Should the transportation of the sewing goods be done as single piece or in production lots? On hanging or on floor-bound systems? How can the production manager control where exactly a production lot or a single piece is – at any moment of the production process? Time matters, StitchWorld Correspondent Claudia Ollenhauer-Ries reports.
In the garment industries there is one standard: Every production plant may have its own transportation philosophy. This philosophy depends strongly on the type of garments produced: small sized items like underwear or children’s wear need other solutions than the production of coats, blankets or upholstery. A sewing unit for T-shirts will have other requirements than one for men’s suits. A sampling department asks for different management of goods than a high-volume production plant. Finally, it’s also a matter of investment.
Yet, the production managers will have to track the accurate position of every order within the plant. The IT-system will have to deliver the answer to “Where is my order?” within seconds. Barcodes or transponder chips (RFID) with automatic or manual reading systems are indispensable. Next to the hardware, the software is crucial.
All suppliers of the transportation systems offer both hardware and software as a system. Part of the information technology, the barcode, RFID and the associated reading systems, may be supplied by third parties, specialists in this peculiar topic.
Obviously, the market of this kind of suppliers is very tight: only a few ones, insiders talk about five to ten companies, are still operating on the market.
From factory to retail floor
In-house transportation is a potential source of increasing profitability and merits an intensive reflection. New green fields plants would be easy to plan, while older, organically grown plants tend to be more complicated due to the often smaller halls, staircases and building extensions. Nevertheless, a thought after transportation and – that will be crucial – locating system with possibly RFID tags will reveal a potential of increasing productivity.
Salpomec, Finland, cooperates for a turn-key solution with ADT (US-based supplier of safety systems), UPM Raflatac (a Finnish supplier of labelling solutions) and RDN Software, Finland. Together, they opened the first RFID Solution Centre which concentrates on the needs of the apparel chain in 2007. The clue: Tagged with an individual RFID label at the end of the proper manufacturing, every single garment is automatically commissioned, transported and placed at the point of sales. The RFID allows the tracking of the garment from the moment it is tagged until it is sold, and allows the storekeeper to launch automated re-orders of low-stock products.
German Dürkopp Fördertechnik, taken over by Austrian Knapp in 2010, offers the whole production and sales range. A new storage house for trousers will be inaugurated in June 2011 at Brax, Germany. The new system will handle some 6,00,000 trousers fully automatic – with RFID. A highlight will be the motion system, which would reduce the power consumption significantly. Special adapters will allow the use of different types of hangers and the new storage concept will result in a dense stocking.
Knapp’s new warehouse software package KiSoft will control warehouse and material flow for optimal processes for goods integration. As cartons in freight containers or as hanging goods – quality control, pre-order and back-order processes are supported just as well as integration of value added services such as price and safety labelling, RFID tagging and further tailor-made processes. But also for the other way round, for returns, Knapp offers solutions for efficient returns processing using dynamic sequence buffers, multi-SKU storage and order picking in Goods-to-Person mode. This would guarantee fast goods integration (especially with one touch handling) and supply for the next delivery. Returns picking is handled as a part of the complete picking process, ensuring high customer satisfaction and manageable costs for returns.
From cutting room to stock
Salpomec has launched its Magic Tube warehousing system decades ago, and this is still a leading product, implemented in 40 countries worldwide. Jarkko Kuusisto, CEO of the company, reports that the most important markets for this product are Europe and Japan. They claim to cut down handling time from 15 days to 3 or 4, depending on the level of automation used before. A main feature in this counting is the saving of time during transportation and the better quality of the product, which would need less finishing work. A key to the success is also the fact that the production line uses the same special sliding tube as the warehousing system.
German company Schönenberger, one of the leaders in this small market, offers hanging solutions for production plants, distribution centres and washing/recycling mills. In production plants, they can cover the whole process from fabric stock to final products stock. Rolls of fabric are stored, cuts are hung up or laid on trays, semi-finished products are moved as individual pieces or grouped batches on trolleys. The software gets its information from barcodes or RFID tags. Business Development Manager James Broux announces a new system to be launched soon, but does not disclose any details.
Transportex, Sweden, is specialist in storage systems for hanging garments including manual, semi-automatic and automatic handling of single pieces and batches on trolleys, shelving systems for static storage and easy shopsystems for shops. The systems would apply for small as for large storage houses.
On stock!
Fashion is a fast business, and the stock must meet this pace. Several different systems could be used:
- Static with shelves for laying goods or with rails for hanging styles,
- Dynamic stock with trolleys and a railing system on one or more floors,
- Fully automatic stock with single piece selection (supported by RFID),
- Manuel sorting or automatic sorting.
The crucial point is the full transparency of the stock: styles, sizes, colours and number of items of each stocked must be available on screen within a blink. The automatic picking will be the state-of-the-art solution for all mail-order/internet-order stocks.
The logistic processes, says Metroplan Engineering, a German specialist in warehouse logistics, must be lean and flexible, the infrastructure must be perfect and the operational work must be flawless. The organization of the warehouse already has standard solutions, but the commissioning is the most complex system: either manual or automatic. However, the selected products must be placed in most cases by hand into the boxes. The boxes themselves can be folded and closed automatically. According to Metroplan, 89 per cent of the companies commission manually – in Germany. Highly automated systems are used by Otto Group and Quelle, both having a large diversity of goods, not only fashion and textiles. Partly automated systems find application at Tchibo direct, HSE24 and QVC (both TV selling channels), while Amazon uses manual sorting. The trend, according to Metroplan, will be a mix of automatic and manual commissioning. Robotics and automation will not be the single truth as they might not be economic due to the high costs of systems and software. But supporting systems, hand held information desks; will be enhanced by data displays on special eyewear.
Major aspects are:
- Productivity – how many items must be processed?
- Limits of capacity ,
- Cost of investment against cost of manpower,
- Flexibility of capacity and articles,
- Quality of packaging.
Another trend is the delegation of the warehousing and commissioning to logistic specialists like Meyer&Meyer, Germany, which offer the storage of fashion goods in Germany and abroad, the picking of garments and fabrics for production, the inventory and the shipping. A similar support is offered by TNT Fashion Group, a division of TNT Group. One of the recent projects was realized with Dutch Oylili brand. This was implemented with the consulting of Manhattan Associates, USA, which provides supply chain solutions like planning and forecasting, distribution management and supply chain visibility in real time. DHL Fashion includes even home delivery within Europe; so for Wehmeyer, Germany, for whom they will handle some four to five million hanging and laid garment per year.
