I have run a garment factory for many years. However, it is said that laymen watch the excitement and experts watch the doorway. People like me on the front line of the battlefield should know the operation processes of some Chinese domestic garment factories and companies best. This post is mainly to explain some internal situations of the garment industry.
As I said, when you are in the process of expanding the scale, you will design and directly cooperate with the factory in production. And this content is complex, which is no easier than pure operation. I will systematically analyze the whole process of garment production and operation and various possible problems in the garment circle community. In terms of public content, I only share one basic part today.
Then, let me briefly talk about the process of garment production. It can be roughly summarized as design, sample selection, plate making, grading, inspection and procurement of surface accessories, cutting, sewing, keyhole nailing, ironing, inspection, packaging, needle inspection, warehousing and shipment.
At the beginning, I would like to explain that in the case of contracting labor and materials, generally, the price our garment factory gives customers is the cost of raw materials + labor cost + packaging cost + tax rate + gross profit, and most of the expenses of garment factories are mainly in water, electricity and plants. In a sense, the cost of direct production cooperation with garment factories is the lowest, which needs to be emphasized.
01 Design
The quality of the style will largely affect the final performance. Of course, the design does not completely determine how a style comes out. You can simply understand the difference between the seller’s show and the buyer’s show, because the matching of technology, surface accessories and version are very important.
Our domestic original design style has started a prairie fire in recent years, and many outstanding designers and designer brands have emerged. This is a benign promotion for our whole garment industry. Although copying and taking doctrine are common, many designers will change into a new style on the basis of the original.
Therefore, not all brand companies and clothing are created independently by designers. In contrast, if only the original version is improved, even the wholesale stall owner can cooperate with the factory. For some ODM factories, they will also directly provide design and style for you to place an order. There are many types of cooperation.
02 Inspection, Purchase and Sewing of Side Accessories
It’s not easy to describe the technical topic of printing directly. If you say too many professional terms, many people may have a hard time reading it, so just talk about the raw material. The raw materials of a garment are basically fabric accessories. The so-called fabric is cloth, and the accessories are buttons, zippers, threads, etc. The raw materials of a garment, needless to say, fabrics always account for the majority.
The purchase of garment fabrics is basically empty rice, that is, the so-called insufficient rice, which is generally only about 92 or 93; Moreover, as far as the garment industry is concerned, the risk is also large. If a version is not easy to sell or cannot be sold out, it must be lost money. Even if it is easy to sell, there will still be some tail goods in the end. We all know that the tail goods are processed goods, so we will lose a little money. Of course, the price of this part of money will be increased and added to the cost of clothing.
There are cheap and expensive fabrics. If you think that clothing wholesale is very complicated and there are many levels of links, then the fabric industry is the same. So many people buy their own accessories and make them more expensive than the same styles on the market. This is normal. For the same fabric, ordinary people can’t tell the difference between cheap and expensive fabrics. For example, chiffon, lace, cotton, hemp and satin are mostly used in general skirts. I believe 90% of people in the industry can’t tell the difference between satin and silk.
The price of general auxiliary materials is also related to the place of origin. For example, the quality produced in Guangdong is better and relatively expensive, while that produced in Yiwu is relatively cheaper.
Cost of accessories: ordinary clothes only have buttons or zippers, but now the garment workmanship is becoming more and more complex, and there are more and more decorations. In addition to these, there are also necessary formal trademarks, component marks, size marks, hanging tags, hanging particles, and each garment should be packaged, equipped with handbags, etc. For example, the price of plain colored fabrics such as shirts is relatively cheap, while those of printing and yarn dyed (referring to yarn woven with different colors) will be more expensive. At the same time, whether clothes are high-grade or cheap, there will be a big gap in the number of meters of fabrics used.
When the garment factory needs cloth, it will buy it back from the cloth merchant. Quality inspection is essential, and then cut and sew it according to the model to make clothes one by one. In a formal garment factory, clothes are produced in a flow process, that is, a cuts the cloth piece by piece according to the model, then B sews the sleeves, C nails the buttons, and D irons and packs… This is the process. There are also cases where workers complete a single piece independently. Most clothes are sewn by sewing machines, but there are a few, such as the familiar double-sided cashmere coat, which is completely sewn by hand.
03 Keyhole Fastener
For the keyhole, you shall pay attention to the following points: (1) whether the buttonhole position is correct. (2) Whether the buttonhole size matches the button size and thickness. (3) Whether the buttonhole opening is cut properly. (4) For clothes with flexibility (elasticity) or very thin material, consider adding cloth reinforcement in the inner layer when using eye lock. The sewing of buttons shall correspond to the position of buttonholes, otherwise the clothing will be distorted and skewed due to inaccurate button position. Attention shall also be paid to whether the amount and strength of the nail thread are sufficient to prevent the button from falling off, and whether the number of nail threads on thick fabric clothing is sufficient.
04 Ironing
People often use “three part sewing and seven part ironing” to adjust ironing. Ironing is an important process in garment processing.
Avoid the following phenomena: (1) aurora and scorching on the clothing surface caused by too high ironing temperature and too long ironing time. (2) The garment surface leaves tiny corrugations, folds and other ironing defects. (3) hot spots.
05 Garment Inspection
Garment inspection should run through the whole process of cutting, sewing, keyhole nailing and ironing. Before packaging and warehousing, the finished products shall be comprehensively inspected to ensure the quality of the products.
The main contents of finished product inspection include: (1) whether the style is the same as the confirmed sample. (2) Whether the dimensions meet the requirements of process sheet and sample clothes. (3) Whether the sewing is correct and whether the sewing is regular and flat. (4) Check whether the clothing of the strip fabric is correct. (5) Whether the fabric thread is correct, whether there are defects and oil stains on the fabric. (6) Whether there is color difference in the same garment. (7) Whether the ironing is good. (8) Whether the adhesive lining is firm and whether there is glue leakage. (9) Whether the thread ends have been repaired. (10) Whether clothing accessories are complete. (11) Whether the size mark, washing mark and trademark on the clothing are consistent with the actual goods and whether the position is correct. (12) Whether the overall shape of clothing is good. (13) Whether the packaging meets the requirements.
06 Needle Inspection and Packaging Warehousing
After that, let’s talk about needle inspection. Needle inspection generally involves a lot of moisture in clothes sold at home, but generally clothes exported abroad must go through the needle inspection steps, especially clothes exported to Japan.
The needle inspection review is quite strict. We all know that the quality of goods exported abroad (not only clothes) is much higher, because they have to go through various tests. It has to be said that this is the sorrow of Chinese people. It is a little biased. Foreign requirements for clothing generally require that the raw materials must be environmentally friendly and pass the component analysis and inspection.
After the finished products come out, each garment must be tested with a needle testing machine, mainly for fear that a broken needle will fall into the clothes and stab people. In this regard, children’s clothing is the most strict. Because there have been cases in Japan where a broken needle rusted and pricked a child to infect and die, sellers who do export business are very strict about this, especially in Japan.
Once a friend of mine sent a batch of clothes to Japan, about more than 100000 pieces. At that time, he ignored the verification link. As a result, he found many needles there, and the guests directly didn’t want the whole batch of goods. So he lost a big money!
Clothing packaging can be divided into hanging packaging and box packaging. Box packaging generally includes inner packaging and outer packaging. Inner packaging means that one or several clothes are put into a plastic bag. The style and size of clothes shall be consistent with those indicated on the plastic bag. The packaging shall be flat and beautiful.
Some special styles of clothing should be specially treated during packaging. For example, wrinkling clothing should be packaged in the form of twisted roll to maintain its modeling style. The outer packaging is generally packed in cartons, and the size and color are matched according to the customer’s requirements or the instructions of the process sheet.
Generally, there are four packaging forms: mixed color mixed code, single color single code, single color mixed code and mixed color single code. When packing, pay attention to complete quantity and accurate color and size matching. The outer case shall be marked with the shipping mark indicating the customer, port of shipment, case number, quantity, origin, etc., and the contents shall be consistent with the actual goods.