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Guidelines

Fabric Store and Cutting Room

Management

KSA-Technopak

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page No.

General Introduction 3

Section A - Fabric Store 4

• Process Flow Chart
• Fabric Store Activity Chart

Section B - Cutting Room 6

• Process Flow Chart
• Process Description
• Cutting Room Activity Chart

Material Movement 11

Material Storage 12

Annexure 15

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General Introduction

The first stage in the manufacture of garments is the cutting of materials into the
necessary pattern shapes. These are then joined together by means of seams to create
three-dimensional garments. Where large quantities of a garment style must be cut, a
lay is created which consists of many plies of fabric spread one above the other. From
this, all the garment pieces for all the sizes that have been planned for that lay are cut.
The pattern shapes for these garments may be drawn on a paper marker placed on top
of the lay, or information as to their shape and position may be held within a computer,
to be plotted similarly on a paper marker or used to drive an automatic cutter.

Why cutting room management is so important?

Cutting room is an extremely important section in the garment manufacturing process

which has a major impact on the profitability of the business. Following are the few
reasons which describe the importance of the efficient management of the cutting room
in garment manufacturing process:

• Cutting room being the feeding point to the factory has massive impact on all the
further processes of garment manufacturing i.e. sewing, finishing etc.
• Efficient and well planned operations in cutting room ensures smooth flow of
work to all further processes and can definitely lift up the utilization of the
available resources.
• Cutting room controls the utilization of fabric which is the biggest contributor to
the cost of any garment. Even small wastage or saving of the fabric will have a
huge affect on the margins of the orders.
• Cutting being the first operation of garment manufacturing lays the foundation of
quality of the garment to be made. Any imperfection in cutting process can result
in non-conformance of the quality standards of all further processes.

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FABRIC STORE

1. Process Flow Chart:

Purchase
**Purchase Greige Fabric Greige Test Greige
Approved Receipt Report Fabric
Order / Merchandiser Fabric Insp.
swatch register
Register Register
Indent Approval Report

Knitter Greige Fabric Quarantine Area Pass Racks Pass Processors

Fabric Pass Pass
Rolls received Lab Test
Inspection

Fabric weight/ GSM

Confirmation
Approved
Lab
Dip

Reject / Held Reject Bulk Lot

For Decision
submission

Bulk lot
Approval
Reject Racks card

Test Merchandiser
Approval
Report
Knitting
Reconciliation
Register
Y
Quarantine Approval N
Fabric GSM Confirmation Area In house
Approved Approved
Approved Inspection Lot cards
Pass Lab Test
Racks
GSM Processed
Fabric Insp. Report Fabric receipt
Report Not Approved Not Approved Register
Not Approved Reject
Racks

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2) Fabric Storage

The fabric as received from the processing is kept in the quarantine area before storing
in heavy duty fabric storage racks. It is the responsibility of fabric stores in-charge to
store the fabric safely & correctly. The fabric stores in charge records every day fabric
stock in Fabric Stock Register.

3) Fabric Inspection

Before issuing the fabric to any further process proper inspection is carried out for the
received lot of fabric to judge whether the quality of the received fabric is as per the
approved standards or not. The inspection should be done as explained in the audit
report. Only approved quality fabric is issued to the next process. Along with the physical
quality inspection certain lab test like GSM, colour fastness, shrinkage etc are also
carried out on the fabric. Fabric is classified as pass only if the test result conforms to
the set standards.

4) Fabric Issue

Fabric after inspection is kept in different racks as per the result of the inspection carried
out. Based on the results of the inspection the fabric is classified under 3 different
categories, which are:
• Pass
• Reject
• On hold
Fabric under these 3 categories should be kept in different racks to avoid any mixing and
all racks should have proper information of the fabric being stored in them for easy
access. The fabric department issues the fabric to the cutting department against Fabric
Requisition Slip and makes the entry in Fabric Issue Register.

C. Fabric Stores Activity Chart

Activity Resources Output

Check Receipts Stores In --Charge Quality measurement of
the received material

Issue Stocks Stores In -Charge Meet the requirement of

the various departments

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CUTTING ROOM

a. CUTTING PROCESS FLOW CHART

Pattern
Copy
Cutting Fabric Lay order
Plan Details Report

Pilot Cut order and

Pilot Run
Run Fabric
Fabric Fabric
Fabric Request
Request Marker
Marker Lay
Lay Spreading
Approval Request Receipt Marker Receipt Planning
Approval Request Receipt Marker Receipt Planning End Bits
Register
Cutting
Worksheet
Parts
Parts Replacement
Replacement

Not
O.K.
Cuts Indent
Issuance
Issuance of Cuts
of Cuts/ Excess O.K.
Lay Checking
Checking Bundling
Bundling Cutting
Cut
Fabric
Reconciliation
Cutting
Report
Cutting Issue Audit Report
Register
Report

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b. PROCESS DESCRIPTION

1) Cutting Planning:

Cutting Room Planning is very important and should be done for every order. Good
planning helps in better utilization of available resources and improving cutting room
efficiencies. The cutting plan should be made well in advance to allocate resources and
check on fabric availability & flow for the planned cutting. Various things that should be
kept in mind while making cutting plan are:-

i) Requirements of sewing room

ii) Availability & flow of raw-material i.e. fabric
iii) Available Manpower
iv) Constraints of work-place

2) Cutting Work order:

The planning department issues a cutting work order to the cutting department for
commencing cutting for any particular order. The work order states the size wise quantity
to be cut in that style and the fabric required for the total quantity mentioned in the work
order. The cutting In-charge makes a daily cutting plan for the work order quantity and
does the resource allocation. The work order also gives an estimate of the fabric that
should be taken from the fabric store.

3) Fabric Receipt:

The cutting room in charge requests fabric from the fabric store based on the daily
cutting plan made by the cutting room executive. The fabric is requested using Fabric
Requisition Slip format.
The cutting room helper gets the fabric from the stores & transfers it to cutting room with
the help of fabric movement trolley. The fabric received is stored in the fabric racks
within the cutting-room.

4) Fabric Relaxation

The fabric received in the roll form should be relaxed for at least 12 hours under
standard conditions before spreading. This is done in order to take out any tension in the
fabric imparted during finishing or winding so as to avoid any distortion while spreading
or cutting.

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5) Marker Request

The Cutting Executive requests the marker from the CAD department on a format called
CAD Marker Requisition Slip. The details of the fabric (e.g. width) received from fabric
store needs to be provided to the CAD room for marker so that the provided marker
could be adjusted as per the received fabric to minimise wastage.

6) Spreading & Marking

Before Spreading, the lay plan should be prepared & a lay order slip is generated by the
cutting executive. The lay order slip provides all relevant details to the spreader for the
lay i.e. style, fabric width, no. of plies, marker way, consumption for that lay etc. The
spreader has to follow the lay-order slip for considerations during spreading & if she
founds any deviations in the actual, it should be reported to the cutting executive. After
the spreading is done, the lay should be checked by the QC and a format called Cutting
Room Inspection Report is generated. After the lay is cleared by the QC, it goes for next
operation i.e. marking. The marking could be done manually by patterns or paper marker
could be fixed on top ply to make it ready for manual cutting.

7) Cutting

The ready to cut lay is moved onto the area allocated for cutting within the spreading &
cutting table. Air-flotation table is used for easy movement of lays. The cutter cuts the lay
with the straight-knife along the marker lines. For any small parts or sharp turns, where
precision can’t be achieved by straight knife, the parts can be taken to band knife after
block-cutting. For some styles (e.g. engineered stripes) where lay cutting is not possible
due to matching of stripes, single piece cutting is done with the help of scissors.

8) Numbering & Bundling

Once the lay is cut the cut parts are numbered, all parts that makes one complete
garments are given same number so as to avoid any mismatching of shade. After
numbering the pieces are bundled into a group of certain pieces. The size of the bundle
is decided by the cutting-room in charge, in discussion with the sewing floor in charge.

9) Quality Audit

All bundles need to be audited for quality before issuing to the sewing lines. Quality audit
on the bundled garments is done by the cutting-room auditor who checks the bundles for
bundle ticket descriptions, correct sequence of ply numbers, presence of all parts etc. as

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mentioned in the format. The second audit checks for the pieces w.r.t. the shade
matching, notch positioning, etc. These audits are conducted following the AQL chart
specifications & a format called Cutting Section Bundle Audit is filled.

10) Issue to the Sewing Line

The cut bundles are issued to the sewing line on request from sewing line supervisor.
Detail for issued pieces is maintained in the Cutting Issue Register. The cutting issue
register records the size wise issue to each line for a particular order. Along with the
bundles the cutting department also gives to the sewing line a format called Production
Issue Slip containing details of the bundles issued like bundle no, size, no of pieces etc.

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C. Cutting Activity Chart:

Activity Resources Output

Request Fabric Cutting Executive/Cutting Availability of fabric as per the cutting
In Charge plan
Request Marker Cutting Executive Availability of marker according to the
usable width of the fabric.

Lay Planning Cutting Executive Achieve optimum utilisation of cutting

resources.
Spreading Spreaders Preparation for cutting

Cutting Cutting In-charge To meet the cutting plan

Bundling/ Ticketing Bundling Helper Prepare the cuts for issuance

Random Audit Checkers/QC Check the bundles for conformity

Issue Pilot Run Cutting In charge To meet the cutting plan.

Issue Bulk cut Cutting In charge To meet the cutting plan.

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MATERIAL MOVEMENT

Fabric store and cutting room involves lot of material movement between different
operations. The material i.e. fabric is in the form of heavy rolls therefore specially
designed material movement equipments are required for saving time and manpower.
Following is the list of certain material movement that take place in Fabric store &
Cutting room with suggested mode of movement.

Item Description From To Material

Movement
Equipment
Fabric Fabric Unloading Vehicle Quarantine Area Fabric Trolley
Fabric Fabric Movement Quarantine Inspection Fabric Trolley
Area Machine
Fabric Fabric Movement Inspection Racks Fabric Trolley
(Pass/Rejected) Machine
Fabric Fabric Movement Racks Spreading Table Fabric Trolley
Cutting Waste Packed in sacks Cutting table Waste storage Waste sack
room Trolley
Cut Parts Cut parts movement CNC table Fusing Machine Bakers Trolley
Cut Parts Cut parts movement CNC table Numbering Table Bakers Trolley
Cut Parts Cut parts movement Numbering Bundling Table Bakers Trolley
Table
Bundles Cut parts movement Bundling Audit Table Bakers Trolley
Table
Audited Cut parts movement Audit Table Sewing Lines Bakers Trolley
Bundles

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MATERIAL STORAGE

Proper housekeeping is an important compliance feature and improves the overall

working environment of the company as well. Work in progress (WIP) generated at
different stages of operations should be identified along with the quantity of the material
to be stored. The storage medium should be selected as per the nature of the material,
process and also the subsequent operations to have ease of working and to reduce the
wastages that occur due to improper storage.

Material Description Storage Type

Fabric Fabric rolls Heavy duty multi level metal racks
Cut Parts Bundled parts for audit Multi level bakers trolley
Cut Parts Bundled parts for issuing to Multi level bakers trolley
sewing
End Bits Balance fabric from rolls Multi level metal racks
Pattern Patterns for an style Pattern trolley

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Fabric Store-

Space Requirement for Fabric Stores

The fabric store area should be calculated based on the assumption that how many
days of fabric inventory company wants to keep and the kind of storage arrangements
available for the fabric store. Let’s understand this with the help of an example:

Fabric WIP in days = 7

Total fabric weight = 50,000 kg
Average fabric roll weight = 25 kg
No. of rolls for 7 days inventory = 50,000 / 25 = 2,000 rolls
No. of rolls that comes in one rack = 75
No. of racks required = 2,000 / 75 = 27 racks
Area is required for one rack = 42 sq ft
Area required for 27 racks = 42 X 27 = 1,134 sq ft

Now, other areas like aisle space, cabin area, space for inspection machines etc. should
be added into this to get the final area of the fabric store.

As a thumb rule the calculated area should be multiplied by 2.5 to get the total fabric
store area.

Total fabric store area = 1,134 X 2.5 = 2,835 sq ft

The layout of the fabric store should be made after the calculating the number of racks
or any other kind of proposed storage required. While designing the layout pf the fabric
store enough aisle space between two racks so as to facilitate easy movement of
material movement equipment and manpower.
Space should be allocated for quarantine area for keeping the fabric immediately after
receiving.

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Cutting Room-

Space Requirement for Cutting Room:

The cutting room should have enough space to house all necessary equipments and
manpower, to add to it the cutting room should have sufficient space for storing fabric
rolls of running lays and cut bundles and WIP of at least one day of feeding for the
sewing section.

As a thumb rule, the cutting room area should be equivalent to 40% of the sewing
section area. For e.g. If sewing section area is 10,000 sq ft, then

Cutting room area = 10,000 X 40% = 4,000 sq ft

It should be noted that this area is exclusive of the fabric storage area. The layout of the
cutting room should be made so as to have forward flow of work and to avoid backward
movement of the material between different operations. There should be provision for
parking the trolleys and storage racks for storing the end bits and WIP.

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ANNEXURE

Piece Quality Control Inspection Report

Fabric Supplier Total rolls received Reject Shipment
Date of Inspection Total yards Insp Accept Shipment
Style no/ Priority No. Total penalty points Inspected by
Require GSM Points per 100 square meter

Roll Colour Width Length GSM Shade Penalty points Total Point Rejection Comments
Number Ordered Actual On roll Actual Ordered actual diff Hole Soil Fabric points per 100
Minimum Maximum yards defect yards

Points per 100 sq meters : Total Points X GSM X 100

Weight

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Fabric Checking Sticker

Fabric Fabric
Color Color
Content Content
Date of checking Date of checking
GSM GSM
Than No. Than No.
Weight Weight

Fabric Fabric
Color Color
Content Content
Date of checking Date of checking
GSM GSM
Weight Weight
Than No. Than No.

Fabric Fabric
Color Color
Content Content
Date of checking Date of checking
GSM GSM
Weight Weight
Than No. Than No.

Fabric Fabric
Color Color
Content Content
Date of checking Date of checking
GSM GSM
Weight Weight
Than No. Than No.

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Cut order Plan / Lay order / Reconciliation sheet

P.O# 2321 Size S M L XL XXL
Total(Incl Total(Incl Total(Incl Total(Incl
Style# qw Order Extra) Order Extra) Order Extra) Order Total(Incl Extra) Order Total(Incl Extra) Order Extra)

Order Quantity 5400 Color 1000 1030 1000 1030 1000 1030 1000 1030 1400 1442 0

Extra 3% Color

Total (Incl Extra) 5562 Color

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Color

Color

Color

Color
Shortage
(negative
Total Planned Actual End bit sign
Quantit no. of Fabric Marker Number of Actual sticker implies
Cut # Marker # Color Size Quantity y plies Type Than # Than weight Consumption Consumption plies End bit # excess) Bundle # Quantity
2321 - 1 2 Black S 1200 3600 50 Single Jersey 1 20 0.04 0.03 7 1 1 -36 1 50

2 20 7 1 2 0 2 50

4 20 7 0.5 3 0 3 50

7 25 9 1 4 0 4 50

8 20 7 0.75 5 0 5 50

9 18 6 1 6 0 6 50

17
11 23 7 1 7 0 7 50

144 0 8 50

0 9 50

0 10 50

0 11 50

0 12 50

Black M 1200 Single Jersey 0

XXL 1200 3600 0

Black XXL 1200 3600 Single Jersey 0

1. The Cut #, Marker #, colors, size, Quantity, Total quantity, average consumption, Marker consumption, No. of Plies, Bundle # and details of Bundles are filled by the Cutting incharge (cut
order plan for a particular P.O.#) as soon as he receives the cutting order from MH
2 The Than #, Than weight is to be filled by the Layer man after getting the Fabric
3. The Actual no. of plies, Actual End bits, shortage Extra are eneterd after the spreading is over by the spreader

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Re-Cutting Requisition Slip

Buyer : Fabric : Line :

Style : Colour : Date :

Part Defect Cause Due to

S.No Qty Size Defect
Name S.No Fabric Cutting Sewing

Time In Time out

Requested By Approved By Received By

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End Bits Details

Date Cut No. Than No. Color weight

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Fabric Utilisation Report (Weight)

P. No. Style No. Colour Da te

Balance Balance
Marker Estimated No. of No.of End Bit Shortage Total
S. No. Cut No. after Single after
W ay Consumption Plies Garments W eight / Excess W eight
Ply Cutting Recut

3
4

6
7

9
10

11

12
13

14

15
16

17

18
19
20

Total No. of garments cut =

% Shortage / Excess = Total Shortage / Excess =

Total W eight

% End Bits = Total End Bit W eight =

Total W eight

Average Actual Consumption = Total W eight =

Total no. of garments

Variation from Approved Consumption = Actual Consumption - Approved Consumption

=

Prepared by Cutting Incharge Factory Manager

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TABLE PLANNING BOARD

TIME TABLE 1 TABLE 2
Spreading Team
Spreading Team 1 Spreading Team 2 Spreading Team 4 Spreading Team 5 Spreading 6 Cutting Team 1 Cutting team 2 Cutting team 3 Spreading Team 1 Spreading Team 2 Spreading Team 3 Spreading Team 4 Spreading Team 5 Spreading 6 Cutting Team 1 Cutting team 2 Cutting team 3
3
9:00 - 9:30
9:30 - 10:00
10:00 - 10:30
10:30 - 11:00
11:00 - 11:30
11:30 - 12:00
12:00 - 12:30
12:30 - 1:00
1:30 - 2:00
2:00 - 2:30
2:30 - 3:00
3:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:00
5:00 - 5:30

Spreading Planned : _____ Pieces Spreading Actual : ____ Pieces

PRODUCTION BOARD
NO. OF OPERATORS
Y'DAY'S EFFICIENCY PRODUCTION :
Y'DAY'S
LINE STYLE # COLOUR Y'DAY'S DHU Table 9.00-11.00 11.00-1.00 1.30-3.30 3.30-5.30 TOTAL
PRODN.
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
8 8

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Spreading Losses – Data Collection

Date Table

Lay No.
No. of Plies
lay length
Marker length
Lay width
Marker width
Overlap length
No. of overlaps

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Spreading Losses Calculation

Date

Lay No.
No. of Plies
No. of meters in lay 0.00
lay length
Marker length
End loss Actual 0.00
Standard 2
Excess (CM/Ply) -2.00
Meters per Lay (End Loss) 0.00
Lay width
Marker width
width loss Actual 0.00
Standard 2.00
Excess (CM/Ply) -2.00
Meters per lay #DIV/0!
Overlap length Actual (Average)
Standard 15.24
Excess (Av) CM -15.24
No. of overlaps
Total o/l loss (m/lay) 0.00
Total excess losses #DIV/0!
% of meters in lay #DIV/0!

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End Bits Details

Cuttable
Date Cut No. Than No. / Roll No. Color Non Cuttable
After first layering After second layering

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Table Utilization Report

Date Table Number

Readings
Time Time
Planned Time Lost Time LostSplicing / Time Un-utilized spent Spent
Cut No. Plies SAM / Ply Start End Actual
Time inRoll / Than Defective fabric Lost(any time within a when lay when
Time Time Time
Loading removing other) lay is waiting table is
for cutting idle

Total

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Fabric Utilisation Report (Weight)

P. No. Style No. Colour Date

Balance Balance
Estimated No. of No.of End Bit Shortage Total
S. No. Cut No. Marker Way after Single after
Consumption Plies Garments Weight / Excess Weight
Ply Cutting Recut

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Total No. of garments cut =

% Shortage / Excess = Total Shortage / Excess =

Total Weight

% End Bits = Total End Bit Weight =

Total Weight

Average Actual Consumption = Total Weight =

Total no. of garments

Variation from Approved Consumption = Actual Consumption - Approved Consumption

=

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Cut Audit Report

Date : Style: PNo. Inspe cte d by: Accept/
Re ject
Cut No: Size : DHU:

No.of Bundles: AQL: _______ Sample Size: Bundles

No.of Parts: AQL: _______ Sample Size: Parts

No.of Pieces: AQL: _______ Sample Size: ___________________

Pieces

Bundle Inspection

S. No. Bundle Bundle Part(s) No. of Remarks

No. Ticke t Piece s
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
SUM

Piece Inspection

S. No. Bundle Ply Sha de Notch Position* Othe rs Matching Re ma rks

No. No. (all parts) (based on AQL) (based on AQL) (for matching parts)
0/1, per gmt 0/1, per part 0/1, per part 0/1, per gmt
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
SUM

DHU = (a + b + c + d)/(no. of pieces checked x parts/piece)

=

In case of second inspection, please mention here :

QA Manager Cutting Incharge

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