Objective

Main objective: To study and increase total cutting room efficiency Sub-objectives: a) Time & Motion Study of different operations in spreading & cutting leading to: 1) Determination of efficiency of the worker: The purpose is to optimize on manpower utilization. Put the best person to best use and avoid multitude of workforce wherever not required. 2) Identification of bottleneck operations: Bottlenecks increase the throughput time, which is a significant loss on the critical time. Bottlenecks should be identified and taken care of immediately to save on cost and time. 3) Reduction of idle times whenever possible: Huge expenditure is incurred on machinery. The interest of that investment should always be kept in mind. As such, machine idle time is a disguised expenditure in form of loss of interest on investment. Continuously running machine is an investment justified.

b) Study of the existing layout with reference to material flow & explore scope of improvement:

Layout affects production flow. It should be conducive to material movement, and at the same time technically correct. Haphazard layout may obstruct movement thus costing on time and fatigue, and in turn resulting in loss of time and energy. c) To utilize the variable resources manpower efficiently in the cutting section:

It will help in target setting and work monitoring for the activities of cutting room. Our project, thus attempts to strike at a balance in the production activity- cutting department. And the balance is of the most critical components - Man, Machine and Material

CUTTING DEPARTMENT

Cutting is the very first process in garment manufacturing. The cutting department receives the fabric from the fabric department after inspection. Objectives of the department Cutting according to the master patterns with 100% accuracy. Ensuring 100% quality in cutting. 100% issue of all the parts to sewing section.

The cutting floor is a combined unit for spreading, cutting, ticketing and bundling. The

work of cutting department starts right from the point of order being received from the buyer by the merchandising department. The CAD department prepares the marker using the patterns prepared by the Sampling Department. It also prepares the CADConsumption Worksheet and makes estimation for the consumption of the fabric for that particular order. The results are then communicated to merchandiser. The cutting department at B L International is an advanced cutting unit. . Spreading is done manually here. Cutting department has straight knife and band knife. . Band knife is used to cut small components like moon patch, placket, sleeves etc. The capacity of the cutting department is 13000-16000 pieces per day..

Hierarchy of the cutting department

Cutting head

Head supervisor

Cutting supervisor

Preparatory supervisor

Operator

Operator

MATERIAL FLOW

Issue of fabric from knits store

Relaxation

Spreading

Laying of patterns (manual spreading)

Cutting

Sorting & stickering

Bundling

CPI (cut panel inspection)

Issue to the sewing department

Total number of lights:41 Total number of ventilators:24

Shift wise manpower of cutting department for Gerber:

1st Shift Process Spreader Gerber Ticketing Bundling Collar lay Cuff lay Band knife Cuff overlock Parts mix Heat parts mix Fusing RBK parts mix Req. 8 3 3 5 2 2 2 3 2 2 5 6 Actual 7 3 3 5 3 3 1 2 2 2 3 5 6 45

2nd Shift Req. 8 3 3 5 2 2 2 3 2 2 5 6 5 48 Actual 7 3 3 5 3 3 1 3 2 2 4 6 6 48 5 42

3rd Shift Req. 8 3 3 5 2 2 2 3 2 2 5 Actual 7 3 3 5 3 3 1 3 2 2 4 Total 21 9 9 15 9 9 3 8 6 6 11 11 4 40 16

Excess/ short -3 0 0 0 3 3 -3 -1 0 0 -4 -1 1

Manual cut, recut 5 Total 48

Working procedure

Issue of fabric Easing process. Spreading of lay Marker laying (in case of manual cutting) Cutting of cakes Sorting & stickering Bundling Issue to sewing room

For a particular order the amount of fabric, which is required for the order, is determined by the PPC. In B L International extra fabric is ordered ,generally 5-10% extra is ordered.. As fabric is taken from some other units so 10% random inspection is done .if three roles simultaneously is found to be defective then the whole lot is rejected. The fabric is kept in shelves according to lot wise, roll wise and a report of the fabric received is generated which contains information like lot number ,style number. The information is kept with the store in charge.

Various Stages in Cutting Room :

When a particular order is approved from the buyer planning is made by PPC department to execute the job. PPC sends batch order in fabric store for the fabric according to buyers demand. All the information related to fabric like GSM, dia, shade, and quantity etc. is given in batch order form. A batch of fabric store is complete order requirement that consists of everything such as fabric, trims (collar, cuff). Fabric department completes the order and sends fabric rolls to the stores in cutting room. Process flow of solids cutting:

Manual Spreading Cutting Ticketing Bundling Work on Cut parts (optional) Inspection Cut parts send to warehouse The cut parts before inspection are also sent to embroidery, heat transfer printing, fusing .

Process flow of stripes cutting:

Opening of fabric roll Cutting of blocks

Making of pattern on block Cutting 3 straight knifes are used for cutting of laid blocks. Shears are used for cutting of panels. A piece of stripes is on the pattern given for matching by the Sampling department.

Fabric Stores: Receiving of fabrics: Fabric comes to stores directly from different vendors.. Storing of fabric: Fabric; is stored according to the buyers name. Every buyer is allocated a specific rack in storeroom, so batch for that particular buyer is stored in that rack. There is no further segregation in the warehouse area. Issuing of Fabric: Cut plan department sends the required k&p no. of fabric with other data to the store incharge. Required fabric is then allocated to cutting room from the stores. Fabric rolls are received in trolley. It is ensured that all fabric rolls are loaded uniformly. One trolley carries a max of 15 rolls.

Easing Of The Fabric (Relaxation) After the issue of fabric if fabric is single jersey it is taken for relaxation Here fabric is simply unrolled by the machine. In this section handling of fabric is done manually bare handed.

process.

Marker planning and marker making: Marker planning is done in other unit. In this unit, just arrangement of marker is done according to the width of the fabric and gsm of the fabric. New marker is then uploaded in the cam machine.

Lay planning: Lay planning is done in data-entry department according to the marker plan and the order of the customer.

Spreading The main objective of spreading is to spread the fabric lay accurately as per the length of the maker with minimum waste at end of a lay.

Type of laying method Manual Spreading: Manual spreading is done for the fabric and the fabrict has to be sent for washing. After the fabric is issued from fabric store, it is first blocked, then two persons lay fabric according to the length of marker.

Generally lay is of length of one full piece of t-shirt. A layer of 65-100 pieces is made according to the cut plan. During spreading all the plies are matched stripe to stripe on both the sides by workers. A separate room is allotted to stripe spreading, cutting and bundling the fabrics which were yarn dyed.

Bundle checklist & Bundle card generation: Bundle card is generated after the spreading of the lay is done. Bundle card is specifically the information about that certain bundle viz; k&p no., roll no., pieces in that bundle, size etc. this bundle card is made on the basis of the lay data.

Cutting: Cutting is done by automatic CAM machine for all the fabrics except yarn dyed fabric. For the yarn dyed fabric manual cutting process is used. In manual cutting machine lay is cut by straight knife fabric. Trims are cut on the band knife machine in a separate area according to the cut plan. Trims are cut in accordance to the main body material of required piece. Cutting on Automatic Machine : First the lay is transferred from spreading table to cutting area. First required cut program is selected form the CAD machine Particular parameter is set on Gerber cutting machine according to requirement; it consists of speed of blade, area for movement etc. The lay is cut in cakes of required

Numbering & Bundling: After the layer is cut the cut pieces are sorted out according to the different rolls. The sleeves, back, front, and placket pieces of one roll are kept together and the sticker which was used during the laying of the layers is sticked on the cut pieces accordingly and the pieces are bundled. A job card is attached to every bundle. This job card contains all the information about the bundle and plays an important role till the packing of the garment is done.

Fusing/Heat seal: Fusing is done for the placket, cuff, collar of the shirts. Different companies/ brands have different requirement for fusing and heat sealing. Heat sealed machine Parameters required for the M&S Time 8 to 10 seconds Temperature185 0C Pressure 6 bar Parameters required for Reebok international And Reebok Domestic Time 8 seconds Temperature 180 0C Pressure 6 bar Slit making fusing machine In slit making fusing machine folders are attached. Canvas and bone both are passed together through the folder. Bone width = 2.4 cm Canvas width = 0.8 cm Ready width of the slit = 1 cm Machine name HASHIMA HPM 600B Parameters for fusing machine (slit making) Temperature Pressure 140 0C 2kg/cm2

Maximum pressure that can be used is 5kg/cm2

Pressure gauge starts from 1kg/cm2 2kg/cm2 3kg/cm2 4kg/cm2

5kg/cm2

Fusing machine for placket , collar etc. Parameters are Time Temperature Pressure Cut parts inspection: After all the parts are introduced in a bundle with the bundle card the bundle is checked randomly. In cut parts inspection pieces are checked for the sizes fabric fault and cutting fault. Nearly 10% of the bundles are checked. Tally of the bundle with information on the job card regarding k&p no., shade, size and no. of pieces is done. 10% visual audit is done. Check list is made here. 5 seconds 150 0C 5 kg

Observations & Suggestions Fabric inspection department:

Fabric inspection is done for each and every roll from a batch. Inspection is done for the fabric faults and to check the width of each roll of fabric. But it was observed that every bundle was not being checked for the width. Sometimes due to lack of knowledge ,defected fabric is passed and for the same reason less defected fabric is bundled under defected category. No humidity and temperature measuring instruments are available. GSM of fabric is taken without drying it. No instruction is given to rolling operator about the dimension of fabric to be cut for GSM measurement. GSM of roll is taken from very localized fabric area.

Suggestion: Each and every fabric roll must be checked for width at least two times; at start of roll and at middle of it. Correct information regarding roll must be fed in slip. It must be tried to check the GSM of each roll of fabric. Employee education is very necessary here. Samples of defected fabrics or photographs of them should be made available to operator. Due to excess humidity and temperature,there is more relaxation allowances for worker which decreases overall on standard time. Due to moisture contamination observed GSM of fabric may vary from actual one. Due to unspecified dimension of cut part which is utilized for GSM measurement leads to fabric wastage.

Fabric audit department: In fabric audit department 3-4 rolls are checked for width and gsm of the fabric along with the fabric fault. Many time GSM of the fabric changes from roll to roll and also in the same roll. Same thing happens with the width of the fabric.

But as each bundle is not checked these faults pass unnoticed to cutting room

Suggestion: Cut part which is choosen for GSM measurement should be taken from different location of fabric roll and avg of different measurement should be marked as GSM of fabric. Width of the fabric should be taken from different phases of fabric roll ie 1st check when 15 mts are roll is finish. 2nd measurement should be taken at middle of rolling process and third at last.

Fabric Warehouse: There is no check of fabric prior to storage in the warehouse. Fabric is not segregated according to width or gsm of fabric.

Relaxation of the fabric: No proper relaxation machine. Machine that is used does not have proper attachments. Fabric handle is done manually. This causes fabric disturbance and relaxed fabric is gets ruffled. No accountability in this department.

Suggestion: Spiral rollers should be used instead of plain rollers. Tray should be used in which fabric is collected and loaded to spreading machine along with the tray.

Spreading:

Manual Spreading: Excessive manpower allocated in this department. Hand shears is used instead of end cutters leading to increase of manpower need. . Shifting of the lay to cutting table: While shifting of lay from spreading table to the cutting table air floatation table is not used properly. Suggestion:

Keep length of spread between 7-8 m.this will help in faster and precise lay. Spreading operator have no data about width of roll which causes spreading of rolls with different widths ,this will create loss of fabric as marker is made according to roll of minimum width. Replace hand shears with end cutters.this will decrease labour requirement from 4 to 2.and will also increase efficiency of lay. .Before shifting of lay make sure that air flotation is on and running at highest level.this will decrease tension in lay due to pulling and also distortion in lay.

Problems faced in the cutting department Bowing This is a major problem faced in the cutting department while spreading. Variation in the width of the fabric, which form an arc shape during spreading is said to be bowing effect.

Leaning Leaning is occurred during manual spreading. In leaning the top ply of the fabric will be slightly inside the previous ply. It is occurred due to improper laying.

Edging It is also a problem faced in the cutting room. On every spread there is a plus/minus variation of the edge of the fabric from the below lay of the fabric. End loss The fabric that extends beyond the marker patterns end is called as end loss. This occurred due to improper laying of fabric lays. End bits Here in the cutting room we are getting end bits almost for all fabric Takas. After complete laying of one fabric Taka, at the end we get a small piece of fabric that cannot be used for laying which is said to be end bits. Uneven tension It is a spreading defect that arisen only when the layers lay fabric under improper tension and creases are formed on spread surface. Misalignment of plies It is a spreading defect that arises when all the plies of the lays are of different length and not lay exactly of same length as per table marker. Now comes last but not the least: Spirality: Spirality of knitted fabric is obtained when wales is not perpendicular to course,forming an angle of spirality with vertical direction of the fabric.it affects generally single jersey knits and produce serious problem during garment confection and use. Problems occur due to Spirality are: Mismatched patterns. Sewing difficulty. Displacement of side seams to the back and front of the body Garment distortion.

How to measure spirality???... For the measurement of spirality angle, plain knitted fabric samples having 10x10 cm dimensions were prepared. Digital photographs were taken by a digital optical microscope using a software (Motic images plus 2.0) permitting to acquire and save images with 10 to 40 times magnifying. These images were taken

from the back side of the plain knitted fabric because stitch edges from this side were easier to distinguish than those from right side (Figure 1). Right side Back side Figure 1. Aspect of right and back side of plain knitted fabric. The images were then treated by Microsoft Visual Basic VB 6.0 software. The image processing consists to improve the image quality (brightness, contrast)

and to draw two lines by clicking on four points belonging to a wale edges and calculate the mean straight line equation . . Microsoft Visual Basic programme for spirality angle measurement. The same procedure is applied to a fabric course. The two mean straight lines equations allow the determination of the spirality angle ?. All measurements were performed under standard textile testing conditions of 21C 1C, and 65% 2% relative humidity. No tension was applied to samples under microscope. Seven specimen of each sample were tested and the mean spirality angle and the corresponding CV% were calculated. We produced a series of 16 cotton plain knitted fabric (100% combed cotton yarn) commonly used in the clothing industry by using an industrial single jersey circular knitting machine. (Diameter = 23 inch, gauge = 24, total number of feeders = 74). The influence of four parameters linked to yarn, fabric structure and machine were studied. The knitted specimen covered a large range of yarn twists, yarn tension, loops length and feeders density. When studying one parameter the three other ones were kept constant. Yarn tension was measured by using an electronic tensiometer and loop length was obtained by using a yarn debimeter. Feeder density corresponds to the number of feeders per inch of machines diameter. For the variation of this parameter, we performed specific machine setting by using interchangeable miss cams in order to be able to cancel some feeders and to vary progressively the number of working feeders on the single jersey machine.

Results Average spirality angles obtained in the different knitting conditions are summarised in Table below.

Variation of spirality angle with Yarn twist. shows plot of averages spirality angle versus stitch length. The degree of fabric spirality increases linearly with stitch length. The relationship between fabric spirality and stitch length is again strong (correlation coefficient R = 0.98). Variation of spirality angle with stitch length. Relationship between fabric spirality and yarn tension during knitting is shown Fabric spirality decreases linearly with yarn tension with a quite strong (correlation coefficient R = 0.97). Variation of spirality angle with yarn tension. shows the influence of the number of feeders and fabric spirality. Linear correlation cannot be tested in this case since the number of feeders is not a continuous variable, but spirality increases strongly when increasing the number of working feeders on the machine. Variation of spirality angle with number of feeders. A very common finishing process, typically used for fine gauge cotton knitted structures was applied to the fabric presented in the first line of Table 1. First, the plain knitted fabric was washed and dyed. After squeezing, the fabric was dried and relaxed by using a tumbler drier. Finally, the fabric was stabilised and ironed by using a tubular compactor. Corresponding average spirality angle are presented in Table . We can easily observe that finishing reduces fabric spirality. The fabric shrank and stitch wales were straightened.

Fabric aspect before and after finishing. Spirality angle Mean (degree) 11.5 Before Finishing After Finishing 3.82 7.18 CV%

7.13

Various causes of Spirality Yarn twist: The strong linear dependence obtained between fabric spirality and yarn twist show that the main source of spirality is yarn twist. When a twisted yarn is knitted into a loop, it will have a tendency to rotate inside the fabric in order to release its torsional strain during relaxation.

Stitch length Stitch length expresses the tightness of knitting construction. The fabric is as tight as stitch length is low. The observed proportionality between fabric spirality and stitch length can be explained by the fact that compared to tight fabrics, slack fabrics have higher stitch length and then the yarn composing the loop has a higher tendency to rotate inside the fabric after relaxation in knitted fabric construction. In a more tightly knitted fabric, the movement of a knitted loop is restricted, and thus spirality is reduced.

Yarn tension

The influence of yarn tension during knitting on fabric spirality has not been studied in literature. The observed linear dependence between these two parameters is linked to yarn deformation. During knitting, yarn undergoes an important tension. At high tensions, the viscoelastic nature of the yarn causes yarn fibres to slip inside the structure. This slippage straightens fibres and reduce yarn twist and then yarn tendency to rotate inside the fabric after relaxation. This explains why at high yarn tensions, the fabric spirality is reduced.

Number of knitting feeders: The observed increase of fabric spirality with the number of knitting feeders at a constant machine diameter is due to the nature of weft circular knitting. A fabric course knitted in a given feeder has to be inclined with a certain angle in order to permit the knock over of the row of stitches knitted in the following feeder. This angle depends on the number of feeders per machine diameter. The increase of the feeder density in circular knitting machines is the subject of high competition between machines manufacturers because of its impact on machines productivity. Mayer & Cie holds the record in this matter with the single jersey machine Relanit 4.0 which has 4 feeders per inch of machine diameter [10]. These technological advances will certainly increase the importance of fabric quality problems linked to spirality.

Effect of the number of feeders on fabric spirality The observed reduction of fabric spirality after a typical cotton finishing process is due two main obligatory operations: Squeezing and compacting. During wet treatments (ie, washing and dyeing) fabric is relaxed and fabric spirality increases, but during squeezing, stitch wales are straightened thanks to the air injection device equipping the squeezing machine. Fabric compacting contribute also to the reduction of spirality by correcting mechanically wale direction and fixing this correction with a thermal treatment. Finishing reduces fabric spirality but a residual spirality angle always remains. Generally a spirality angle under 4 is tolerated before garment confection. It is then important to reduce fabric spirality from knitting process in order to make spirality correction during finishing possible. Following are the factors causing delay in cutting department

Spreader stoppage because of nap direction Defect marks Splicing Utilizing end bits Paper work Measure length and width of ply Roll change

Conclusion

The project has been very useful in giving a practical knowledge of the cutting room and particularly knits in the garment industry. The project has given us a detailed knowledge about the process flow and procedures followed in industry.