It is 4 PM on a Friday. A shipment of 15,000 stitched shirts is ready and prepared to leave for JNPT. The packaging team begins its final end-of-line audit. However, while performing the audit, it discovers a critical issue. Nearly 3,000 finished pieces have crookedly stitched collars and puckered button plackets. As a result, the loading bay is brought to an immediate halt.
Now the manufacturer is considering what could be done. They can ask for more time, take a hit on their profitability, lose reputation, and rework the defects. Otherwise, risk sending products that will surely fail to meet the client’s expectations!
In a situation like the above, most people would ask why quality inspection was missed. However, very few would reach the root cause and look at the bigger issue: at which stages and how quality was checked.
Inspecting garments at the end of production can allow defects to travel through different stages before being discovered. This is where a multi-stage quality inspection approach comes into play. But integrating it into an already complex system can be challenging. FashionNX, an ERP for apparel manufacturing, supports multi-stage quality checks, defect tracking, and in-process monitoring to reduce defects and maintain quality standards.
What is FashionNX?
Integrated with SAP Business One, FashionNX is an advanced ERP software for the apparel, footwear, textile, and accessories manufacturing industries. While streamlining production, inventory management, and order processing, FashionNX also helps you broaden and enhance the quality control process.
How Does FashionNX Help Reduce Rework with Multi-Stage QC?
From earlier defect identification to improved shop floor visibility, here’s how FashionNX enables multi-stage QC and minimizes rework.
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Identifying Defects Earlier
The later you identify defects, the costlier and more laborious the rework. But with FashionNX, you can implement multi-stage QC that helps identify deviations while production is underway. For example, a shirt batch begins developing inconsistent stitching. So, by deploying FashionNX, you can implement in-process QC that flags the defect during production. Thus, you can address the issue before the same defect spreads further.
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Integrate QC into Different Production Stages
Apparel manufacturing is a complex and lengthy process. Therefore, quality can get affected at any point of the production process. A single inspection, particularly during dispatch, can reveal some unpleasant quality surprises. Through multi-stage quality inspection, FashionNX allows you to execute multi-stage quality checks at different stages.
For instance, a garment manufacturer identifies deviations earlier in the production stage, thus avoiding the cost, effort, and time incurred in rework. Essentially, FashionNX doesn’t involve more quality checks. It involves inspection at the right points.
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Track Defects Rather Than Treating Them as Isolated Incidents
Discovering a defect can prove to be more useful for you if you can track and understand it as part of the production process. FashionNX includes defect tracking as part of its Quality Inspection and Control feature. Tracking defects refers to a more structured approach to dealing with quality concerns rather than relying on disconnected observations.
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Fewer Last-Minute Surprises with In-Process Monitoring
Apparel that goes through many production processes without multiple quality checks or visibility can accumulate problems without anyone noticing. And when someone discovers them, the commercial, competitive, and, in most cases, reputational loss is inevitable.
FashionNX identifies in-process monitoring as a core part of its quality inspection and control capabilities. Therefore, it brings quality into the production flow. For instance, if a garment encounters a problem while being produced, an in-process QC can drive the maker’s attention to it before it reaches the final stage. Such an approach proves particularly advantageous while managing high-volume or highly diverse production lines.
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Timely Deviation Handling Via the Production Control Center
You capture an error. Good. But you’ve won only half the battle. What next? Your supervisors must act swiftly to prevent line imbalances. FashionNX provides a central Production Control Center and real-time shop-floor visibility, enabling you to monitor active lines and tackle deviations promptly.
For example, if Line 3 encounters an unexpected spike in buttonhole alignment errors, the control center alerts the floor manager in real time. So, instead of replicating the same problem in hundreds of items waiting to be produced, you can pause the line, recalibrate the automatic buttonholing machine, and resume production. Of course, the line may lose some time in recalibration. However, spending a few seconds is much better and safer than spending days correcting the final product.
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Make QC a Continuous Process
Multi-stage quality isn’t merely a process. It is an approach that sets the culture for quality. Thus, rather than quality-checking the final product directly, the approach must be about asking if the product was quality-checked throughout. FashionNX, a trusted ERP for apparel manufacturing, combines quality checks, defect tracking, and in-process monitoring as part of its QC capabilities. Thus, defects are identified and worked upon earlier instead of waiting for the batch to make shocking quality revelations in the end.
Ready to Drive the Change?
Rework doesn’t hurt you just commercially. It also results in reputational damage and causes strategic losses. FashionNX, ERP for apparel manufacturing, drives multi-stage quality inspections to help apparel manufacturers move QC closer to the point where production issues occur.
So, partner with Accelon, one of India’s largest SAP Business One partners and SAP Gold Partner, specializing in delivering tailored ERP solutions for MSMEs. Our clientele includes 150+ companies spanning six continents. We adopt an integrated approach that extends SAP functionality to customers, field sales, and service teams. From customizing features and functionalities to ensuring continuous optimization, our FashionNX support covers it all.
Want to know more or connect with our experts? Please email us at sales@accelontech.com.