In the last issue of StitchWorld we presented KIMO Clothing which manufactures garments using both Make Through and Assembly Line system, emphasizing the point that both the systems can coexist for maximizing productivity and decreasing time of delivery. One has to know how best to use both these manufacturing systems and understand that the selection depends on the quantity of the order and the intricacies involved in the garment. In this issue, we discuss Permeshwar Creations which not only survived the recessionary trend prevailing in the world, but grew using similar manufacturing processes that are now integral to manufacturing at KIMO Clothing. The Mumbai-based company with 4 manufacturing facilities at Vapi and Noida, while registering significant growth in profits has also built capacities in the past two years. “Our success mantra is very simple, a diversified product basket complemented by quality and on-time deliveries,” says Yash Sadh, Director, Permeshwar Creations, in an exclusive interaction with Team StitchWorld.
Characterized by a strong regional divide, the Indian garment industry is a true reflection of the country’s diversity and local strength, with apparel manufacturers in the South and West specializing in menswear products like shirts and bottoms, while apparel manufacturers in the North specialize in manufacturing highly embellished value added tops for women. “Two pressing needs made us come to Delhi-NCR: the first was the image of Vapi and Mumbai-based companies as menswear manufacturers, due to which the buyer did give us orders for womenswear, and second was the need to move up the value chain for sustenance in this industry,” shares Yash, who took up the challenge of establishing womenswear manufacturing operations in Noida in 2002.
Among the early companies that entered the trade, Permeshwar Creations was established in Mumbai by Yash’s father Gyandev Sadh in 1984. Thirty years on, the company has a turnover of US $ 30 million, registering exceptional growth of 50% year-on-year over the last two years, at an average FOB of around US $ 6, even as the average for India hovers around US $ 3.25. Today, Permeshwar Creations manufactures 18,000 garments per day from two units each in Vapi and Noida. The second unit in Noida was setup about 6 months back to produce accessories like beachwear pareos and scarves, by adding 350 sewing machines. Only last year the company added 500 machines in Vapi as a part of a new factory, taking the count to 2,000 sewing machines. The units in Vapi contribute US $ 20 million to the company’s turnover, while units in Noida contribute the balance US $ 10 million.
“Your track record in terms of on-time delivery and quality rejections defines the business you will have for the next year. Even one late shipment can prove to be a big blot on your track record, so you cannot overbook.” – Yash Sadh, Director, Permeshwar Creations
Two different product categories, two different manufacturing locations and four manufacturing facilities – brings huge number of challenges in terms of logistics. Yet, the company has been able to successfully manage its order placement and follow-up process through its centralized command centre in Mumbai. Similarly the finances are also controlled by the head office in Mumbai, which has proven beneficial for the company since the costing, billing, invoicing, payments and PO generation is all centralized. “Although we as an individual office can also deal with buyers for the costing and order booking, the documentation would be handled by the head office only because the centralized nature of operations reduces the duplication and confusion within the organization,” explains Yash. The head office is updated daily with the output, fabric cut, capacity utilization and other such reports from the individual units, which are later fed into the ERP managed in the head office and which strangely does not have its extensions in any of the four units. “It’s difficult to manage the ERP in each unit,” informs Yash. The PO number, which is generated in the head office, is unique for that order and every manufacturing facility and merchant refers to that number only to get the details regarding the same. However, the sourcing of fabrics, accessories and value additions on the garments is independent for each business unit with preference given to the vendor with the best cost and quality ratio.
The head office assists the different location manufacturing facilities by assigning a merchant for proper coordination between the buyer and merchandisers from Vapi and Noida. “This is a strong aspect of the service given by our company to our buyers, which has contributed towards the building of a lasting relationship with most of our buyers,” shares Yash. A buyer gets this additional privilege only after working with Permeshwar Creations for a certain period of time or having placed a program for a minimum quantity of 3 lakh pieces per order.
Even before the company decided to have multi-location apparel manufacturing operations and a diverse product basket, the actual realization of moving up the value chain laid the foundation of all the present DNA of the company. “Now we not only do high-fashion womenswear, but the shirts and bottoms being manufactured by our unit in Vapi has also moved up a notch by focussing on finishes, washing, printing and embroidery,” assert Yash. Having embarked 5 years ago on this track, Permeshwar now makes 100 new designs every month. The concentration is on value addition in the mid-segment, demanding FOBs of € 5 to 10, catering to hypermarket fashion brands like Mango, H&M, Osho, MS Mode, SIPLEC and Inditex.
For reducing its investment in quality systems, the company did try and train its operators for achieving greater ‘Right First Time Quality’ but was unable to achieve its goals due to high labour migration.
Manufacturing Complexities
To sustain the broad range of products, Permeshwar Creations prefers to work in the Make Through production system along with the universally accepted Assembly Line system. “The decision to make a product in the Assembly Line or in the Make Through sewing lines is taken at the sampling stage, keeping in mind the overall profitability of manufacturing a product in either of the systems,” says Yash. Since the same factory would be doing an order of 1,00,000 pieces per style, while also executing an order of 500 pieces with lot many techniques in each garment, having both systems in the same factory, works in their favour. “Though the tailors required to maintain this dual system, costs us more, but they are highly skilled, more efficient and dedicated to their work, and require minimal supervision. Due to which we are able to ship higher-FOB and small quantity products with better on-time delivery percentage and ‘right first time quality’, claims Yash.
Another advantage of this dual system, is that the sewing operators remain motivated to work at an high level of efficiency and quality because there is no upper limit to earning in this case due to the presence of a piece-rate system. The Assembly Line system does not prove economical for smaller quantities; secondly, the quality and productivity will not be up to the mark as by the time the learning curve stabilizes, the order quantity would have been exhausted. “We experienced much less rework and alteration in the Make Through system compared to an Assembly Line,” confirms Yash. While hiring tailors for Make Through sewing lines, the company conducts an exam wherein the tailor is made to stitch two complete garments of any style, at an acceptable quality level.
Quality Management
Contrary to the current practise of quality assurance, the company has fallen back to quality inspections at every stage to deliver on-time, while staying profitable. To check the quality of the raw materials, the company has placed QCs in the manufacturing facilities of its vendors and approvals are also taken from buyers for all the raw materials and accessories. “Due to the emergence of a strong domestic market in India, it is really hard to motivate fabric and accessory vendors to move up a notch in terms of quality, because they already have enough business,” shares Yash. The company has built a strong communication channel with the buyers to update them regarding the status of production and various approvals for fabrics and accessories.
Once the fabric is in-house, 100% fabric checking is conducted before cutting and later cut parts are checked at the time of bundling. Once the bundles are moved to the sewing lines, cut parts are again checked before feeding to the sewing operators for the bundle number and the quantity. For managing quality within the sewing lines, the company has adopted a two-pronged approach wherein not only stationary checkpoints are placed after every critical operation but also random quality checks are performed by roving quality checkers.
In case of the Make Through system, the unit maintains a complete style wise, colour-wise and size-wise chart, indicating which operator has been allotted what, to regulate the operator’s performance and quality of the output. Moreover, for increasing the accountability of the operators for defects in the Make Through system, garments manufactured by a particular group are marked by a specific code referring to that group and these stickers are finally removed while thread cutting.
After the garment has been completely stitched, it is either moved to the finishing area or the button holing and button attachment department, as per the requirement. Within the button department is a supervisor or unit master who keeps track of the quality and performance of the sewing operators. In the finishing department, thread cutting, spotting and pressing is done.
Although there are no formal checkpoints between the processes of thread cutting and spotting, a senior or more experienced thread cutter analyses the quality of the thread cutting. After the processes of thread cutting and spotting, the garments reach the initial stage of quality checking within the finishing department. At this point the dimension, look and seam quality of the garment is checked, after which the garments are passed on to the final checking stage of the finishing department. “If you look at the SOP of the final and initial checking in the finishing department, it is the same but the people in the final checking are more experienced at their job than those at the initial checking stages,” explains Yash, who believes that back-to-back quality checks negate the chances of a defected product being shipped. The last stage or department before shipping the goods is the packing department wherein focus is only on packing goods as per the size ratios and style-wise ratios given by the buyers. Although no quality checks are conducted at this stage, surprise checks can be conducted by the quality department for critical styles. A cut to ship ratio of nearly 95% speaks of the efficiency of the company’s quality systems.
