India has been an essential part of the worldwide textiles and clothing industry throughout history. India’s textile and clothing exports stood at $40 billion in 2017 and are expected to reach $100 billion by 2026. The domestic clothing market is also predictable to grow from $120 billion in 2018 to $220 billion by 2026.

The increasing market presents enormous chances for investing in apparel manufacturing. One of the most beautiful reasons for investing in apparel manufacturing is that it is less capital thorough with high investment to business ratio. Conversely, investing in apparel manufacturing professional alone does not guarantee success. With growing worldwide competition, it is significant that the clothing factory is both competitive and compliant. We discuss the some factors that are important for success of any garment manufacturing business.

Proficiency

Buyer’s demand for higher value at lower price is driving the want for maintaining best proficiency levels. Proficiency in clothing industrial is a purpose of manpower (trained staff at all levels), material (accessibility at right time and quality), machinery (both core machines and software) and methods (standard systems and processes). For instance a high-tech factory alone cannot promise higher proficiency and wants trained manpower to operate those machines.

Nowadays, operating at optimum proficiency level is no more optional and has become predictable to succeed and takes a toll on effectiveness, if not maintained. It is expected that an enhancement of 10–15% in proficiency can result in 3–5 per cent enhancement of EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), even after paying higher wages to workers in form of manufacture incentives. Also, at a state level, the presence of proficient clothing manufacturing set-ups increases its overall desirability in the international market, fetching larger orders and pretty wage-earning opportunities for the workforce.

Compliance

Compliance refers to meeting legal responsibilities for safeguarding the healthiness, protection and happiness of workers in an organization. Buyers internationally are focusing on sourcing from compliant garment factories with many like UCB, Zara, H&M and C&A etc. Maintaining on traceability to confirm that the goods are ethically manufactured. The Government of India has also announced multiple compliance standards such as social compliance, labor compliance, environmental compliance etc. Therefore, conforming to the recognized standards of manufacture has become one of the key success factors for any apparel manufacturing business that aims to cater to international buyers. While compliance has become very important, it might be unclear for a new investor given varied necessities by international brands. In such cases, a garment manufacturing specialist can help investors build a compliant garment factory suiting the different necessities right at the time of factory planning.

Factory layout

Factory layout refers to the physical arrangement of the manufacturing facilities such as sewing machines, supporting fixed assets, storage systems among others. An actual layout must not only signify best physical arrangement for space-saving but must also be well designed for reducing material movement and labor movement. The development of a well-organized plant layout results in smooth workflow across the manufacture process, better production efficiency and confirms 10–12% space-saving. A well-organized layout also incorporates the varied compliance necessities such as safety, health and atmosphere norms and is a visually attractive factory. Therefore, preparing a well-organized factory layout that is both compliant and productive at the same time is very critical.

Training and HR (Human Resources)

Training and human resources are essential for any labor-intensive production and clothing manufacturing is no concession. It is practically impossible to produce a quality product without a trained workforce. Considerate the significance of training and HR, the Indian garment industry usually has been employing standard approaches of training, which involves four weeks of straightforward training for unskilled persons. The basic aim of such training programmer is to communicate technical skills required for manufacture. Research proposes that soft skills are similarly vital for confirming high performance. Nonetheless, little importance has been paid towards soft skills, which includes motivation, self-management, group behavior, health and hygiene and time and team supervision. Given the criticality of training, sections such as high-performance training visualizes skilling, wherein 85% of the labor is multi-skilled and most of them can be made certified trainers as well. Given the criticality of influence of workforce in the garment manufacturing, skill development with special importance on high-performance training becomes a significant factor for success.

Skill

In this developing world, skill has become a necessary part of running any business. It is critical that garment manufacturers present appropriate high-tech advancements in order to confirm product quality and sustainable growing. In most of the cases, an automatic machine reduces manual involvement therefore resulting in direct cost savings because of the reduction in labor costs. Furthermore to reduction in physical labor some extra benefits of mechanization include energy-saving, better quality, reduced breakdown and inventory control. Commonly, skill is often related with high-tech machines with robotic systems. Nevertheless, even simple use of folders and guides can help in mechanization to some extent. Also, skill is not just limited to automatic sewing machines nonetheless also entails request of software, which find requests in real-time data analysis, visual fits and transparency in the supply chain. Nonetheless, skill acceptance may not be the same for all clothing manufacturing set-ups. A highly automatic machine might not prove to be beneficial for all product categories and set-ups and hence, level and type of mechanization must be selected very wisely. As it has a direct influence on capital investment and effective expenses, it must be gaged in detail.

Buyers’ Relationships

With developing garment manufacturing countries such as India, Bangladesh and Vietnam is facing a stiff competition to maintain its worldwide standing. In such challenging circumstances, developing long-term businesses with buyers is the best way to raise and sustain the business. Seeing the growth of clothing consumption internationally and in India, savings in such tie-ups will reap benefits in the long term. These long-term businesses mutually profit both buyers and manufacturers. Although benefitting the brands with a consistent destination to source from, it helps manufacturers increase their success by consolidation their brand value, confirming flow of orders and decreasing the risk of any stalled inventory.

Product Development

Product development is the lifeline for adding new buyers as well as retentive the existing ones. With product strategy being an important part of the overall business strategy, it is important for garment manufacturers to familiarize to global supplies. Product growth not only includes adapting to changing product design and necessities but also adhering to the short product growth cycle. Contemporary novelties such as digital product development process using computer-generated skills, offer the chance for businesses to shrink the product development cycle time from months to days. Similarly, with the concept of long-term businesses, buyers desire to source multiple products from a single manufacturer who can cater to different products. Such partnerships confirm a reliable supply to brands as well as confirm productivity for manufacturers through reliable flow of orders. Henceforth, product development is not just one key success factor but a predictable part to survive in this international competition.

No manufacturing is easy to break into and it remains true for clothing manufacturing. For any clothing manufacturing unit, the above-mentioned points are essential for success. As per our analysis, a 300-sewing machine factory can lose 3.00 lakh pieces in manufacture and 3.00 crore in profits every year due to elementary underlying faults in industrial systems. It is, henceforth, significant that clothing factories are planned keeping these factors in mind. Given the helpful government policies and India’s strengths as a clothing manufacturer, we toughly believe that the chance for garment manufacturers is elsewhere question. It is just a matter of manufacturing professionally with a defined strategy.