Understanding fabric grouping and its various types and benefits can help knitted and woven fabric manufacturers, fashion designers, and consumers make informed decisions about their textile materials, ensuring the correct fabric is selected for specific orders and projects. In a textile manufacturing unit, fabrics occupy about 70% of the operational costs, and therefore, players must utilize fabrics wisely. Fabric grouping can drastically improve material utilization and quality control.
What is Fabric Grouping?
Fabric Grouping, also known as fabric batching, is a process used by top textile companies in India where fabrics are separated and grouped based on different specifications and characteristics. For example, cotton suppliers separate and group rolls of fabrics with similar properties, such as fabrics with identical color shades. This helps them select the appropriate fabric for a specific buyer, application, or design project.
Manual Fabric Grouping: Sorting and separating fabric is done through a hands-on process. Once the fabric is divided into groups, each group is processed separately. Factory workers create markers and cut plans for each group to start manufacturing. However, this method leads to an increase in manual labor and garment processing time, which increases the risk of errors.
Automated Grouping: Specialized machines measure the fabric length and automatically adjust the markers and cutters accordingly. This process is faster, but it demands a significant level of automation, which small-sized knitted fabric manufacturers may not be able to afford.
Benefits and Importance of Fabric Grouping –
Fabric grouping’s primary aim is to optimize fabric use and minimize cutting time and wastage, which is crucial in large orders. Cotton suppliers treat different fabrics uniquely for consistent results. Fabrics can also behave differently in design and production. So, categorizing bulk fabrics by physical traits is vital before making garments.
- You can easily evaluate the quality of the fabric, especially if they are sourced from marketplaces like TEXchange Global.
- It leads to faster processing and quicker turn-around time.
- Doesn’t lead to excessive fabric lays and markets, reducing wastage, thereby decreasing workload.
- Helps identify shade variations faster in bulk fabric rolls.
- Helps workers understand the fabric’s reaction to various treatments and plan garment manufacturing accordingly. For instance, some cotton shrinks less than other variants during washing.
- Enables employees to create marking and cutting plans for each roll, reducing errors and wastages.
What are the Rules for Fabric Grouping
Most times, top textile companies in India order fabrics through our dealers in bulk, and sometimes the sources are multiple. Hence, most manufacturers organize the fabrics based on the following properties:
By Shade and Color
Fabric grouping by shade, color, and texture is common in garment industries. Knitted fabric manufacturers often receive fabric rolls in different shades, which can be laid out together if the pattern remains the same. Some prefer separate spreads for each shade, but proper labeling is crucial to ensure the correct shade during part changes, as skipping this step can lead to rejections and lower quality.
By Fabric Width
Fabric rolls often come in different widths. To avoid wasting fabric, workers create markers (patterns) based on their narrowest fabric width. If the markers stay the same, wider fabric rolls are used alongside narrower ones. Fabrics are also grouped by their width and cut markers accordingly to make the best use of the different widths. When it comes to using leftover fabric, groups are mixed to reduce the number of fabric spreads, which saves time and labor.
By Fabric Shrinkage
In the textile industry, fabric rolls undergo assessment to determine their shrinkage characteristics, which may differ in warp and weft. To maintain quality, manufacturers establish acceptable shrinkage levels based on measurement tolerances and buyer criteria. These established levels are used to create fabric groups, grouping rolls with similar warp and weft shrinkages together. It is essential to avoid mixing fabric rolls from different shrinkage groups. Some garment industries divide orders by shrinkage groups, treating each as separate, which is particularly advantageous for significant quantities.
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