Shakthi Knitting, one of the largest manufacturer and exporters of apparel in India, specialising in casual wear, lingerie and high-performance thermals, chose Lectra’s CAD and cutting solutions to automate and streamline their production process.

The challenge
With such a large operation, Shakthi Knitting was still using a manual process for production. The goal was to reduce their operating costs by using less material and energy, and to increase their productivity through non-stop automated cutting. They also wanted the solution with faster machine that would be easier for their operators to use.

The right cut
The company implemented Lectra’s automated, fully integrated including Modaris, DiaminoFashion V5R2, Optiplan Expert V3R2, a Brio 55 spreader, and a Vector automated cutting system. Implementation was done at Shakthi Knitting’s headquarters at Tirupur in three phases. During the first phase on July 2003 – Basic CAD, Spreader and Cutter were put into action replacing the Gerber spreader. In the second phase on August 2006, Diamino Markpro automatic marker making software was installed and in the third phase in November 2008, the Optiplan solution was implemented.

The pattern of growth
Prior to the implementation of Lectra’s automated solution, patterns were created manually by Shakthi’s pattern master. By deploying pattern-making solution, Shakthi Knitting was able to create patterns more easily with very accurate measurements.  Grading and alteration functions have been particularly helpful for the company; they are now able to create 75 patterns per month and 700 per year.

“The number of markers we made grew as our turnover increased so we needed an efficient system for getting markers made, and the availability of experienced pattern masters was a point of concern. DiaminoFashion ExpertPro has helped us to achieve a reduction in yarn/fabric use. We now use it to perform costing estimations and have made excellent savings. It has increased our marker efficiency by around 10%,” says Yogesh Pai, Marketing Director at Shakthi Knitting.

Increase in productivity and efficiency The Vector automated cutting system has helped Shakthi Knitting to meet its challenges in terms of better use of available fabric, greater productivity and enhanced cutting accuracy. “Our productivity has increased by 80% compared to the manual process we used before. We have also gained in flexibility – we can now shift quickly from one type of order to another, and that is a major advantage for us,” revealed Pai.

In garment manufacturing, products often go through numerous stages of alteration in response to customers’ comments, and, due to fabric quality parameters, Shakthi Knitting needs to change markers frequently to meet measurement needs.

Pai added, “Optiplan makes it easy to modify the markers and saves a lot of time before cutting begins. It has enabled us to greatly increase our efficiency. It has helped us to reduce costs and make material savings of up to 2% compared to the manual process.”

Thus Shakthi Knitting is now equipped with the right combination of software and intelligent cutting equipment for a fully collaborative and integrated solution, from design to manufacturing. In less than a year's time the company is also planning to upgrade their cutting machine with the latest NGV series.