List of Wastage Area in Textile and Clothing Industry

Wastage Area or Waste of Garment Industry:

Wastage is an important factor in the textile and readymade garment sector. Effective cost reduction of apparel can be done by identifying the particular areas of wastage clearly and taking necessary steps to control and reduce the wastage. As its importance, this article has presented all the wastage area in the textile and apparel manufacturing industry.

Wastage Area in the Textile and Apparel Industry:

The following areas are the major wastage area or wastage points in the clothing manufacturing industry:

1. Fabric manufacturing process,
2. Fabric wet processing,
3. Fabric cutting process,
4. Apparel sewing process,
5. Special operations,
6. Accessories,
7. Material handling.

All the above Wastage area have discussed in the following:

1. Fabric Manufacturing Process:

The fabric is made mainly of two techniques i.e. knitting and weaving. In the case of fabric manufacturing, wastage area are-

Knitting wastages:

The knitting process includes wastages trial run quantity, leftover yarn in cones, yarn in the machine tube, knitting defects, roll making, etc.

Weaving wastages:

The weaving process includes wastages from warping, sizing, weft winding, and weaving. The wastage that occurs here is balance yarns in warping creel and cones, trial run quantity, weaving defects, roll making, etc.

2. Fabric Wet Processing:

The wet processing of fabric includes preparatory processes like de-sizing, scouring, bleaching, mercerization, heat setting, etc. dyeing, printing, and finishing.

Wet process wastages:

It includes initial cloth or lead cloth, fabric ends joints, testing samples, non-rectifiable defects like holes, patches, lot marking, etc. in all the above processes. Apart from these, one more thing factor or property to be considered is the shrinkage of the fabric during the wet processing stage. This is not wastage but a property that is very much related to the fabric shortage.

3. Fabric Cutting Process:

It is the most crucial stage in apparel production because here only, the major percentage of wastage of the fabric occurs. The percentage of the cutting wastage depends on the efficiency of the marker planning of the particular apparel style.

The marker planning efficiency of 85-90% is considered to be a very good efficiency. So, the wastage that occurs in cutting may range between 10-15%. This wastage is unavailable and besides this wastage, an excess wastage in cutting may occur due to excess lay length, poor making, excess overlapping or tailing, poor cutting, etc. wastage also may occur while bundling and sorting the cut pieces in the form of fused edges, frayed edges, poor quality of notches or drills, etc.

4. Apparel Sewing Process:

The wastage in the apparel sewing occurs in the form of defective pieces whicthat not as per the standards of the requirements of the customer. This may be due to stitch defects, seaming defects, assembly defects, ironing problems, poor workmanship, etc. This type of wastage is known as rejection.

5. Special Operations:

Apparel manufacturing also includes special operations like embroidery, sequence work, smocking, apparel or garment washing or apparel finishing, etc. each of these operations involves a certain percentage of wastage.

6. Accessories:

Apparel or clothing manufacturing requires various types of accessories which may be classified as production accessories and packing accessories. Production accessories include the main label, wash care label, sequence, appliques, buttons, zippers, stickers; carton boxes, etc. poor inventory and handling of these accessories may lead to more wastage. Some accessories might have been purchased from abroad which may not be available locally.

7. Material Handling:

The degree of material handling in all the above departments or segments plays a vital role in the amount of wastage creation. Material handling means not only the main raw material but also the materials involved in the particular processes or departments.

For example, poor material handling of dyes and chemicals in wet processing may lead to seepage or spilling of costly dyes and chemicals. Effective and efficient material handling using modern techniques and methods will reduce the wastage cost considerably.