How to organise your fashion factory

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The Organisation of a clothing factory
The Organisation of a clothing factory
By: Dr. Punam Rani
From designing a garment incorporating the latest trends to its complete production and the many
stages involved in-between, Dr. Punam Rani explains the specific processes in detail as well as managing
a clothing factory.
Introduction:
In every clothing factory, the first stage is fashion forecasting and sketching ideas in the design
development process. The next stage is the development of the sample garment, which involves
collection planning, pattern making, grading and production of sample garment and costing of garment
based on the working sketches. The line or the products are then appraised for production the patterns
adopted for the production requirement. For handling these tasks there are specific departments in a
clothing factory.

2. Principle of management
Management, according to one of the most common definitions, is "the accomplishment of desired
objectives establishing an environment favourable to performance by people operating in organised
groups."
According to Henry Fayol there are 14 principles of management which are:
1. Division of Work: allows for job specialisation. Work should be divided among individuals and groups.
2. Authority and Responsibility: Right to give orders. Responsibility involves being answerable by
whoever assumes authority assumes responsibility.
3. Discipline: Common efforts of workers.
4. Unity of Command: Employees should have only one boss.
5. Unity of Direction: A single plan of action to guide the organisation.
6. Subordination: Of individual interests to general interests of organisation.
7. Remuneration: An equitable, uniform payment system that motivates and contributes to success.

3. 8. Centralisation: Degree to which authority rests at the top of the organisation.
9. Scalar Chain: Chain-like authority scale.
10. Order: Arrangement of employees where they will be of the most value to the organisation.
11. Equity: Justice and fair dealing
12. Stability: of tenure of personnel
13. Initiative
14. Esprit de corps: Harmony, general good feeling among employees
The management function is essential for all organised activity and at all levels of the organisation from
the managing director down to a supervisor responsible for a small section within the factory. While the
managing director has full executive control and authority for conducting the affairs of the company, the
supervisor has the similar powers on a far smaller scale.
In order to achieve the specified objectives of the company, management has to perform five basic
functions to coordinate group activity:

4. Inspection of garment
- Packing: - before entering the finished goods warehouse, garments are boxed or bagged.
Packaging of the garments
• Service function- while the service function mainly assists the production department, they also
extend their services to other departments within the organisation. The main service departments are
production engineering (project planning and development), recruitment of staff and training,
machinery and equipment maintenance (maintenance of building, air conditioning, power supplies) and
technical stores (holds the entire item required for repairs and maintenance).
• Control function- These cover control services (such as quality control) which provide production
management with regular and up-to-date information on the overall and detailed performance of the
factory. It enables those responsible for production to anticipate and correct deviation from plans. The
main control functions are production planning and control, budgetary control and quality control.
3.6 Operations Department

5. Operations department is one of the names given to the department that has the overall responsibility
for planning, controlling and coordinating all activities concerned with the logistics of raw material
supply and the production of garments.
The functions of operations department are as follows:-
• Pre-production planning and control:-
Another function of the operations department is the pre-production planning and control, which plans
and controls all the activities leading up to the actual production or garments. In effect, it is pre-
production planning and control which organises and manages the route from the customer to the
cutting room. The overall objective is to ensure that the logistics of supply and production are planned
in such a manner that:
• The sales programme is achieved on time
• Labour, machinery and other sources are utilised to the best
• The pre-production phase for an order is ended when the production order, graded patterns and
all the raw material are issued to the factory.
• Production planning and control (PP & C):-

6. - Cutting room: - Here all the processes required to trim piece goods into cut garments are
performed.
- Sewing room: - Apart from actual sewing this include operations such as fusing, under-pressing,
and in-process inspection. Sometimes the sewing room use outside contractors for operations which the
factory is not equipped to carry out, such as pleating, embroidery and quilting.
- Pressing room: - This department gives the garment its final finish by a process called top-pressing.

7. - Final inspection:- Although this is not strictly a production function, it is tied in with production
because the inspection department gives the 'go' or 'no-go' for every garment produced.
The most important function of the operations department is the production planning and control
because without it, the department is like a bus driving along the road without a fixed route, destination
or timetable. Production planning includes marker planning (manual or computerised technique) and
cut planning and cutting room production planning.
As soon as the production plans are issued, the operations department begins the control procedure
necessary to maintain up-to-date picture of the progress of each production order. Generally, the
department requires information on the three stages of production- a) When the cutting of a production
order has to be started; b) When a production order has to start being issued to the sewing room; c) the
styles and qualities of the finished garments which have entered the warehouse. The department would
receive information from the sections concerned on a daily or more frequent basis. Where system such
as CIM (computerised integrated manufacturing) is employed, then the information is available in real
time (relating to computer system that updates information at the same rate as they received data).
For the operations department, the principle of their global control system is two questions:
• Have the garments been started and finished on time?
• What goes in between is the responsibility of production management.

8. Conclusion:
The principles of management are the same for every clothing factory and the only difference is that of
scale. While the basic purpose of factories may vary, all of them rely on the effectiveness of
management in all the attainment of their objectives.
i. Forecasting and planning
Planning means looking ahead or to foresee, to assess the future and make provisions for it. Planning
also means to decide in advance how to allocate available potential resources to fulfil set objectives.
These resources can be classified in the following groups:-
What?
This concerns the materials required from the cloth, linings and trimmings to other ancillary material
needed to produce garments such as chalk, marker paper, pins etc.

9. Where?
This the resource of space for storage of raw material or production areas of the warehousing of the
finished goods.
Who?
Includes planning human resources, not just the production operator, but also manpower for
managerial, supervisory roles and service within the factory.
How?
The question here is, how will the work be performed? The answer is in evaluating methods, capability
of existing machinery or whether conditional machinery required. This planning element takes into
account every section within the factory and not just the sewing room.
When?
This is the axis of all planning and time scale dictates which activity has to be performed and when it
should be completed. It also includes the what, where, who and how elements to be coordinated, to
ensure that they are available when required. This is the most important of all planning functions. The

10. coordinated planning of these five elements bridges the gap from where we are to and where we need
to go.
ii. Organisation
An organisation is not an end in itself but rather a means to achieve the required results. There has to be
a structure which makes it possible to attain the planned objectives. Wherever the responsibility of
management is vested in more than one person, there must be a pattern of relationship between the
various management responsibilities. This involves delegation of work into or major responsibilities into
specialist areas. This division creates the organisation structure. The main objective of an organisation
chart is to define the management relationships within the company.
iii. Staffing
This function is basically concerned with people and training and its short and long term objectives or to
provide the organisation with right types and quantities of managerial and non managerial staff as an
when they are needed. It involves the following factors:-
a. Recruitment: Sources could be school or job centres in universities.

11. b. Selection: No magic formula to ensure the person taken is right but there are some physical
psychometric psychological tests if interpreted by an expert could get the company right staff.
c. Training: Systematic selection helps in obtaining the best labour but this effort is wasted if
employees are not given the right training. This applies to all levels because even a new manager
requires some degree of training by his supervisors.
iv. Direction: The function of direction is concerned with getting employees to accomplish their set tasks
effectively. Just planning, organising and staffing will not work, like starting an engine of a car will not
make it move. It is the function of direction which breathes life into planning and organisation. The
behaviour of a group largely depends on the type of manager it has and good managers will always
provide subordinates with the information necessary for intelligent action. Obviously, the more an
individual knows about his or her own work and environment, the more intelligently they can work.
v. Controlling: The managerial function of control is the measurement and correction of performance in
order to ensure that the company's objectives are accomplished as plan. The function involved three
steps:-
• Establishment of standards: Standards are criteria against which actual results can be measured.
They can be physical and represent quantities of products or materials, or they can be stated in
monetary terms, such as costs and income. All these standards are used as the basis for the second step.

12. • Measurement of performance: This involves the comparison of actual results with those planned.
• Correction of deviations: When organised planning and control procedures are operated, it is
relatively easy to expose deviations and to apply corrective measures. Feedback is central to the
correction of deviation; this informational input provides the basis for all operational decision regarding
the non-achievement of the plans.
3. Various sections of garment industry
3.1 Design Department
The design department can be considered as the research and development department of a clothing
factory, because it is in this department that the prototypes of garments are developed and prepared
for selling and production. For most factories the process of product development involves seven stages:
i. Forecasting: This stage commences with the evaluation and interpretation of the market's future
needs in terms of fashion and price. Apart from intuition and common sense, these forecasts are based
on the accumulated knowledge, expertise and experience of the company to make a fairly accurate
prediction of the types of garments customers will buy and the prices they will be willing to pay.

13. ii. Designing: In garment manufacturing, the first step is designing the sketch for the dresses that have
to be prepared. For this purpose the designer first draws several rough sketches in the sketch book. The
designer does not go for details at this moment but rather lets creativity flow on the paper. There may
be many sketches. Later, these sketches are analysed by a panel of designers. They finally select a few of
them. These sketches are rendered in detail separately or in the form of a single collection. The designer
also draws working drawings along with the sketch. Working drawings are flat drawing of the sketch and
it helps pattern maker understand the patterns involved in the construction.
iii. Collection Planning: This process is actually the pre-production phase of sampling, and the
objectives are to set out in detail the styles, fabrics and colours which will represent the company's
proposals for the forthcoming season. The designer works in close cooperation with the marketing
department and together they attempt to determine the best possible style, fabric and price
combinations for company's customer.
After approval of the design, finalised plan becomes operative and the actual production of samples
begins.
iv. Pattern making: This function connects design to production by producing paper templates for all
the components, such as cloth, lining and fusible, which have to be cut for a garment. Industrial pattern
making has two basic stages, the block pattern and the garment pattern.

14. 3.4 Purchasing Department:
The primary objective of the purchasing department is to obtain the right materials, in the right quantity,
at the right time and price. Since purchased materials are the largest components in the cost of a
garment, purchasing is an extremely important and specialist function within a clothing company.
The main functions of the purchasing department are:-
✔ Information: - The purchasing office is the company's 'window on the world' and provides
information to all concerned regarding new products, materials and services.
✔ Suppliers: - Purchasing department ensures that the supplier is stable and reliable. This is
particularly important where a new supplier does not have a known track record.
✔ Prices: - While the price, quality and quantity of materials are usually specified by the operations
department, the purchase must be made at the most advantageous terms for the company. Other terms
and conditions such as freight costs, insurance, discounts and credit terms are also negotiates before
the order is placed.

15. ✔ Progressing: - This is concerned with ensuring that the ordered materials arrive at the correct time,
without any hold-up caused by the late or non-delivery of raw material. This system employed to
progress orders can be manual or computerises, and is basically a diary detailing the orders placed and
their confirmed delivery date.
✔ Verification: - In a well managed business, a standard procedure is to check that prices, quantities,
colour, etc. Of delivered materials agree with the particulars specified in purchase order. The
storekeeper checks quantities and the materials are then specified by quantity assurance personnel. If
everything is found to be in order, the purchasing department approves the supplier's invoice for
payment on the due date.
✔ Speculative buying: - When market conditions are particularly favourable, the purchasing
department may recommend ordering materials such as fusible, linings and sewing threads which are
not required for immediate use but there are chances that later on these materials would become
difficult to obtain, or there will be a sharp increase in their price.
✔ Storekeeping: - The storekeeping staff is basically responsible for the receiving, storage and issuing
of materials.
• Receives goods inward and checks them according to procedure specified by the purchasing
department.

16. • Stores the goods so that no deterioration or damage occurs through, say, exposure to sunlight or
crushing.
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