Make time, to save time

Embroiderers’ production needs are changing, but are they reacting positively to these changes? Gillian Suggett, embroidery business consultant, answers this pertinent question.

UK embroidery machine suppliers have been reporting for some years that their customers are now choosing to purchase six, four and even single head embroidery machines, replacing the 12 and 18 head machines that had become common place and the main stay of established businesses. This behaviour reflects the changes in their production needs, embroiderers are producing more orders, and more designs but lower quantity per order.

The effect of this change is that there is a lot more work involved in winning business and managing the order variables of production. If a business does not respond to this change positively by improving their systems and processes so that they are more efficient then it will be their bottom line and ultimately their profitability that will suffer – embroiderers are most definitely working harder with this changing trend but are they working smarter?

In a demanding environment managing your designs efficiently is all about storing smart information and using it for quick retrieval.

A major stress point

Most businesses will use a variety of systems to manage their quotes, orders, production and invoicing. Embroidery is highly visual but unlike graphic files it’s not easy to share embroidery design files with TrueView representation of stitches, and thread colour and stitch count information using off the shelf software like Sage or QuickBooks.

As a result, embroidery files which are key to the quote and sales order process, and contain essential commercial and production information, are often stored separately in simple and primitive folders structures.

This disconnect is one the major stress points in the sales production process, it can affect your ability to create compelling accurate quotes, and be confident that there is clarity and accuracy in the production of your orders. This disconnect can be costly, it can lead to mistakes and delays in production and is probably one of the key factors effecting your profitability.

As generic business software suppliers are unable to support the embroidery specifics of your business, companies like Wilcom, which has been developing embroidery digitising and editing software since the 80s, have developed clever and effective ways to reconnect your sales and production process so that you can be more efficient and ultimately more profitable.

In the past embroidery files, created in specialised embroidery software, would only contain the essential information the embroidery machine needs to stitch the design for example X and Y co-ordinates and machine functions like jump, colour change and trim etc. Native embroidery software files (specific to a software supplier) are more sophisticated and retain information to allow easy editing by stitch type, size or sequence, but in both instances the file were designed to cater purely to the creation and production of the embroidery design itself. This has all changed.

A revolution

Embroidery files are experiencing a revolution in terms of their function within the sales and production process, they still do everything they previously did but now embroidery files have the capacity to contain ground breaking and sophisticated information that could transform your business and reconnect your sales and production process.

It is now possible to store all the commercial and technical information about a design with an embroidery file itself.  When the design is saved it is automatically indexed so users can search on a local drive or a network by customer, quote and order number, date saved etc. in fact any automatically or manually populated text field. It is now very easily to retain multiple versions of the same design and to easily identify which file relates to which order, long file names and complex folder structures are a thing of the past. It should not be underestimated how this innovation could help your business be more efficient, with the same resources you could do so much more, no longer will you be retrieving paper worksheets and comparing invoices to create new quotes and generate repeat orders.

Complex and costly database software is no longer required, retrieve specific designs quickly and accurately, and use batch production functionality to reducing time consuming repetitive tasks.

One of the bottle necks in many embroidery businesses is the quote process, it should be a priority but it can be problematic because often a digitised design is required to create a stitch count for design approval and accurate pricing. Now it is possible to use joined up tools like enhanced auto-digitising to create a highly visual and accurate quote that combine both the technical and commercial information from the file, to create a TrueView visual display of the design on a garment with price and production information.

It’s an old but still pertinent saying, ‘make time, to save time’, if you would like to make the most of the resources and skills you have and find simple but powerful ways to become more efficient and ultimately more profitable make some time to research the exciting new developments in the embroidery industry, they are design for business just like yours.