps for (32-panel) football manufacturingThe lamination of layers: 3 to 4 plies of polyester are bonded on the inside of outer covering layer (PU), one by one, using molten latex between them. Then they are left to dry. The same process can be done using a lamination machine, XJ16B-D2 (Zhangjiagang Jiuyi Machinery Co.).

Cutting the panels: 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal patterns are cut from the bonded lay using die cutters. A certain pentagonal panel is punched with a hole, as an opening to the valve of the bladder. Automated gantry cutting machine, XCL4 350/400 (Zhangjiagang Jiuyi Machinery Co.) can be used for cutting the panels.

Printing: Screen printing is done on the cut panels. Grafica Nano Print can be an ideal machine for the same.

“Jabulani”, the moulded football that was recently used in the FIFA World Cup 2010 belongs to the latest third generation of football manufacturing, using an innovative moulding process for manufacturing, where instead of stitching the panels together they are spherically moulded through the use of adhesives and heating devices.

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The eighth edition of the OGTC annual conference ICAHT-12 saw many industry informed participants and speakers debate key issues that are of importance to the industry today over the two days of presentations and workshops. The forum has grown with time and has pulled many regular participants year after year to use the platform for exchanging ideas and meeting new experts from around the world. Though the theme of this year’s conference was 'The New Excellence', it would not be wrong to say that the focus of many of the presentations was on ‘People’ and how the management needs to change their mind-set to redefine the priorities to grow in a competitive global business environment. Many well-known consultants and names from the industry shared their experiences and left the participants with many thoughts and perspectives to ponder on.

‘Nothing is as permanent as change’, Bruce urged the industry to improve upon their services to the buyers and change with time to meet all the requirements that were driving business today, while also strengthening the ties they enjoyed with their regular buyers to grow bigger.

People-driven change must come from the heads of an organization if it wants to survive in the long-term.

Among the many speakers, Apparel Online columnist,

Bruce Berton, Executive V-P and COO of Roochi Traders, USA was well applauded for talking about ground realities of retail in the US and the urgent need to aggressively market the industry with a more direct approach. “I rarely see offices of Indian exporters in the US, whereas in California alone there are over 700 offices of Chinese companies who regularly interact with the retailers and service them upfront,” he pointed out. He emphasized that getting the business was the biggest challenge today and Indian exporters were not making enough effort. Reiterating his two favourite thoughts ‘relationships, relationships and relationships’ and

felt that the importance of low wages in Bangladesh was overhyped and what really set the country apart was the commitment and determination of the industry heads to grab business and make things happen. “Change is a way of life in Bangladesh and owners are responding quickly to needs, investing in capacities, technology and process to satisfy buyers…there is a need for Indian manufacturers to listen more carefully to the buyers,” he said. When questioned why the Epic Group was not looking at India for manufacturing, Goyal was honest in admitting that the policies of the Government did not really encourage huge set-ups like the Epic Group had in Bangladesh. “The day things become more positive and responsive to global business,

ICAHT-12 Reinforces the Importance of People in Today’s Business Climate

Sharing his experience of working in Bangladesh for more than six years, Virender Goyal, MD & Country Manager Epic Designers, Bangladesh a division of the Hong Kong based Epic Group,

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the role of HR in garment industry and urged the employers in the audience to redefine the traditional role and move closer to the people. “Companies that take good care of their people during uncertain times win the respect and loyalty of their workers that goes a long way to grow the company when things become more ‘certain’,” reasoned Rao. He added, “15% of the employees don’t know what their companies goals are, and 19% don’t identify the companies’ goals as theirs. It is important that the front line should be commuted with the goals because it is the frontline which achieves the bottom-line for the company.”

In a session that kept the audience involved Rajesh Bheda, MD, RBC declared

driven costing system, can ‘relationships’ be built. “A market-driven costing system is based on three types of costs – planning, target and operational. Understanding and careful measurement of each can help an apparel manufacturer remain cost-effective in terms of operations,” he said.

Speaking on ‘Managing Uncertainty’, Anand Rao of Infinite Possibilities an HR management company stressed upon the importance of retaining key talents in uncertain times. “It is most critical to keep the key people motivated during uncertain times because they are the ones who are assets and who are most likely to be picked up by competitors if they leave,” he said. Opening the house for discussion he questioned

Epic will not hesitate to open a factory here,” he assured.

Underlining the need to change mind-sets, Charles Dagher, CEO, DCG in his presentation on ‘Shaping KPIs to short-and long-term profit goals’, emphasized that the thrust for change had to come from the top. “When any change is needed people look at the operators, but until the change happens at the management level, no change can be long-term,” he said. Adding, “One of the most difficult tasks when undertaking a project in India is aligning the visions and deliverables of everyone in the organization, from the chairman to the operator.” Taking reference from Berton’s presentation, Charles added that only through proactive strategy and market-

Charles Dagher shared with the industry few key results of the work his organization is doing in Bangladesh with UK-based retailor ASDA. About 10 factories, including Lenny Fashions, KDS Garments, Jamuna Group, Hoplun, Ananta and Adury, registered an average reduction in the unit cost (only manufacturing) by 18%.

Honouring Charles Dagher, CEO, Dagher Consultancy Group, 2nd from right... Others who graced the occasion were (l-R) M K Mehra, Director, OGTC; R C Kesar, Director General, OGTC; A Sakthivel President, TEA and Chairman, AEPC; and PMS Uppal, President, OGTC

I rarely see offices of Indian exporters in the US, whereas in California alone there are over 700 offices of Chinese companies who regularly interact with the retailers and service them upfront.”

BrUCE BErTOnExecutive V-P and COO, roochi Traders, USA

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be acknowledged for their contribution,” reasoned Bheda.

Bheda advocated that it should be regularly checked that the gap between what the employees want and what they get shall not become too wide. “Aman knitting, Bangladesh, has developed a concept of zero defect operators, i.e. these certain set of operators are so efficient that operation passed through their hands doesn’t require rework. This was achieved by participation of the entire management where every policy maker took under them 5 operators and personally supervised their progress throughout the training period. The operators were assured of an environment where there success was theirs and their failure was that of the company.”

Setting an example, Lal Sudhakaran V-P Manufacturing, Madura Garments enthralled the audience with a case study of what they as a company have done to become a benchmarked company for manufacturing excellence including employee engagement initiatives, yet unheard of in the garment industry. “By the end of 2012, we are over with our consolidation and strategy implementation phase, our vision, goals and KPIs are well defined. From 2013 onwards, the focus is going to shift to building an organization that can stand the test of time," he said.

The importance of social and environment compliances was also stressed upon during the two-day conference and while Vijay Mathur, Acting Secretary General, AEPC gave a detailed run down on the DISHA project and the need for such an initiative, Philip Chamberlain, Head of Sustainable Business Development at C&A talked about the buyer’s perspective on sustainability. Introducing Chamberlain as his ‘social guru’ Praveen Nayyar, MD, Dimple Creations recalled the way C&A had actually taught exporters in India how to be compliant, as they were among the first buyers to implement compliance norms for vendors in the 90s. In his presentation, Chamberlain revisited the long journey of sustainability in India, pointing out that exporters today were very upfront in adapting to new regulations and buyers too had changed their attitude from a ‘policing’ approach to a partner approach to bring in social and environmental changes.

Among the interesting workshops, the one on

that even above the buyers…people come first. This statement sparked off heated discussions on the topic of just how important employees were. While some exporters felt that keeping communication doors open and paying workers on time was the key to keep them happy, Vinod Kapur, MD, Radnik Exports admitted that till a few years ago these factors were enough, but now it was also imperative to let the worker know that he is important to the organization and to share the vision with him. “No doubt, if there is no buyer there is no business, but if we do not have the right motivated employee strength to deliver, then having business is of no significance, so people who are the pillars on which every organization stands need to

Always being the ambassador of ‘People-driven Change’, Dr. Rajesh Bheda highlighted results of the work done under the RAGS project in the Delhi-NCR, accounting for 10.3% increase in efficiency, 46.8% reduction in defects per hundred units and 46.8% reduction in the absenteeism.

By the end of 2012 we are over with our consolidation and strategy implementation phase. From 2013 onwards the focus is going to shift to building an organization that can stand the test of time."

LAL SUDHAKArAn V-P Manufacturing, Madura Garments

Year after year both the quality and quantity of the audience keeps increasing manifolds at the OGTC Conference

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‘Managing finance and cost’ was well appreciated, Parveen Nayyar and Kamal Sidhu, Neetee Clothing shared their experiences on problem areas and also suggested tips on how to be more profitable. Nayyar emphasized seven areas that need deep evaluation and improvement for better profits. These include new work study techniques, efficient monitoring system for cutting and dispatch, fabric reconciliation and cutting room improvement, reorganization of finishing flow and packing department, quality system review and restructuring, properly structured management targets and judicious task allocations. He also advised the exporters to look deeply

into how the banks were taking interest, whether procedures were being followed and also keep an eye on any benefits the Government announced to take advantage. “There are many ways to cut cost or save cost even within the factory and exporters need to be more upfront and aware to get the benefit,” said Nayyar.

The inaugural session graced by Dr A Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC acknowledged the contribution of Charles Dagher for working closely with the industry in the sub-continent to develop lean manufacturing concepts suitable to the individual needs of different factories. Addressing the gathering Tony Uppal, President OGTC urged the exporters not to

Change is a way of life in Bangladesh and owners are responding quickly to the needs of the buyers… there is a need for Indian manufacturers to do the same.”

VirEnDEr GOYALMD & Country Manager, Epic Designers

compete with Bangladesh and Cambodia, but with China. He was in praise for the entrepreneurial skills of the exporters and advised them to continue with their efforts to improve systems, and become more productive and sustainable, as buyers are looking at India as an emerging force in fashion and when the situation improves, the best would survive and grow. While RC Kesar, DG OGTC and Conference Chairman updated the audience on OGTC activities over the year including the carbon footprint measurement project, Dr Sakhtivel assured the exporters that as chairman of AEPC, he and his team were looking into all options to promote exports from the country.

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Indian Subcontinent VisitorsDominate JIAM 2012

JIAM 2012 lived up to its original glory with many visitors from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India,

Pakistan and China. It was not a surprise since most of the visitors were on a sponsored trip

from the participants. It was an open secret that Brother, Juki, Tajima had all doled out travel

and stay for their ‘critical’ customers. Only YIN, China came on record to admit that they

have invited 100 of their customers to Japan to showcase to them their Japanese presence

since the company also manufactures in Japan to maintain the quality. “With the current

market situation, the organizers were worried about visitation, but we guaranteed them

400 sq. metre space for display with more than 100 visitors from China alone. Such fairs are

very important and this kind of support we will be giving to CISMA also,” said Yin Zhiyong, President, Yin Science and Technology.

As anticipated by StitchWorld, the technology on display

was high-end with focus on mature markets. While the majority of brands on display were from Japan, Chinese and European brands were also visible though in small numbers. Most of the European brands either participated as a part of a country pavilion or with Japanese partners. The focus

we were able to meet many of the companies who are our customers from the Indian sub-continent,” said Enrico Guerreschi, Global Sales Director, Vibemac.

Drawing attention from India were Aman Agrawal, BRFL; Dolly Nenwani, Shahi Exports; Arun Sahu, Gokaldas Exports; Adarsh Sharan, Matrix Clothing; Sharad Kalyani, Kalyani Clothing; RK Sahu, Sahu Exports; and a senior level team from Jockey. These decision makers were not there to add glamour at the show, but were actually seen there interacting with technology suppliers. Most of them were representing companies looking at expansion even in this downturn, like GE, which is deviating from its earlier promoter’s policy of using low value machines for basic operations to change its machine to direct drive with under bed trimmer. Everyone

knows that Shahi is geared for major expansion at its Shimoga plant near Bangalore. We all know how happy-go-lucky Aman Agrawal is, a serial expansion expert, always on the lookout for a deal!

Undoubtedly, Bangladesh was the fervour at JIAM. I am sure the major chunk of business for the sewing machine manufacturers is coming from Bangladesh and they were very happy with the presence of some of the big groups such as Standard, Pacific, Epic Group and many more. Representatives from big groups from Sri Lanka like Brandix, Mas Holding and Hirdaramani to name a few were seen at the fair. Sri Lanka consultants, now working in India like Chandrajith Wickramasinghe (CJ), CEO, Corrigo Consultancy and Gayan Ruhunage, President, Apparel Manufacturing, Exodus Futura Knit were also eagerly reviewing latest technologies on display.Overview of JiAM show .....

for most was on sewing and finishing equipment in particular. Companies like Macpi and Vibemac were extremely happy to be present at the fair, as they had not expected such high visitation turnout from their target markets of Bangladesh and India. The companies benefited from the visitors who were also the right decision makers. “It has been a good outing for us as

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Zhang Zhangsheng, General Manager, Chnki Precision Sewing Machine Co. Ltd. (extreme left) with his wife and daughter

Visitors and participants who graced the fair...

(L to R) Gherasim Silvian, Senior Technician; Alessandro Signorini, Sales Manager; and Enrico Guerreschi, Global Sales Manager; from Vibemac... happy with the response

(L to r) Vishal Sher, MD, Studio next, Sally Ma, Overseas Sales Manager, Zhiyong Yin, President and Yimin ni, Manager - South Asia (extreme right) of Yin Japan Ltd. had the largest Chinese booth

Anshuman Dash from Loiva (extreme right) at Loiva's stall

(Extreme right) Atsushi Tsunoda, Sales Manager, Hashima; Shunsuke Yamanaka, General Manager, Hashima (3rd from left), Pawan Kapoor, MD, iiGM (4h from Left) Khaja nasiruddin, Country Manager, Hashima, india (2nd from left)... after a successful show

richard Fung, President, Smart MrT was busy all three days of JIAM

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Yoshiharu Uemura, General Manager (L) and Michael Hung, Director, Kaiyu international industrial Ltd.

Dolly nenwani, Shahi Exports (C) and her colleagues with Anil Anand, MD, HCA Garment Machinery Pvt. Ltd. (r)

Amar Chhajar with wife and Ashok Chhajar (extreme right) at Krishna Lamicoat stall with a visitor

Alex, regional Accounts Manager, int'l Business Dept., Hikari (Shanghai) Precise Machinery Science & Technology Co. Ltd.

Motomaru Kenichi, Director and Shirota Kokichi, Managing Director, Juki india Pvt. Ltd.; Vivek nayyar, Vice President - Garments, SEL Manufacturing Company Ltd.; Pavan Kapoor, Managing Director, iiGM Private Limited; Arun Kumar Sahu, Manager Projects & Maintenance, Gokaldas Exports Ltd; Anil Kumar Tharapurath, AGM-Sales & Marketing, Juki india Pvt. Ltd.; Arjun Kapoor, Director, iiGM Private Limited

Wade Stevenson, President (L) and Akira Hirata, Managing Director, Eastman Export Corporation

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Bernd Brauer, Executive Area Sale Manager, (left) and Karin Brinkmann Kilian, Area Sales Manager (centre) with their colleague at the Duerkopp Adler booth

(L to r) Scott Marcus Wernet, Division Sewing & Tufting Machine Parts - Senior Manager Sales; Shashi Kanwal, Manager Sales, Groz-Beckert Asia Pvt. Ltd. (2nd from left); Andreas Dietz, representative Director, Groz-Beckert Japan, with rajesh Bihani, MD, Rajasthan International

Stefano Bordogna, South Asia Manager, Macpi Group (right) with his colleague

Axel Zangerle, Director - Business Development (ASEAn-region), Pfaff industrial Singapore Pte Ltd.

Yoshihide Morimoto, Chairman, Morimoto Singapore Pte Ltd. (Kansai) who was an active participant at JiAM

Halil Akdogan, Export Manager (L) and Huseyin Keskin, Asil Grup Mak. San. Ve Dis Tic. Ltd. Sti. presenting AGM brand of machines

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Lots of Technologies to look out for in 2013… CISMA and Texprocess Ready with Distinct Agendas

Tech Event

After a successful JIAM show, the

year 2013 is gearing up to host two

technology events – CISMA in China

and Texprocess in Germany. With the

market conditions so slow, many in the

industry are questioning the prudence

of holding two mega technology

events in the same year. However,

the organizers of the shows are very

confident that there is no clash point

with each show having its USP which is

distinct. While CISMA is focused on the

Chinese market and is more or less the

show for dealers, Texprocess is more

concentrated on latest developments

or innovations, providing a technology

platform at a broader level. Further,

while visitors at CISMA are mostly

garment manufacturers from China

mainland and south eastern countries,

Texprocess gets its visitors from

Europe and East European countries.

For CISMA, which has been happening

for some time now and Texprocess,

which premiered last year, clashing

in the same year is a co-incidence

because the latter has been

conceptualized to be held parallel

with Techtextil as both these shows

have a lot of synergies. Techtextil

is held after every two years which

was already scheduled for 2013,

hence Texprocess is being held

simultaneously. In a freewheeling

discussion with StitchWorld, the

organizers of the mega events share

what gives them the confidence to

go ahead…

All the signs indicate that Texprocess, a leading international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials, scheduled to be held in Frankfurt from 10 to 13 June 2013, will be a complete success. With almost a year left, over 60% of exhibition space has already been sold and the market leaders are on board. Moreover, numerous international companies from all parts of the textile-processing chain have also signed up to take part for the first time. With a re-vamped sourcing platform concept and themes including sustainability, Stefan Seitz, Brand Manager, Texprocess is very upbeat of the upcoming fair…

What is special at Texprocess 2013?

The highlight of the show will be the IT area located in a high-profile position

How are the sales of German machines faring internationally?

You cannot say it’s good or bad as the reception is different in different regions. For example in China and India, the market is slow and not good at the moment. At the same time in other countries like USA and Brazil, the sales are very good with a lot of positive response. Overall the growth is similar to the last year and we are satisfied with the sales. The importance of the German manufacturers of sewing and garment finishing equipment can be determined from the fact that the country exported Euro 384 million worth of machines in 2011.

The VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen-und Anlagenbau – German Engineering Federation) is a network of around 3,000 engineering industry companies in Europe with 400 industry experts involved. With the mission of combining 4 elements – ‘Networked thinking and actions’; ‘The future for the companies’; ‘Technology and humans’; and ‘Europe and the world’ – VDMA’s mission is to promote German machinery worldwide with offices in many countries, including India, China, Japan, Germany, and Russia. Elgar Straub, Director General, VDMA, throws some light on the changing trends and their association with Texprocess 2013.

Stefan Seitz, Brand Manager, Texprocess

in Hall No. 4.0 with a new name, IT@Texprocess. This concept will help in providing successful solutions for

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the fashion industry. Other

concepts to look out for

include sustainability which

is attracting more and more

people. Since energy prices

are a big issue especially in

Europe and the consumption

of the same by machines is

still very high, exhibitors need

to showcase machines which

use lower consumption and

produce better efficiencies.

In addition to processing

technology at Texprocess,

trade visitors from the fashion

industry will also be able to

find out about ‘functional

apparel textiles’ at Techtextil.

There is a strong synergy

between both the fairs held

simultaneously as Techtextil

provides an additional

opportunity for machine

manufactures to showcase

their heavy duty machinery for

technical appliances as well as

for the apparel sector.

What type of visitors are you looking for at Texprocess this time?

We believe that Texprocess is the most innovative fair of its sector and we promote the fair internationally which is also the reason why we are present here in JIAM. While one can see the standard mass technology for the Asian market in the Chinese show, at Texprocess one can see national and international innovation as it is an innovative-driven trade fair for the industry. At the debut show we had more than 50% of international visitors coming from European, South America and Asian countries, and to maintain and increase that level we will definitely strengthen our promotional activities towards India, South East Asia and western hemisphere including America as well.

What is your strategy to attract maximum visitor from various countries to Texprocess?

As far as I know already various companies from Texprocess have invited their key players and made travel arrangements for them. Apart from this, we have started a program called ‘Texprocess Upgrade’ where we will offer regular entrance vouchers and besides that we have added some special features to make it more effective for people to come to the fair from designated groups which we think are important for the fair. But we still think if you are in the industry and you would like to know where the industry is going and what the future is going to be, then you should automatically visit the fair, though it is smaller than the Chinese fair.

What is the positioning of ‘Source IT’ in 2013?

We will continue with the concept and to increase more visitor traffic the first step will be to move ‘Source IT’ to Hall No. 5 where all the sewing machines will be placed. We will focus more on participation from national pavilions and national institutions so that the export promotion agencies of the country itself promotes the country as a sourcing base. Additionally, the ‘i-tex’ apparel sourcing system enables representatives from contract manufacturers and apparel labels to get in touch online before the fair, and to make optimum preparations for the fair. Secondly, we will also find the right kind of contract manufacturers to exhibit their capacities and try and incorporate their ideas to make the sourcing platform a successful event.

How far is the concept of sustainability an integral part of the machinery industry?

In Europe buyers are more concerned about concepts such as sustainability and this can be shown by a total of 57% increase in German sustainable technology export to Morocco. I mean sustainability is something which is very well received and done in Germany, not only restricted to this sector but in many other sectors as well.

The importance of sustainability cannot be undermined and as a run up to the upcoming ITME Asia+ CITMA 2012, we are creating awareness on this issue through our Blue Competence

campaign. Many sustainable initiatives by companies providing technology will be showcased to demonstrate how to save raw material and energy using their technology.

There is a strong resonance for “Shift of production” of the fashion industry back into the Western countries…, do you think it is bound to happen or is this just a myth?

European manufacturing industry is looking to manufacture value-added products. The garment industry of Turkey, Eastern Europe and even Italy is growing, which is a positive sign for our industry. It has been noticed that the “Made

in US” concept is attracting more people now but the reason behind this is not that the product should have a tag saying “made locally” but instead people are looking for better qualities, closeness to consumers, shorter lead and reaction times.

One of the major influences responsible for the development is the rising wages in China and growing concentration of manufacturers there on the internal market because now they want to produce more and more for their own captive consumption, so due to these reasons also buyers or companies want to reduce their dependency on China. Elgar Straub, Director General, VDMA

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Preparations for CISMA 2013, scheduled to be held from 25-28 September 2013, are underway. He Ye, Chairman of China Sewing Machinery Association shares why it is ‘a must’ visit for Asian manufacturers…

What new can visitors expect this coming CISMA?

The focus is on making it different from the last show by increasing quality of participation and giving it an international appeal. There will be greater emphasis on automation and smart technology as nowadays China is facing very serious problem of lack of labour resource affecting the productivity of the whole apparel factory. Secondly, we are working on improving the service levels at the fair. We are trying to put the show online, so we will change the means to access the exhibition, may be next year you can download the fair information on your cell phone.

How is the world economic slowdown impacting the sewing machine manufacturing industry and what is the strategy moving forward?

China is the manufacturing centre for machinery and will remain so for quite some time in future also, as I don’t think other countries can substitute China in machinery in the near future. Yet, the changing economic order has made us rethink and today the Chinese manufacturing is moving up the value chain and we are working on a new strategy whereby there is a transformation from ‘expansion without profit’ to

‘profit without expansion’ namely by moving from ‘making profit quickly’ to ‘making profits steadily’ and from ‘imitated’ development to ‘independent innovation’. This is only possible if we concentrate on ‘differentiation strategy’ as against ‘low added value from the lower end of the industry chain. This change in attitude is reflected in the 291 patents that were authorized in 2011 of which 77% was from enterprises that are domestically funded.

We have seen an increase in output value of 17% even under significant pressure and with this increase the rising wages is only incidental and not determining.

Is garment production shifting from China?

China as a manufacturing base has many advantages over other countries. Besides having huge capacities we have a complete chain of inputs to produce garments, which serves as the other advantage. Because the cost of the labour and other input costs are going up, many factories are shifting base to low-cost South East Asian countries. The products which have shifted out are very basic products and not those that require higher technologies. So the competition is still there and also it is important to remember that other countries may have cheaper labour, but they don’t have skilled workers like China does. China is doing more value-added products now for which more automated and flexible machines are required, whereas the low wage countries will require

our basic machines. For both the categories, CISMA is an ideal place to identify all kinds of technologies, so the fair will continue to attract visitors. It is like a chain reaction.

How do you wish to present CISMA to the world?

Even though we do not have offices all over the world to

Lots of Technologies to look out for in 2013… Contd. CISMA and Texprocess Ready with Distinct Agendas

promote CISMA, but we are very much in contact with our participants, who are also our partners in promotion since they have offices in all parts of the world and they help us to reach out to our visitors. Besides that, a lot many advertisements and marketing activities are undertaken by us including road shows.

The fair will greatly emphasize on automation and smart technology as China is facing very serious problem of lack of labour resource. Working on improving the service levels at the fair will also be introduced and soon one will be able to download the fair information on cell phone.

He Ye, Chairman, China Sewing Machinery Association

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Performance Measurement Tools – 4 Human Resource Management

As Edward L. Gubman, renowned writer and consultant in Human

Resource Management observed in the Journal of Business Strategy, “The basic mission of Human Resources will always be to acquire, maintain, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business.”

Irvine also mentioned that Human Resource Department is driven by six key metrics. This article also follows the same route and states six key metrics and attempts to define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of HR Department for each of them.

Recruitment and job analysis

Training and career development

Performance evaluation and management

Promotions, termination and/or redundancy

Industrial and employee relations

Personnel administration

Recruitment and Job Analysis: This is the stage when an employee is recruited, undergoes a selection process and, having accepted an offer of employment, is inducted into the organization. Job analysis is a major part of acquisition process and consists of determining the

Garment industry over the years has adopted various key performance measures from different industries and also invented some of their own. In the fourth article of the five-part article series, Mausmi Ambastha, a budding entrepreneur providing IT solutions for the apparel industry, with years of experience as a consultant and a former faculty at NIFT, discusses a collection of performance metrics being used in the industry for enhancing both the operational and financial performance of a business. Some of these measures may not be part of scientific analysis or give a holistic picture but they do serve the purpose for which they have been designed and are being successfully used.

As stated by John Irvine in his article (StitchWorld, March 2009), Human Resource Management is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets– the people who, work individually and collectively to contribute towards the objectives of the business. It is time for a fresh approach towards labour and as Charles Darwin said,“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” It is time to change and good organizations are doing it already.

nature and responsibilities of various employment positions. Job analysis has been discussed in detail by Dr. Prabir Jana in the article “Job Evaluation in Apparel Manufacturing”, (StitchWorld, September 2010).

Average time to hire: Time to hire is one of the most frequently used metrics for evaluating staffing functions. Usually measured in days, time to hire broadly reflects the total elapsed time required to staff an open position.

∑(Date of hiring-Date of request) Number of hirings

Average time to hire

=

The first thing to acknowledge when looking at time to hire is that it is primarily a measure of staffing

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The message at the recently concluded ICAHT-12 that connected most of the presentations was that “people are important” and measurement and KPIs are the need of the hour. HR Department can no longer be doing administrative jobs of time keeping and salary calculation, they need to be proactive participants in the performance of the organization.

speed; it is not necessarily associated with candidate’s quality. Time to hire is grossly inadequate for evaluating overall staffing effectiveness. However, it does provide useful information for evaluating staffing efficiencies. A direct implication of delayed hiring is on the billing loss due to the inability to staff and hence opportunity cost and stretching under-staffed teams.

Example: There were three vacancies in factory XYZ and were filled in 1, 6 and 10 days, respectively. Therefore, average time to hire is (1+6+10)/3 = 5.66 days.

Cash & Bonus (C&B) to Revenue: Another important metric that works as a cost lever is C&B to revenue. An organization needs to decide the optimum percentage they wish to adhere to. Any expansive hiring (i.e. high salary) directly impacts the margins and skew the proportions.

Total C&B x 100 Total revenue

C&B to Revenue% =

New hires achieving satisfactory appraisal at first assessment: This metric reassures that the right quality of people have been hired for the job.

Number of new hires achieving satisfactory appraisal

Total number of new hiresX 100

In case of operators the supervisors should evaluate if the new hires are performing satisfactorily after the prescribed training is completed. This represents the efficiency of recruitment.

Example: Factory XYZ hired 50 people in January. After 2 months during the first performance appraisal it was observed that only 40 people achieved satisfactory appraisal.

Therefore, new hires achieving satisfactory appraisal at first assessment is 80%.

New hires achieving x months of service: Hiring new employees and training them for acceptable

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performance is a costly affair. For every new employee hired, the company spends a reasonable amount of time and money and if the trained employees quits, quickly this can be a major cause of concern. This metric is also useful while calculating early attrition and hence a direct cost to the organization. There can be various reasons for a low retention:

Poor hiring technique Poor training and preparation

for the job Poor work environment or

amenities Lesser monetary or other

benefits as compared to the industry

Lesser opportunities of growth and development.

New hires achieving x months Total new hires

X 100New hires achieving x months

=

[Number of new hires retained: Number of newly hired people who have achieved x months of service in the company.

Total new hires: Total number of people who were hired before x months]

Example: Factory XYZ hired 50 people in January. After 6 months it was observed that 20 people had left the organization.

New hires achieving 6 months 30 50

X 100 = 60%=

This means that company was able to retain only 60% of the newly appointed staff.

Training & Career Development: These are two related processes that increase the capacity of employees to contribute to organization’s mission. The challenge is to continually find ways to invest in the development of employees while balancing the requirements of current work.

Average number of training hours per employee: This metric represents the focus of management towards training and development of its employees. This provides a growth opportunity to the employees within an organization. The operator can dream of maturing into supervisor’s role.

Total number of Training hours Total number of employees in the organization

Regular training programs should be organized for the employees so that they can do their present job with a better method or to gain new skills for the job.

Training penetration rate: This metric measure the percentage of employees completing a course or a content area of training compared to total number of eligible employees employed.

Number of employees who attended the training

Number of employees who were eligible for training

This measure provides a yardstick by which an organization can determine the proportion of the appropriate population that received the desired training. For required training courses, this measure can help an organization monitor and enforce compliance. For optional course areas, the measure can help an organization assess the impact of training awareness initiatives or expose course areas that might require further awareness efforts or curriculum alterations to bring about desired participation.

Training satisfaction: This information must be collected after each training session via questionnaire/survey to get the feedback of the trainers and to realign the training path and improve performance of the trainers.

Performance Evaluation and Management: Performance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the performance of employees and to understand the abilities of a person for further growth and development.The results of the evaluations can be charted and training requirements for the future analysed.

Percentage of low performing employees: This represents the percentage of employees that are not performing up to the desired performance level. This metric will give the user the perspective on how an employee is performing and what type of training will be required in future.

Employees performing lower than acceptable level

Total employees evaluatedX 100

Performance Trending: The Human resource department needs to investigate the cases where employee’s performance is reducing and the reason for such behaviour needs to be analyzed. If possible, such threats should be mitigated and help should be provided to the employee.

Employees performing lower than their last evaluation

Total employees evaluatedX 100

Promotions, Termination and/or Redundancy: A good training and development system can result in preparing employees for a bigger role in the organization and thereby helps employee promotions within the organization. Termination occurs when the contract of employment ends. Termination may involve dismissals, redundancies, resignations and retirement. In each of these cases, it is imperative that an exit interview is conducted and the data analysed to identify reasons.

Ratio between internal promotions and external hires: This ratio measures how many people already working at a company are considered for internal promotion versus the number of externally attracted people. A good ratio here tells us that the training efforts are paying off and the organization has been able to prepare its people to take bigger roles within the organization. Focus should be on promotion on internal talent and hiring at a lower skill level. This boosts motivation and trust among the employees, and also acts as a cost leveller.

Number of internal promotions Number of external hirings

Retention Management: During an employee’s term of employment, considerations relating to compensation, appraisal of performance and training and development are of primary importance in retention strategies.

Absenteeism: Absenteeism refers to the phenomenon where an

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employee who is scheduled to work fails to come to work. Absenteeism means absence of workers from the regular work without prior permission, notice or sanction. It is an unauthorized leave and is different from regular holidays. In brief, absenteeism means absence which is wilful but avoidable.

Number of man-days lost Number of man-days

scheduled to work

X 100Absenteeism =

This formula can be used to calculate absenteeism rate for an individual as well as an organization. Absenteeism in the garment industry is in the range of 10% to15%. This results in huge production losses and should be closely monitored.

Example: Factory XYZ has 200 total employees and the factory was scheduled to work for 25 days in a month. There was 1 employee who was absent for 14 days, 7 employees absent for 2 days each and 14 employees absent for one day.

Number of man-days lost: (1X14) + (7X2) + (14X1) = 42 man-days.

Number of man-days scheduled to work: 200 X 25 = 5000 man-days.

Absenteeism = 0.84 %

Bradford Factor: This is a method of calculating absence in order to put a ‘weighting’ on the absence. For example, a company will probably be more concerned (and experience more disruption) from frequent odd days of absence, that an employee who has one period of absence for a week. This formula was devised by the University of Bradford.

Bradford Index Formula=S X S X D

where,

S is the total number of spells (instances) of absence of an individual over a set period; and

D is the total number of days of absence of that individual over the same set period

Example:

Considering the same example as in the previous section,

One absence of 14 days gives S=1 and D= 14. Therefore, (1 X 1 X 14) = 14 points

7 absences of 2 days each gives S= 7 and D= 14. Therefore, (7 X 7 X 14) = 686 points

14 absences of 1 day each gives S=14 and D=14. Therefore, (14 X14X14) = 2744 points.

In all the above cases, the number of days of absence is 14. However, the points vary owing to the frequency of absence. This is based on the understanding that it is possible to plan and reduce loss in case an employee takes an off for a longer period. However, in case of frequent short absences, it is not possible to reallocate work and the company loses to a larger extent. This factor should be used with caution as its only an indicator.

Attrition Rate: Labour retention is a big issue in garment industry. Most companies struggle in this area and have been trying to implement various measures to ensure lower labour turnover.

Employees who left during the period

Average number of employees in the company

X 100Attrition rate =

Employees who left during the period: All the employees who left the company during this period should be counted looking at company personnel records. This should include employees leaving through retirements and resignations. If some employees were laid off or fired this should not be counted under attrition.

Average number of employees in the company: There are two ways to measure this:

a. A normal average can be used for quick calculations. The number of employees in the beginning of the period is added to the number employees in the end of the period and the sum is divided by 2.

b. A weighted average should be used for a more comprehensive result it will also consider the length of time for which certain number of employees was deployed. For an organization that

is increasing or reducing in size, this is a better way to measure attrition.

Example: Factory XYZ has 200 total employees in the beginning of the year. There were 50 people who left during the year. There were 250 employees in the end of the year.

Employees left during the year = 50

Average numbe r of employees in the company,

Normal average =( 200+250) /2} = 225 Attrition = 50 / 225 = 22.2%

Weighted average: The company had 200 employees from January to September and 240 employees in October and November and 250 employees in December. = [(200 X 9) + (240 X2) + (250)] / 12 = 210.8 Attrition = 23.7%

This metric can tell the factory manager whether their efforts towards labour retention are reaping benefits or not.

Employee retention rate: This metric explains as to how a company works to attract and retain talent. In order to reach our goals, we must hold onto the people who make our success possible.

A lot of organizations across the world are moving away from the indicator “employee turnover” and instead are focusing on “retention”. SAP sustainability report states that “One of the hallmarks of sustainability is that it entails long-term thinking... Retention better expresses what we are working to achieve: not just measuring turnover, but actively managing the retention of talent.”

(Average number of employees -Employees left )

Average number of employees in the company

X 100=Employee retention

This should be calculated in reference to a specific time period.

Example: Factory XYZ has 250 employees at the end of a year. 45 people left during the year and 5 were fired. Employee retention = (225-50)x 100 225= 77.77%

The measurement factors are pillars of support for good management of the factory. In order to use these performance measurement tools in the correct light one should take help from trained IE professionals or consultants.

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Decorative Stitches: Simply Value Addition via Sewing

One should not confuse decorative stitches with embroidery. While

some of them do look like lines of hand embroidery, in the sewing industry 'embroidery' always refers to the stitching done by an embroidery machine, using a special carriage and hoops. The hooping system is employed to hold the fabric in place as the design is executed. Embroidery, by contrast, is primarily decorative. Decorative sewing, however, works like general sewing, by having the fabric under the sewing foot with the feed dogs feeding the fabric in the correct sequence to make the selected stitch. It typically involves joining two pieces or fabrics; finishing the edge of a single piece of fabric or manipulating the

drape of a piece of fabric, as with pleats or darts.

There are a wide range of sewing machines available for decorative stitches. In general, as much is the demand of your product, more decorative stitches are included. Basic machines traditionally offer just basic stitches, like a zigzag and satin stitch. Advanced machines often include stitch packages of 20-40 decorative options. Pfaff Creative 2170, Bernina 950, Janome 712 T which can also make buttonholes, and Kansai Mac 100 are a few examples.

Selection of sewing machine is not everything, choosing an appropriate thread is equally crucial for the utility and finished appearance of the stitch. Most sewing machines can be adjusted to accommodate a variety of

threads. If the stitch you want to use is very complex, choose a sturdy but thin thread that is unlikely to snag. A more straight forward stitch or one that moves linearly rather than frequently changing angles can use more delicate threads. Mostly the selection of thread depends on the weight of the fabric used. The heavier the fabrics on which the decorative stitch is being applied, the higher is the ticket no. of the thread (in TEX).

Even though the most modern sewing machines offer the greatest range of decorative stitches, decorative sewing machines aren’t a rage in the market, particularly because programmable, computer-controlled machines can be far more expensive than what may be justified for the sake of a few embellishments. It is

A simple cotton bed sheet available at a department store might cost US $ 25 to US $ 30. But add a line of decorative stitching along the edge, and it looks like the US $ 99+ set that came out of a fancy catalog. Similarly, a decorative topstitch on a coat or a dress or an ornamented hemming at the edge of ladies top, could be a considerable source of value addition to it without struggling with beads, sequins, or other value add-on items. Stitching a nice straight seam is important, but so is the aesthetic value of the garment. For that purpose, there is an alternative in the form of decorative stitches. All an operator has to do is to just push the treadle and out comes swirls, leaves or diamonds in a row. Even though the purpose behind using decorative stitches is to add value to the garment, they also serve ulterior motives in hiding seams or mistakes… StitchWorld discusses in detail a few essential ones.

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possible, however, to adjust the width, height, and span of stitches even on simpler machines to create your own variations of decorative stitches. Although there are machines which come with numerous decorative stitch options, most of them are just pre-defined variations or combinations of certain decorative stitches. Some of the most commonly used decorative stitches which are also being used to add value in a range of apparels are:

Zigzag StitchA zigzag stitch is variant geometry of the lockstitch. Traditionally it was a back-and-forth stitch used where a straight stitch will not suffice, such as in reinforcing buttonholes, in stitching fabrics with stretch, and in temporarily joining two work pieces edge-to-edge. But today being one of the most commonly used decorative stitch, the zigzag stitch in

variation of widths is used to replace the boring running stitch to attach two fabrics or a trim to a fabric in fashion today. Commonly used on the yokes, hems, cuffs and necklines, and for patchwork, smocking, to attach a trim or as a design element, the zigzag stitch remains evergreen in fashion.

When creating a zigzag stitch, the back-and-forth motion of the sewing machine’s needle is controlled by a cam. As the cam rotates, a fingerlike follower, connected to the needle bar, rides along the cam and tracks its indentations. As the follower moves in and out, the needle bar is moved from side to side. Very old sewing machines lack this hardware and so cannot natively produce a zigzag stitch, but there are often shank-driven attachments available which enable them to do so.

This is a two/three/four step zigzag where there is 2/3/4

stitches to the left and then equal number of stitches to the right. This pattern is repeated for the length of the seam; the stitches use a single needle thread and single bobbin thread. The main application of this stitch is in attaching elastic and seaming intimate apparels. The recommended thread for this stitch is T-24 Core or T-27 Spun Poly.

The J20U53 from Japsew, KM 2070P from SunStar, 20U53 & 20U93 from Zoje and LZ-391N from Juki are some common machines for zigzag stitching.

Satin Stitch The most prominent of the fancy stitches, satin stitch is widely used as a filling stitch for filling a particular motif, or for embroidery like look. Beautifully used as a finishing stitch to cover up the edges seamlessly, the stitch is more or less utilized to conceal the seams with perfection neatly.

It is technically understood as a completely filled column of zigzag stitches achieved by setting the stitch length to 0.2 - 0.4 mm, the length setting should be short enough for complete coverage but long enough to prevent bunching and thread build-up.

Since the satin stitch is nothing more than a very short zigzag stitch, therefore most of the machines used for zigzag stitching can be adapted for satin stitch.

Blanket Stitch Traditionally used as a finishing stitch to envelope the raw edges of the hemlines, the blanket stitch is often used to trim the sides of a blanket and hence got its name as the blanket stitch, which is now innovatively worked on as a design element, also to patch or as an applique technique, to decorate the edge of a crocheted item or to protect the edges of fabric to prevent unravelling and fraying. Stitch

There are a wide range of sewing machines available for decorative stitches. In general, as much is the demand of your product, more decorative stitches are included. Basic machines traditionally offer just basic stitches, like a zigzag and satin stitch. Advanced machines often include stitch packages of 20-40 decorative options.

Zigzag Stitch Overedge StitchSatin Stitch Blanket Stitch

Proenza Schouler thakoon Ralph laurenHeritage Cotton

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formation is with 4 stitches per inch with a seam width of half an inch usually. A blanket stitch is used for decorative edging on a variety of different items, usually serging edges of blankets, sweaters, polar fleece, washcloths, towels and other linens. The standard blanket stitch is created by pushing the needle through the fabric from the front, about a quarter of an inch or five millimetres from the edge of the fabric. The needle is then brought around the edge of the fabric and up through the loop of thread before the stitch is pulled tight. The stitch is then repeated by again pushing the needle through the fabric from the front side. The most appropriate thread for this stitch is T-180 to T-350 Spun Polyester.

The Merrow 18-E is an efficient sewing machine for making blanket stitch.

Overedge StitchesOveredge stitches are used as finishing stitches for binding the unclean edges of the hem, collars, cuffs, etc. Use of fancy or contrasting thread enhances the look of the design element. There are two types of decorative overedge stitch formation. One is purl edge serging, which may be formed by 1 needle thread and 1 looper threads, or 1 needle thread and 2 looper threads, or by 1 needle thread and 2 looper threads forming a double pearl on the edge of the seam. The other variant could be an overedge stitch from 2 needle threads and 2 looper threads with the looper threads forming a purl on the edge of the seam. Here either there right needle only enters the upper looper loop or both needles enter the upper looper loop. The other type of overedge stitch formation

is lettuce edge serging: the stitch formation is with reverse differential feeding action to uniformly stretch the fabric as it is being sewn.

The DK2500/3 from Titan is an ideal machine for the over-edging of multiple layers of mattress fabrics or other heavy materials. MG-2DNR-1 from Merrow is another ideal machine for making such kind of overedge.

Fagoting & Picoetta StitchIntended to attach two separate pieces of fabric creating drawn thread spacing, fagoting is a form of a decorative chain stitch innovatively incorporated on belts, collars, cuffs and sleeves, hemlines and as a design element on yokes. The recommended thread is T-24 PW Core or T- 27, T-30 Spun poly. Picoetta is a two thread Multi-Step Chainstitch used to topstitch a seam on women, infant and kids wear. The recommended thread for this stitch is T-24 PW Core or T-27 Spun Poly.

Advisable machine is 53400K from Juki, which is Multi-step zigzag, 1- or 2-needle picoetta and fagoting machine with differential feed and edge guide for decorative stitching.

Fly or Feather Stitch Resembling the shape of a flying bird, the fly stitch and its variations are seen in garments, on hemlines, collars, cuffs and yokes. It is made up of ‘V’ shaped loops which are then tied down by a vertical straight stitch. Fly stitch is categorized within the feather stitches, which are open, looped stitches worked alternately to the right and left of a central rib. Other variations of this stitch include

Selection of sewing machine is not everything, choosing an appropriate thread is equally crucial for the utility and finished appearance of the stitch. If the stitch you want to use is very complex, choose a sturdy but thin thread that is unlikely to snag. A more straightforward stitch or one that moves linearly rather than frequently changing angles can use more delicate threads.

One should not confuse decorative stitches with embroidery. In the sewing industry, ‘embroidery’ always refers to the stitching done by an embroidery machine, using a special carriage and hoops. Decorative sewing however works like general sewing, by having the fabric under the sewing foot with the feed dogs feeding the fabric in the correct sequence to make the selected stitch.

Fagoting

Feather Stitch

Fringing

derek lam

Rodarte

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women, girls, and infants clothing, a larger shell stitch can also be formed with a width of 9.5 to 12.7 mm with 2 shells per inch. It is used for the edge stitching on infant-wear outerwear or blankets. The recommended thread: T-21 - T-40 Spun Poly or PW Core for standard and T-40 to T-60 spun poly for large shell stitch.

Any overlock machine using an attachment from companies like Kwok Hing or Inderle. However, Merrow MG-3Q-3, J-38 from Japsew is standalone machines for the purpose of shell stitching.

Hemstitch Hemstitch is a

decoratively drawn thread work or openwork

hand-sewing technique for embellishing the hem of clothing or household linens. Ideally in hemstitching, one or more threads are drawn out of the fabric parallel and next to the turned hem, and stitches bundle the remaining threads in a variety of decorative patterns while securing the hem in place. Multiple rows of drawn thread work may be used. Industrial hemstitching machine has a piercer that pierces holes into the fabric and two separate needles that sew the hole open. This stitch is applicable in scarves, handkerchiefs, traditional table linen, bed linen, light curtains, etc.

Cornely 10-3 Picot hemstitch machine is ideal for making such stitches.

Although there are machines which come with numerous decorative stitch options, most of them are just pre-defined variations or combinations of certain decorative stitches. It is possible, however, to adjust the width, height, and span of stitches even on simpler machines to create your own variations of decorative stitches.

Saddle Stitch

can be done on a variety of products like carpets, towels, drapery, epaulette, etc.

The Titan DK 3700F is an alternative for readymade fringes and Titan DK 3200 is a fast fringing machine for direct on fabric fringing.

Saddle StitchWidely seen as a decorative stitch in leather accessories to tailor belts, shoes and jackets, more than for decorative purpose, the saddle stitch strongly holds hems, collars, cuffs and pockets in apparels. The thread used for this stitch is usually in a contrasting colour to the fabric or surface to make it stand out; besides using a different coloured thread, a thicker or heavier thread may also be used to increase the visibility of the contrast stitching.

Saddle stitching is done similar to a running stitch. The needle is moved in and out along the stitching line, keeping a distance of about half an inch between two stitches. The length of a stitch should be the same as the distance between the stitches. In pin or saddle stitch there are two types – one with chain at the back and another hand Stitch look both at face and back. The first type is Single Thread Chain Stitch, formed when a needle carries a loop of thread through the fabric that is then picked up by a hook needle that brings the needle loop back to the topside. The distance between the needle and hook needle determines

the length of the pin or saddle stitch. The length of the stitch varies from 1/16” to 7/32” or 1.5 mm to 5.5 mm. The pin or saddle stitch is actually formed on the underside of the seam as it is sewn, generally 2.5 to 5.5 stitches per inch. The stitch is mainly used in decorative topstitching of coats, jackets, dresses, etc.

The other type is Single Hand Stitch. It is formed when a double pointed needle with the eye in the centre carries an end of thread through the fabric. Seam is limited to 90 cm long. The recommended thread for both stitches is T-24 to T-60 PW Core or Spun Poly.

The MP-200NL from Juki, 781-X from Japsew, Artisan (USA) 880 is an efficient saddle stitching machine. The machine can be used for topstitching on the front facing of men’s wear, pocket mouths and trouser sides.

Shell StitchAnother finishing

stitch shaped similar to a shell, creatively

used to scallop undefined and raw ends of the hem and cuffs, the shell stitch is made with an over edge machine with a special attachment that forms the thread around the edge of the fabric in a shell appearing configuration. Shell stitches take the shape of arcs and semicircles, hence the name. A standard shell stitch generally has 5 shells per inch with a standard stitch width of 5 mm. The stitch is ideal for serging

closed, open, whipped and reversed stitch. This stitch is most suitable for creating borders and quilting. The stitch best represents twigs and grass.

The Janome 712 T is an ideal machine for making feather stitch.

FringingFringing is sewing a decorative border or edging of hanging threads, cords, or strips, on the carpets or bed linen. Fringes can either be made via a machine which stitches the hangings as the fabric moves below the needle or it can be an ornamental textile trim applied to an edge of an item. More commonly, it is made separately and sewn on, consisting sometimes of projecting ends, twisted or plaited together, and sometimes of loose threads of wool, silk, or linen, or narrow strips of leather. Fringing

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