Among the product categories Bangladesh is known for worldwide as an apparel manufacturing nation, sweaters is the most produced and exported, just after Tees and bottoms. So how does a new player with the intent of manufacturing high quality sweaters, create a niche for its company in such a saturated product segment. A classic example of strategic planning, Indesore Sweaters in a short span of five years has created a special space as a sweater manufacturer by specializing in fine gauge sweaters, catering to buyers like H&M, Zara, Cello, Ovisse, Espirit, La Redoute and Next. Bashar Khan, Director, Indesore Sweaters explains why the company has stuck to just manufacturing 12 gauge sweaters, even when fine gauges are quite critical to manufacture, at a consistent quality level.
With a capacity of 1,80,000 pieces per month on 1,400 hand flat knitting machines producing fine gauge knitwear that too only in 12 gauge, Indesore has benefited from such a narrowed product spectrum, as they have emerged as preferred suppliers to the buyers and can demand a higher FOB. While lower gauges are easier to knit at higher productivity and lower rejection rate, high gauge sweaters give less output and the quality also needs to be monitored with greater concentration; operator skill also matters a lot. Buyers are well aware of the challenges and reward the effort. “When linking high gauge sweaters the yarns are finer and the needles being narrow in size have smaller loops, so to insert the loops into needle hooks you need a lot of concentration as a skip stitch at the linking stage will result in rejection of the entire garment at the final inspection stages. When you work on fine gauges you don’t work under the buyers rather work with them,” asserted Bashar Khan. The company’s success in the niche product category can be endorsed by the fact that Indesore gets orders for fine gauge sweaters even in the lean period of December to March, in which there are orders only for heavy gauge.
Indesore was commissioned in 2008, when all the departments from the knitting to the finishing to the linking were ready for operations, unlike most manufacturers who start production as soon as the knitting department is ready. Even after commissioning of a fully-functional production facility, the company didn’t start working directly with buyers for a year, rather started sub-contracting for a vendor of H&M. “We hired 200 workers in the first month and the next 200 in the next phase, this went on for 4-5 months, as we wanted to give our workers time to get accustomed and comfortable with their colleagues, the environment and management of the company,” shared Bashar Khan, an idealistic thought process. The company hired only skilled and semi-skilled operators, who were put on the knitting machines after a trial of 2-3 days, in which their efficiency levels were matched against already recruited operators. “For the purpose of skill development and increasing operator efficiencies, our supervisors, floor in-charges and production managers worked together and tirelessly on each operator,” added Bashar Khan.
Besides the human side, the company got time to define its standards in terms of productivity, production per machine per styles, style based efficiencies, addressing criticalities of different types of yarns and production scheduling. The company was able to define the machine settings for handling different types of yarns and styles, which helped them to overcome issues like capacity balancing and delay in shipments. “When H&M visited our factory for an audit, they were amazed at our planned progress,” averred Bashar Khan, who has been directly working with H&M since 2009.
Besides recognition for doing fine gauge sweaters, Indesore has also gained popularity as a compliant and sustainable sweater manufacturing facility. For energy saving purposes the company is already using LED lights and has installed a Busbar trunking system from Italy which has enabled 20-30% energy saving, as it divides the facility in various zones like knitting zone or linking zone with 10 linking lines, and from an entire zone to individual lines can be switched off, while the rest of the factory is supplied electricity. The company uses only treated water in its washing department, and has thoughtfully installed cooling fans on the shop floor, in the south as per the architecture of the facility, removing all the heat, dust and humidity from inside, while maintaining a conducive environment not only for the operators but also the yarns to perform normally.
[bleft]The company has installed a busbar trunking system from Italy which has enabled 20-30% energy saving, as it divides the facility in various zones like knitting zone or linking zone with 10 linking lines, and from an entire zone to individual lines can be switched off[/bleft]
Complementing its product portfolio and setup, Indesore has paid equal attention to its workforce in terms of retention and motivation. “The one thing which characterizes the foundation of your relationship with your labour force is on time payment of wages and transparency in the process of wage calculation. Rest everything is an icing on the cake,” shared Bashar Khan. The salary is given to all on the 5th of every month and a production card is given to each knitting operator and the accounts departments, which is matched with each other at the time of wage calculation. “Apart from facilities like crèche, medical room, prayer room, firefighting equipment and dining hall, we have an open door policy for addressing worker grievances, and we also give away incentives and awards like best operator, best supervisor, production bonus, attendance bonus and cleanliness bonus,” added Bashar Khan.
Presently, standing at a turnover of US $ 20 million, Indesore is in the phase of relocation and expanding its knitting capacities. “We are now looking at automatic jacquard machines and are in the process of setting up a new facility of double the present capacity, in which we will shift by 2014,” concluded Bashar Khan. With the new facility, the company would be able to cater to larger volumes and expects the turnover of the company to double with the new development.
