Case studies / Textile and Apparel
Case studyMaterial planning for a garment exporter across five factories
A garment exporter planned fabric and trims by style, colour and size across five factories and its subcontractors, cutting late fabric and learning which buyers and styles made money.
Overview
A family-owned knitwear and woven garment exporter in Bangladesh with five factories, supplying European and North American fashion and value retailers under their own labels.
Scale. Around 1,800 styles a year, each in many colour and size combinations, with dyeing, printing, washing and embroidery partly subcontracted to more than forty partner units, delivered as a phased, multi-location programme.
The challenge
Fabric arrived late for several orders every season, and each delay rippled down the calendar. Cutting waited for fabric, sewing waited for cutting, and the shipment date, fixed by the buyer months earlier, did not move. The factory either paid for air freight or accepted a discount for late delivery.
Material requirements were calculated by merchandisers on spreadsheets, one per buyer. A style might come in eight colours and seven sizes, each with its own fabric consumption and trims. Errors in a single cell meant too little of one colour and too much of another. Each factory kept its own records, so nobody could see that fabric short in one unit was sitting unused in another.
Subcontracted stages were a black box. Once cut panels went out for printing or embroidery, nobody knew exactly when they would return. Buyer compliance documents, from test reports to social audit certificates, were filed in email threads and assembled in a rush before each shipment.
The solution
Each style is set up once with its colours, sizes, fabric consumption and trims. When a buyer confirms an order, material requirements are calculated automatically by colour and size, netted against stock and open purchase orders across all five factories, and passed to fabric and trim buyers with required-by dates worked back from the shipment date.
Subcontracted stages are planned and tracked. Panels sent for printing or embroidery carry expected return dates, and coordinators update progress so planners can see which orders are at risk days before cutting or sewing stalls.
Buyer compliance documents, including test reports, certificates and packing instructions, are held against each style and order, and missing items are flagged well before shipment. Shared master data and group reporting give the owners one view of material, progress and margin across the factories.
The engagement
- Nine months
- Seven specialists, with merchandisers, planners and factory managers
- Process mapping, style-colour-size material planning, subcontract tracking, buyer compliance documentation, shared master data, pilot and phased rollout.
Integrations
- Factory production and machine data
- Supplier and buyer EDI
- Style, pattern and product data
- Group reporting
How we delivered it
- 01
Map the work with the people who do it
Six weeks
We sat with merchandisers, fabric buyers, cutting masters and subcontract coordinators in all five factories, following real orders from confirmation to shipment. With the owners we agreed the scope and the measures: late fabric, lead time and on-time shipment.
- 02
Design common processes and integrations
Twelve weeks
Merchandisers and planners agreed one way to set up a style, with colour and size breakdowns, fabric consumption and trims defined once. Subcontract stages became tracked steps with expected return dates. Compliance documents were attached to the style and order rather than to email.
- 03
Pilot in one factory
Eight weeks
The knitwear factory piloted with two large buyers. Early weeks showed consumption figures that were years out of date and size ratios that did not match buyers' orders; both were corrected with the cutting team.
- 04
Roll out in waves and track results
Twelve weeks
The other four factories joined in two waves. The owners reviewed fabric delays, lead times, shipment performance and margin by buyer and style each month.
Results
- Lead times shortened and fabric shortages fell
- Teams worked from the same data across five factories
- Subcontracted stages tracked with expected return dates
- Profitable buyers and styles identified and the mix adjusted
Lead times shortened and shortages fell. Fabric now arrives against dates worked back from shipment rather than guessed, and planners can move surplus fabric between factories. On-time shipments rose, and air-freight costs fell with them.
Teams in all five factories work from the same style and material data, so merchandisers no longer maintain parallel spreadsheets and buyers receive consistent answers about progress.
Once costs and delays were linked to individual buyers and styles, the owners found that some combinations made good money while others, after rework and late penalties, barely broke even. They adjusted their mix for the following season and renegotiated terms with one buyer. Leadership now reviews results monthly.
The planning fixed our fabric problem. The surprise was seeing, for the first time, which of our buyers we were really making money with.
What made the difference
The client found which buyers and styles made money and adjusted its mix. Involving the people who do the work early made adoption easier: merchandisers designed the style set-up they now use every day.
