Preparation for Sewing When cutting is done the next groups of operations are concerned with preparing the cut components for sewing, and include the following.

Position marking

When required, this operation marks components with guides for sewing and other operations. Drill marker can be used for marking the pocket placement positions, dart lengths etc. The mark itself can be a very small hole or a mark made by a chalk based liquid taken through the spread by the drill flutes.

Shade marking

This operation ensures that the components cut from different shades of the same colour do not get mixed up during the assembly process. Every component for one garment is marked with a unique number, usually printed on a small ticket which is stuck on the component.

Ticketing/Numbering/Sticker tagging

After complete the cutting, the fabric is tagging by the sticker. The sticker tagging is an important part in this section. Due to fabric numbering or batching the sticker is tag on the cutting fabric surface.

ShortingAccording to production system (Make through, progressive bundle or one piece flow system) cut components are sorted. In sorting all component of a garment placed together. Size wise sorting and in case multiple colours are cut in a single lay, colour wise sorting will be required.

Bundle Preparation (Bundling)

As per the production line requirement a certain number of pieces with all component are tied together. This process is known as bundling. Each bundle is marked with bundle number, style name, size number and quantity of pieces in that bundle. At this stage cutting are ready to send to production line for stitching.For example, all the cut components for one bundle of garments can be packed into one box, or each of the major components packed in its own container ready to be issued to different preparation and sub-assembly sections in the factory. Alternatively, if unit production systems are used, the components for single garments can be loaded directly into the system from the cutting table.

Bundle tickets (Job Cards)

These tickets identify each bundle and in themselves play an important role on production planning and control for sewing and finishing sections. The tickets themselves can be alphanumeric form or bar-coded, and in both cases they can be computer generated.

Sewing/Assembling (Input to sewing room):- The sorted bundles of fabrics are now ready to be stitched. Large garment manufacturers have their own sewing units other use to give the fabrics on contract to other contractors. Stitching in-house is preferable because one can maintain quality control during the processing

There are what is called sewing stations for sewing different parts of the cut pieces. In this workplace, there are many operators who perform a single operation. One operator may make only straight seams, while another may make sleeve insets. Yet another two operators can sew the waist seams, and make buttonholes. Various industrial sewing machines too have different types of stitches that they can make. These machines also have different configuration of the frame. Some machines work sequentially and feed their finished step directly into the next machine, while the gang machines have multiple machines performing the same operation supervised by a single operator. All these factors decide what parts of a garment can be sewn at that station. Finally, the sewn parts of the garment, such as sleeves or pant legs, are assembled together to give the final form to the clothing.

Marker efficiency

1. Marker efficiency is defined as a ratio of area of marker used in a garment and area of total marker.

2. According to Glock and Kunz , “Marker efficiency is determined from fabric utilization, the percentage of total fabric that is actually used in garment parts.”

3. The ratio of area for pattern pieces that are placed on the marker to the total area of the marker expressed as percentage is called marker efficiency.

Marker efficiency is the important part of garments manufacturing. Direct cost of garments could be utilized by marker efficiency.

It is important that when a marker is made it does not create an issue of fabric waste. The goal is to utilize as much of the fabric as possible.

Calculation of Marker efficiency: